212 



THE EARTH'S CENTRAL FLUIDITY QUESTIONED. [Ch. XXXII. 



that if the loftiest mountain chains, even snch as the 

 Himalaya, 5 miles in their greatest height, could he ex- 

 pressed by white marks within this line, they would form a 

 feature in it which would be scarcely appreciable. 



The space between the two circles, including the thickness 



of the 



themselves 



miles. Let us, then, suppose very thin lines 2 inches long,. 



and equal in width to only 



of the outer line, to be drawn 



Fig. 128 



Section of the earth in which tlie breadth of the outer boundary line represents a 

 thickness of 25 miles ; the space between the circles, including the breadth ol 



the lines, 200 miles. 



T 



liere and there within this crust of 200 miles in thickness. 

 These lines, faint and unimportant as they wonld appear, 

 might nevertheless represent sections of seas or oceans of 



melted 



miles deen and 5.000 miles 



It can- 

 solidification 



not be denied that the expansion, melting, 

 and shrinking of snch snbterranean seas of lava at various 

 depths, might snifice to cause great movements or earth- 

 quakes at the surface, and even great rents in the earth s 

 crust several thousand miles lon<r, such as may be implied 



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