402 SKETCHES OF CREATION. 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 



THE REIGN OF UNIVERSAL WINTER. 



WE open now another volume of geological records. 

 From this we glean another prophecy. 



I have stated that the energies of the earth^s internal 

 fires are waning. There is a chain of effects which, when 

 we trace them backward, conduct us to an ancient molten 

 condition of the world. At a period comparatively recent, 

 it was still so warm that tropical vegetation flourished 

 within the arctic circle. At a remoter period, neither ani- 

 mal nor plant could endure the temperature which pre- 

 vailed, nor the warfare which fire and water were waging 

 with each other. We retain the solid monuments of a ter- 

 restrial condition which carries us still deeper into the 

 heart of eternity ; when the whole orb was a glowing ocean 

 of incandescent lava, while yet the waters of the earth 

 hung in invisible vapor upon the outskirts of the atmos- 

 phere, like a concealed foe meditating a secret attack upon 

 a powerful enemy. 



Few who have studied the physics of the globe, and 

 fewer still who have deciphered geological records, doubt 

 that such were once the temperature and conditions of our 

 planet. From that state to this, it has passed by the sim- 

 ple process of cooling. We trace the footsteps of this 

 progress at every stage. Through Azoic, Eozoic, Paleo- 

 zoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic Ages, heat has been gradually 

 wasted in space — the solid crust has been thickening — the 

 surface conditions have been changing. The average tem- 

 perature of to-day, instead of being a state that is destined 



