THE ELEMENTS ASD LIFE :]07 



miles in thickness, grind out deep valleys and lake-l)n,sins be- 

 fore cosmic or other agencies cause them to melt away. 



This continuous water-action goes on perpetually in every 

 continent, and is the great agent in producing that inlinite 

 variety of contour of the land surface — level plains, gentle 

 slopes, beautifully rounded downs, wave-like undulations, val- 

 leys in every possible variety, basin-shaped, trough-shaped, 

 bounded by smooth slopes or rugged precipices, straight or 

 winding, and often leading us up into the very heart of grand 

 mountain scenery, with their domes and ridges and rocky peaks, 

 their swift-flowing streams, rushing torrents, dark ravines, and 

 glorious cascades, in endless variety, beauty, and grandeur. 



And all this we owe to what are termed the "' properties 

 of water," that extremely simple and unappreciated element, 

 which still abounds in mysteries that puzzle the men of science. 

 Without water in all its various forms and with its many useful 

 but very familiar properties, not only would life on the earth 

 be impossible, but unless it had existed in the vast profusion 

 of our ocean depths, and been endowed with its less familiar 

 powers and forces, the whole world, instead of being a con- 

 stantly varvinff scene of beauty — a verv" e:arden of delights 

 for the delectation of all the higher faculties of man, — would 

 have been for the most part a scene of horror, perhaps the 

 sport of volcanic agencies of disruption and upheaval only 

 modified by the disintegrating effects of sun and wind-action. 



Our earth mi2:ht thus have been in a state not verv dissimilar 

 from that in which the moon appears to be ; not perhajis with- 

 out a considerable amount of life, but with little of its variety, 

 and with hardly any of that exquisite charm of contour and veg- 

 etation which we are now only beginning to appreciate and 

 to enjoy. 



