862 Marvels of the Universe 
Photo by] [F. &. & Co. 
The once-horizontal strata at Stair Cove, Dorsetshire, have been folded so that 
portions have assumed a vertical position. 
the boiling cauldron below. 
The results of millions of 
years might be undone in a 
short time, as we measure it. 
Thousands of square miles 
might be swallowed up al- 
most in a moment. But the 
process, begotten of the radia- 
tion of heat, could not cease. 
Time was ever on its side. 
What was lost here was 
gained there, and in the end 
a recognizable crust appeared. 
Watch again your pannikin 
of porridge. Turn on the 
heat supply again but slightly, 
shift its position, and your 
miniature volcanoes will ap- 
pear. With the application of 
a moderate supply of heat 
these volcanoes will disgorge 
their contents, and lava-flows will cover the whole, only again to form a thickening of the original 
crust when the heat-supply is diminished. So in the far-off early days of the earth’s crust 
fearful eruptions of molten rock material took place, and covered up the early-formed crust, 
until, as we look at them now, metamorphosed as they are, it is really impossible to say, in the case 
of the earliest layers of the crust, which are igneous rocks and which are altered sedimentary rocks. 
We may be sure, however, that as soon as there was an appreciable crust at all, then the effects 
Photo bu) [R. Welch. 
Ancient rocks of carboniferous limestone on the banks of the Boyne, which have 
been squeezed by tremendous lateral pressure, and have yielded as though composed 
of quite soft material. 
of running water were seen. 
Boiling water it may have 
been. The complex atmos- 
phere above the crust would 
be densely charged with steam, 
which would be discharged 
on the crust as water—laden, 
of course, with mineral con- 
tents ; and the water, as soon 
as it commenced to flow, would 
carve its channels in the crust, 
and carry away the sediments 
it had collected to a happier 
spot, where the crust was 
sufficiently thick to receive 
them. So, fire-formed rocks 
and water-formed rocks would 
together be in process of 
formation, and the two would 
be almost inextricably inter- 
mingled where we examine 
them to-day. Can anything 
