344 Remarks on the Planets Jupiter and Saturn. 



so hot a condition, as not only not to permit of the permanent 

 descent of their oceanic matter, but to cause such to exist 

 suspended as a vast vapour envelope, subject to incessant 

 disturbances by reason of the abortive attempts which such 

 vapour envelope may make in temporary and partial descents 

 upon the hissing-hot surface of the planet. 



Recurring again to this early period of the earth's geolo- 

 gical history, when it was surrounded with a vast envelope 

 of vapour, consisting of all the water which now forms the 

 ocean. The exterior portion of this vapour envelope must, 

 by reason of the radiation of its heat into space, have been 

 continually descending in the form of deluges of hot water 

 upon the red-hot surface of the earth. Such an action as 

 this must have produced atmospheric commotions of the most 

 fearful character : and towards the latter days of this state 

 of things, when considerable portions of what was after- 

 wards to form our ocean came down in torrents of water 

 upon the then thin solid crust of the earth, the sudden con- 

 traction which such transient visits of the ocean must have 

 produced on the crust of the earth would be followed by tre- 

 mendous contortions of its surface, and belchings forth of 

 the yet molten matter from beneath, such as yield legitimate 

 material for the imagination, and the most sublime subject 

 for reflection. The extraordinary contortions and confusion 

 which characterise the more primitive sedimentary strata, 

 such as the gneiss, schist, and mica slate, in so very remark- 

 able a degree, shadow forth the state of things which must 

 have existed during that period, when the ocean held a very 

 disputed residence on the surface of the earth. 



Could the earth have been viewed at this era of its geolo- 

 gical history from such a distance as the planet Mars, I doubt 

 not it would have yielded an aspect in no respect very dissi- 

 milar to that which we now observe in the case of Jupiter : 

 namely, that while the actual body of the earth would have 

 been hid by the vast vapour envelope then surrounding it, 

 the tremendous convulsions going on within this veil would 

 have been indicated by streaks and disruptions on the sur- 

 face, which would be mottled over with markings such as we 

 observe in the case of the entire surface of Jupiter : and by 



