New Hypothesis of llarth-Origin. — faircliild. 99 
ent constitution arc subjects not merely of speculation, but of 
geologic investigatidu ; and tlie l)rancli of geology called "at- 
mospheric" will have a much broader field tlian merely rock- 
weathering and wind deposits. 
Origin of the Ocean. 
Like the atmosphere, the hydrosphere is volatile matter 
pressed out from the lithosphere ; and the ocean-making pro- 
cess is still active. In volcanism we see today one conspicuous 
method by which water is transferred from the interior to the 
sufrace of the globe. The existence of water in the earth's 
interior, even in the quartz of the crystalline rocks, has not 
been sufificiently emphasized. It is not necessary to assume that 
all the contained water exists as such in the deeps of the earth, 
as it may be produced in part in the superficial zone by union 
of the elemnts or by chemical reaction. Perhaps Siemens was 
right in his conclusion that large quantities of free hydrogen, 
or hydrogen compounds, from the earth's magma are explos- 
ively oxydized in the volcanic chimneys. 
The seas could not form until the atmosphere had accu- 
mulated sufificiently to hold sun heat that would give the earth 
a surface temperature above the freezing point. Below this 
temperature the water which was forced from the earth's inter- 
ior must have frozen in or on the cold surface of the globe. It 
would seem as if there must have been a long stage of conflict 
between the mterior heat and the superficial cold. In the early 
stages (^f the growing globe the water was forced toward the 
surface only to be buried imder the in falling material of world- 
growth. Subsequently the pressure and the rising temperature 
forced it further surface-ward. This idea implies that much 
of the deeper interior may be comparatively dehydrated, which 
may \\<:\y> to explain the anhydrous state of vast outflows of 
molten lork. 
It is probable that the moon now represents the preatmos- 
pheric stage of world-growth. Under the old hypothesis the 
moon is supposed to have absorbed its fluid envelopes by inter- 
ior cooling and resulting porosity ; and the earth to be destined 
for the ."ime fate, on the assumption that the amount of water 
en the earth is diminishing and the amount in the earth is in- 
creasing. The new hypothesis holds just the opposite view. 
The moon, under the new view, is not an illustration of a globe 
