The Express.
London, England, 1868-09-15 00:00:00

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tbla sh iMaiity,ead Ifloks
aslitity ter prod cis eolansie. erlmehante
de•hrtsetivb eerniqualres oefielend wit*:
remote from esti ether. . is,
.. earths,
=that is, ;ribrstiotsi of . the easeedit'
are bat just sensible, and psothele, node-
otnictive effects, are at all timmealloiently so:a-
wn. It has been easuated. *leas one one of
ear most eminent scientilles men, that not a day,
eraroaly even a neemieut, passes without a vibra-
tion, mere or lees rote M, mosterrim in Drone part
ere Other of the earth'a oust. Bet asetrucelive
eliathquakes ere net •phammena which present
themselves with any each epproath *4 utlifonlifty.
Often eeveral years hoe Reseal without the moue-
aence of any remarkable earth/imams and it is
comparatively seldom that 1.4006 tremendous op-
beavale occur which produce in a few minutes the
.deetrueeion of whole provisoes.
Recently. however, as we have raid, the eaeth's
Mloenranean forces have been unusually votive.
We all remember bow the inhabitants of St.
Thema suffered homilies treat eartheyeake which
%Mowed the groat hurricanes of the autumn a
11147. The subterranean throes which isitlierted so
much injury continued to be felt for many weeks,
and even now threatesing vibrations occur at in-
tervals to remind the muchetried people that they
•e still exposed to a renewal of their misfortunes.
there we heard of earthquakes in Mahe, in Egypt,
in Formoea, in St. Salvador, and one even was
felt in the quiet plains of Somareetehire. Not long
alter, hundreds of the inhabitants of the Sandwich
Islands .were destroyed by an aortal: of molten
. matter from beneath the violently-shaken bed of
the Pacific Ocean. Veeevine had an the while
been in violent eruption. Then, after a short
met, Vesuvius again breaks forth, clibeilter is
Aaron by a violent shook ; the inhabitants of
'hew South Wales, usually undisturbed
by subte rrunean forces, are startled by
an earthquake ; and, finally, we hoer
of a great earthquake in that m met untuiet
of all portions of the earth's surface, the country
**et of the Andes. In this laFt instan.s,, the shook
terms comparable with the most fearful earth-
quakes that have ever been experienced. If we
ran trust the news we have from New York, we
meet believe that ten or !mho towns hive b toe
Laid in ruins. The same acoonnt states that
upward,. of 30.000 lives have been lost, and up-
wards of fifty millions of pounds' worth of pro-
petty destroyed.
We have little iti this long list et events*, en-
eenrage the notion which many entertain, that
op-earth's subterranean forename gradually dimi-
nishing. We believe. indeed, that this view has
WWII from the circumstance that the older geolo-
gists mistook the effects of many oenturiee of sub-
terranitairsetion for the results of a siugle out-
bent. • The careful researches of the more
experienced modern geologists have sufficed to
show that ancient earthquakes and volcanic ernp-
boas aloeely resembled those which take place at
ste present time, not only in the character bat in
Ilse intensity of their action. There may be a
gradual Foote se of diminution, but the best evi-
dew we now have tends to show that the rate of
eliminutien is too slow to be perceptible. We
eannot point to a time within the limits even of
relogioal history, at which the earth'. internal
Imes were markedly mimes in activity to those
whole action we are at present cognisant of.
40p the other hand, we do not consider that
&ere ie any evidence in favour of the view which
het recently been put forward by some speculative
geologists, that internal forces may one day acquire
efficient intensity to effect the earth's complete
annihilation. The risk that during some sub-
oceanic volcano a large volume of water should
rush into the interior of the earth, and being there
soddenly converted into steam, should forthwith
read the massive globe in which we live into a
milieu fragments, is one about which we need not
greatly trouble ourselves. Admitting the posed-
tility of such a catastrophe, we may console our-
saves with the thought that for many ages the
earth has been quite as much exposed to the danger
se at present, and that as she has escaped it oolong
she will probably escape it for yet another long
suies of ages.
But it is worth noticing, that so far as the
future history of our race is concerned, it would
be a far more serious misfortune if the earth's
subterranean forces were gradually to become ex-
tinct, than it would if they were to increase in
energy within a moderate limit. In the latter
ease, indeed, many more lives would be lost, and a
tar greater amount of prosperity would be de-
stroyed than at present. But an the former case
the earth would simply become uninhabitable. It
is remarked by Sir John Herschel, that " had the
primeval world been constructed as it now exists,
time enough has elapsed, and force enough di-
rected to that end, has been in activity, to have
long ago destroyed every vestige of land." The
action of the re wavier upon the shores of conti-
nents, and of rain and rivers upon their interiors,
would have sufficed to have washed all the earth
beneath the level of the sea. Earthquakes—or
rather the subterranean forces of which they are
the evidence—arc the very life of the earth ; and
so far from hoping that their effects may gradually
become less and less perceptible, we ought to
look with anxiety upon such a result—not, indeed,
as affecting ourselves, but as affecting our remote
posterity.
Nor is this all. It would be impossible to over-
estimate the value of the services of earthquakes
in storing up for us materials on which we largely
depend for our comfort, and even for our very WE..
istessee. But for them the coal we burn would
never have been compacted—and so fitted for our
use—during its long submergence beneath the
mean ; the mile of various character from which
our ferrets and our fields derive their nourish-
ment, would have had no existence; the very
materials from which we build our houses, would
either have leen wholly wanting, or would have
been law perfectly adapted to our requirements.
Not has important is the influence of the earth's
subterranean activity in modifying the forms of
froutiments, in affecting the direction of the great
mountain chains which traverse them, and in re-
gulating the distribution of land and water. Even
the climate of a country owes its character to long
past earth-throes. Here in England, for example, '
we enjoy a mildness of climate, a warmth in
winter, and a coolness in summer (that of
litefi being always excepted), which we
should never have been favoured with were it
not for tie influence of that very portion of the
earth's subterranean forces which hue been in ac-
tion in St. Thomas and more recently in Peru.
The Gulf stream, which tempers our summer heat
thud our winter cold, would have had another
direction were it not for that long range of moun-
tains which forms the backbone of the two conti-
nents into which the new world is divided. If that
had not existed, each of. these oontinente
sago
have been converted by the action of the
sea into an island, and the waters of the
equatorial Atlantic current would have out
into the Pacific ocean,
Perhaps the question which most importantly
affects us is neither that of the gradual dying out
subterranean actions, nor that of they ulti-
mfeeiybeeoroing imfficiently powerful to effect the
isixtb's destruction. Each of these vie may bo
leaked on as wholly speculative, since views
eeklilt no
evidence whatever in favour°. either, Butw although
we we may eatisfied that, to nee the words of if 4.
Charles Lyell, "the energy of subte fair
meats has always been uniform as ther:;annfintoV°-
whole earth," and therefore that it will protahl
eoutieue so, yet we must at the same time recognisYe