Rough Notes on the controversy against Geologists. 489 



hydrogen flame, or by burning, in place of the pure hydro- 

 gen, a carburetted hydrogen (oil gas, for example,) which, 

 on being heated, deposits its carbon in a pulverulent form 

 in the flame. In the language of Scripture, " there was 

 light." This light would be a defined body in the midst of 

 the surrounding primaeval darkness; it would be divided 

 from the darkness, forming the distinction between day and 

 night, and marking the first period of creation. 



This light would not at first pervade the whole mass, but 

 would appear at the place where the greatest cooling effect 

 was predominant. Here the solid matter would condense 

 to a centre, the globe of this earth would be formed, con- 

 sisting, as, on probable evidence, it is at present supposed 

 to do, of a large sphere of ignited fused matter in the 

 centre, beneath a comparatively thin crust produced by 

 refrigeration at the surface. As the temperature fell, the 

 vapour of water would condense around this into a uniform 

 ocean ; the term waters, in a previous verse, seeming not to 

 be applied to this collection of waters, but to the vaporous 

 fluid of the nebula, just as the word fluid may signify in its 

 extended sense, either a liquid, or a gas, or vapour. This 

 ocean would be surrounded by the atmosphere, (the hea- 

 vens, expanse, or firmament), by which the waters condensed 

 around the globe would be divided or cut off from those 

 that were still in those parts of the nebula which were 

 uncondensed. This would be the second period, during 

 which the stratified primary rocks would be deposited, and 

 also the transition ; during the latter part of which, though 

 the creation of these be not noticed in the Scripture, the 

 remains shew a few corals, shell fish, and fishes, to have 

 existed in the surrounding ocean. Clouds would appear in 

 the atmosphere in this epoch. 



The contraction of the crust of the globe by the cooling 



agency of radiation, and the deposition of water upon it, 



would now, according to the law found to prevail in almost 



3 R 



