Where did Life Begin? 



II. 



But there are other facts leading to the 

 same conclusion quite as suggestive in their 

 way as those which have been cited. As 

 every one knows, the earth is flattened at the 

 poles and bulged at the equator, as it should 

 be if it was once a revolving liquid globe. 

 This gives to the polar sides an increased 

 area of radiating surface, and to this extent 

 an increased loss of heat. Thus it is evi- 

 dent that the earth is, and always has been, 

 radiating more heat into space polewise than 

 any other one way, and this to a limited extent 

 has kept the polar regions in advance of the 

 equatorial in the process of cooling. 



Another effect of the same cause and bear- 

 ing in the same direction is this : The equato- 

 rial diameter of the earth is about twenty-six 

 miles longer than its diameter polewise. This 

 condition also favors the advanced cooling of 

 the polar regions. First, the earth is so much 

 thinner polewise than equatorially, and conse- 

 quently there is less mass per square foot to 



