238 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1904. 



Concerning the source of this heat, "whether it arose from the 

 admixture and combustion of substances then abounding- beneath the 

 granite," or whether "it was excited by the concentric layers of 

 metallic plates serving as a vast galvanic battery," Eaton was non- 

 committal. 



The projecting edges of granite, together with the uplifted strata of transition and 

 secondary rocks, formed the first islands and continents of dry land. Alluvial 

 deposits had already commenced under water, and therefore parts of the raised 

 islands and continents were prepared for the reception and support of plants and 

 animals of the more perfectly organized structure. 



These, however, were not the continents of the present day. which 

 were conceived then to be at the bottom of the primeval ocean, but 

 were rather the continents occupied by antediluvians, and which are 

 now in their turn probably at the bottom of the Indian Ocean. This 

 land, he argued 



may have been supported by the meeting place of two vast segments of uplifted 

 granite which contained beneath them an immense subterranean sea. Our pres- 

 ent continent may now be supported in the same way and the meeting of the edges 

 of segments form the granitic ridge which extends from Georgia to the Frigid Zone — 

 that is to say, that which forms the Appalachian Mountain system. 



In whatever manner the ancient world was supported, it is evident that when the 

 wickedness of man drew down the vengeance of the Almighty, its foundations gave 

 way and it sank to the bottom of the ocean never to be again uplifted. 



Incidental to this catastrophe, he conceived there may have been 

 formed a "vacuum wherein much water might subside;" or possibly 

 several continents falling in contemporaneously, basins were formed — 



sufficient to hold all the waters which had hitherto covered the continents of our 

 day; or, perhaps, the pressure at the outer margins of the falling'continents might 

 force up the granite, which raised our continents out of the ocean. * * * At any 

 rate, the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and our continents, then at the 

 bottom of the great deep, emerged into open day. While this tremendous crash of 

 nature was going on, scales of various thicknesses from the various strata were shot 

 up, detached and broken, which gave formation to our surrounding hills, the ragged 

 cliffs of the Catskill and the bleak brow of the Andes. Some were formed at the 

 bottom of the sea by volcanic fires; others have arisen from various causes since the 

 great deep retired. 



This order of creation he conceived to be directly in accord with the 

 account of Moses and the sinking of the ancient continent contempora- 

 neous with the Noachian deluge. 



When the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the bottoms of those 

 fountains became dry land, the ancient world became itself the bottom of the great 

 deep in its turn. 



During this period all surviving animal life, both human and other- 

 wise, was conceived as confined within the limits of Noah's ark, about 

 one year elapsing from the time the sinking took place and the ark was 

 Moated before the new earth was sufficiently dry for the occupants to 

 disembark. 



