94 Facts from the Arcana oj "Nature. 



globe towards the thus northerly varying centre, tending to 

 depression of sea surface in the southern ocean, and elevation 

 thereof upon shores in the northern hemisphere, which ten- 

 dencies however are noted by science. The sea surface is 

 ascertained to be rising on the coasts of West Greenland, 

 while depressing on the shores of Australasia, and to have 

 attained, according to Arago, an elevation on the shores of 

 Russian Siberia of several hundred feet above the vast cen- 

 tral area of the continent of Asia, and also above the coasts 

 of Europe, from which the waters are receding, thus depres- 

 sing their surface level. 



By the help of eclipses, in which the Earth casts her shadow 

 on the moon, the fact of elongation of the poles by glacial 

 accumulation, as noted in the aspect of the planet Mars, may 

 be ascertained astronomically. Kepler relates that the eclipse 

 of the moon of the 26th September, 1624, which was total 

 and central, surprised him greatly, " for not only/' he states, 

 " was the duration of total darkness short, but the remainder 

 of the duration of the eclipse, before and after the total 

 obscurity, was still shorter, as if the Earth were elliptical or 

 lemon-shaped, and had a shorter diameter across the equator, 

 than from pole to pole." 



Johannes Yon Gumpach, in his astronomical work on the 

 True Figure 'of the Earth, 1862, observes that, " After one 

 hundred and fifty years of unceasing efforts, astronomy has 

 yet to discover whether the terrestrial equator forms an ellipse 

 or a circle ; after a century and a half of unsuccessful calcu- 

 lations, analysis is still seen toiling to invent empirical 

 formulas for the purpose of establishing a tolerable accordance 

 between the geodetic measurements of to day, with those of 

 yesterday." He elaborately demonstrates by geometrical 

 computations, and logical hypotheses, upon astronomical 

 and geodetic observations, that the Earth instead of being 

 flattened is elongated at the poles, and attributes to errors 

 of calculations, based on the Newtonian theory, annual losses 

 at sea involving great destiuction to life and property. 



The first observations recorded of the phenomena of the 

 precession of the equinoxes, are referred to Hipparchus, an 

 early astronomer, who catalogued the stars some 128 years 

 before the Christian era. It is related that Sir Isaac Newton 

 began his investigations respecting the fact of precession 

 with considerable dubiety, stating that, " though not destitute 

 of probability, it might not prove conformable with truth, 

 and involved a mechanical principle taken up without due 



