THE EARTH. 397 



surface vapour of salt was suspended in the air ; next, 

 a layer of dark, smoky, carbonic acid gas ; next, oxygen 

 and nitrogen, and vapour of water or common steam. 

 Within the sphere, as it cooled and changed, chemical 

 bodies sprang from one another, rushed to and fro, com- 

 bined with terrible explosions ; while in the varie- 

 gated atmosphere above, gas-hurricanes arose and flung 

 the elements into disorder. So sped the earth, roar- 

 ing and flaming through the sky, leaving behind it a 

 fiery track, sweeping round the sun in its oval course. 

 Year followed year, century followed century, epoch 

 followed epoch. Then the globe began to cool upon 

 its surface. Flakes of solid matter floated on the 

 molten sea, which rose and fell in flaming tides to- 

 wards a hidden and benighted moon. The flakes 

 caked together, and covered the ball with a solid sheet, 

 which was upraised and cracked by the tidal waves 

 beneath, like thin ice upon the Arctic seas. In time 

 it thickened and became firm, but subterranean storms 

 often ripped it open in vast chasms, from which masses 

 of liquid lava spouted in the air, and fell back upon 

 the hissing crust. Everywhere heaps of ashes were 

 thus formed, and the earth was seamed with scars and 

 gaping wounds. When the burning heat of the air 

 had abated, the salt was condensed, and fell like snow 

 upon the earth, and covered it ten feet thick. The 

 Atlantic and Pacific oceans, lying overhead in the form 

 of steam, descended in one great shower, and so the 

 primeval sea was formed. It was dark, warm, and 

 intensely salt : at first it overspread the surface of the 

 globe ; then volcanic islands were cast up ; and as the 

 earth cooled downwards to its core, it shrivelled into 

 folds as an apple in the winter when its pulp dries up. 

 These folds and wrinkles were mountain ranges, and 



