Washington telegraph., 1853-05-11
The World On Fire.

The general embraced theory by some
leading men of science, in reference to the
cause of volcanoes, is, that they are the
smoke pipes Of the great fire in the interior
of the earth. They believe that we are
living on the top Of a huge white-hot caul-
dron, and that the volcanoes in different parts
of the world are merely vents for the inter-
nal fire.
The following are the views of Prof Sill
man, Of Yale College. on the subject, en-
braced III a lecture recently delivered in n.
York
"The internal heat of the earth is proved
by direct experiments. A gentleman is
still living in Paris, who first called the at
tenticn of geologists and philosophers to this
subject. lie was one of those scientific men
who accompanied Napoleon to Egypt. when
he went on that great eXpediton-for Ma
poleon took with him not only the weapons
Of war, but lie took much more important
cohort-that is men Of science, art, and lit
erature, able to explore and examine the an
tiquities Of that most important and ven
cradle country. A great literary work re-
suited in this expedition, which proved to
the world that the interior of the earth was
in a heated state, bringing together facts al
ready known in regard to mines and springs
This general principle announced, has been
followed up repeatedly by every deep boring,
called Artcsian wells. The very deep well
in Paris had been worked upon for seven
years without reaching water, when Arago
came forward and gave the government as
surance that if they would continue the
work, and 90 through the beds of chalk,
they would in all probability find water
They continued their work till they got
down through the chalk, when the water
rose up in great volume Of twelve feet
This water still flows there, and doubtless
will continue to flow to tue end of time
This water was found TO be very hot Many
other Artesian wells have been made all
over Europe for various purposes and the
uniform result is that We find the water in
creasing in heat the lower we 90 down.
add to this the testimony Of those who work
in very deep mines, and We ascertain the
fact that the rate of heat increases about
one degree for every fifty feet of descent,
SC that if we should 90 down two miles we
should find boiling water, and at ten miles
we might reasonably expect TO arrive at
ignited rocks. Is then all beneath US on
fire
/ am not prepared to say with some that
this is the case, although there is strong ev-
idenee to justify such theory. Witness
the geysers of iceland whereEhot waters are
gushing up from the earth age after age ard
century after century. The result of all OBJ
servations on springs goes to show that they
are thcrnal-that is, of higher tempera-
ture. The Azures present a very import
ant fact in example Mountains are large
spouting springs OF a high temperature,
and so copious that they may be relied
upon for hot baths all the year round. An
other case is the hot springs of Bath, in
England. These are the more remarkable,
as there are no volcanoes in the British Isle.
We know that from the time of the Romans
these waters have never ceased to gush up
in vast abundance.
The hot springs Of the Rocky Mountains
are also very important, and the great salt
lake in Virginia is very hot Taking the
Artesian wells and the thermal, We have
from these sources the best evidence of the
heated temperature OF the interior portion
of the earth, and this is placed beyond all
question, by the great volcanoes in the
world. And here we have decisive evi-
dence that the heat which will melt the sol
id rock is not connected with any external
cause; for among the icy mountains there are
volcanoes bursting up to the height of l2,-
600 feet
In Spain and South America, we find
great volcanoes bursting out. The fact il,
the world is ON fire. 1t was kindled at the
time of its creation and has been burning
since.