temperature of the interidr of the earth. 1 1 9 



" 6. The crust of the earth, (deducting the superficial and in- 

 complete pellicle called secondary,) being formed by cooling, it 

 follows that consolidation takes place from the outside toward 

 the inside : of consequence the primitive strata, nearest to the 

 surface, are the most ancient. In other words, the primordial 

 formations are so much the more recent as they belong to a 

 deeper level ; which is in opposition to the notions of modern 

 geology." 



Not so : those who admit the igneous fusion of the mass 

 under the crust of the earth, cannot but admit that consoli- 

 dation must take place by successive interior layers of the 

 fluid mass, adhering to the inside of that stratum contiguous 

 to it, and already formed ; owing to very slow and gradual 

 radiation and molecular communication of heat. This is a 

 consideration that geology has already contemplated, and 

 must at once be allowed ; for the formation of granite veins 

 shooting into the gneiss and other superincumbent rocks, can 

 no otherwise be accounted for. So, dykes must be more 

 recent than the disrupted rocks. 



" 7. M. Fourier," (Remarques generates sur les temperatures 

 du globe, et des espaces planetaires. Annales de Chim. et de 

 Phys. torn. 27 ann. 1824, p. 326. Et resume theorique des pro- 

 prietes de la chaleur rayonnante par le meme : meme tome p. 

 276,) " in considering the distribution of subterranean heat at 

 accessible depths, the temperature of the poles, and the fact of 

 radiation toward planetary space, has demonstrated that the earth 

 continues to cool. This cooling is not sensible at the surface, 

 because it is compensated almost completely by the heat propa- 

 gated gradually from within toward the outside ; and which fact 

 and theory are fully competent to explain. The loss of heat, 

 therefore, has no influence but at very great depths ; whence it 

 results that the crust of the earth continues to increase interior- 

 ly by newly formed solid layers. The formation of primitive 

 strata is constantly going on ; and will only cease at some very 

 remote period, when the operation of cooling has attained its 

 limit." 



These observations will enable us to account for elephants' 

 bones, and fossil plants, seemingly the growth of warm cli- 

 mates, found in Siberia, and other northern regions. Per- 

 haps it may incline us to doubt whether the charming letters 

 of M. Bailly Sur PAtlantide, are not something more than a 

 philosophical romance. 



