New-York daily tribune., 1858-12-31


Prof. B,apno~ bss grsshed our curiosity BY compu.
ting The eieDe nts Of tie comet Of lS sDd announces
hs neIi arrival for A. D. 1873 iu persd being 2,i7o
years.
The is q sugeeetive statement, Let Us improve
it L.te, TO smnse this long Win'er evening
the dark solsnce. Here bsvs we, slortiyed And
81 oirghted creatures, been talking with al di. nifty
about years and eentures when an as'rononsr in
Mich tg.n suddenly dwarf all such dates rto epheeral
in.igufcsDce, by ccoy telling us Of celestial visitor
which keeps s tin e-account by units about twenty
FIVE hundred times gre s.eI than those With which we
usually deal.
DR.. Nantell, in one of his delightful geological lsc-
tures the strange mutations which he'd, during by
gone ages occurred TO the spot on which be WA sd
dressing highly educated audience Brighton in Sds-
eek, liz AGNES ssme visitor from q higher sphere
Sne Wandering Jew Of angel. fallen or otherwise,
to have been there at irregular Intervals o the past,
and TO describe, for the edfcaton of the Doctors
hearers the curious vicissitudes which the features
and population of earth had undergone between these
successive visits. The imaginary narrative reminds
oue little Of the ordinary chronological tables
which youth made to study, in which, ct the out
ct, great cape of centunts passed without ire,
while in later time many occurrences Of interest are
crowded into single year.
A curious account Of such terrestrial observations
night be given by that celestial specter, which trailed
its lorg nightgown through so many Of autumnal
nightly skies, moving still and stately as Tennyson's
angels
With folded f.e., In robes of white,
On ses pns viDss that sail
though fitting in defiance Of all our IDEAS Of dignity
and propriety bead downward across the western
hesvep Its rounds indeed, were made a. epochs 80
widely separated that were il abe and disposed to
spesk 1t could crafty xety to learn OF the esry
history Of our Own but very partially, for there
could have been only two occasions on which for few
weeks il could have looked down from the clear ether
on man and bis works.
But of tie mere material history Of this world Of
ours it might have story worth hearing which might
settle some disputes between advocates Of quite oppos-
ing theories. Perhaps it might say that its first recol
kctOns of our planets childish times were about .
hundred Thousand of its revolutions oil, from the
time when it noticed wheeling round our central sun,
the Earth in its uasceEt state, huge vlo the wisp,
OF MET of fluid fame, attended by the literally new
moon az minor or secondary re.fog Of the kind.
II might then skip all mention Of the slow, almost
nperceptibe changes which cnr orb underwent dur
ing some 50 coo Of ts trips into psce and among other
cee.tals and might dislike the state of things which
it saw st the end Of this series Of its vast cycles. The
earth may then have 80 far advanced to have be-
come globe Of liquid Gre, melted ball Of white-hot
lava thin as water yet under the steady balance Of its
own attraction and centrifugal force, maintaining in
perfect and unchspgirg equilibrium It's spherodal
figure as it spun "asleep on it, axis" The moon
might by thst time have cooled down far a. to have
fs,r oordan nsa1
and flowing upon its surface.
Twenty five thousand more circumnavigatons OF its
rug VI on ""5 nv 80 '.---'---. '''
to earth about thesecondsry epoch and would witness
a wor rderful change which had come over sublunary
things in the interval. Il would the fiery ball so
cooled as TO allow the waters TO rest peaceaby upon
IT, its ragged surface worn of over and by their
perpetual flow and Washing the rough scoria-ike eI-
panse Of Il prmeval land replaced by smooth slopes
and level river deltas and heavy growth Of foliage
covering all the temperate and arctic The very
poles are warm, palms and tree ferns have not yet
d appeared where Melville Island is now, chilly
Britain" is half snothsr.d in jungle Of rank vsgeta
top and has strange reptiles crawling on its shores OF
swim mapg in its rivers. The tropics We may presume
10 be vet too hot for habsor though the COOLER cor
uers O. its seas may hold fsw tnlobtes their lobster
Ike shells half redeemed by the warm brine, or some
cora., more patient Of heat than those even Of our
Caribbean.
And our moon; what of her at that time Quite
advanced in refrigeration, and feeling most unoomfo
able monthly alterations Of blazing Summer and
frozen Winter
Twenty thousand more circuits might bring our
comet back to earth in time to see at its foil force the
Tertiary period Of the world we live in. Its noun
tain cbains-Andes, Himalays, Hindoo Moosh, and
most Of their big brotherhood nearly full grown their
heads well alo though their lower slopes be yet un-
der water, swum and sailed over by reptiles, fishes
and nautili nnumerable. The older forms, seen on
Cometary round-ofinspection No. 75,OOO are tightly
locked up in the strata where also lie Ichthyosaurus
and most Of bis longtaed and longer named cotsmpo-
rsres done gone forever. The vast vegetation OF old
is consolidated into the coslbeds, which well laid
away for future use, though few northern regions
like Russia have ulsecountably missed obtaining their
fair 81 are of these thrifty stores Of fae These beds
are sadly doubled and twisted up already by the Ale
ghspy-crumpngs Of the eaths crust settling 10 her
diminished nuceas. The face of the Try land begins
to az proach the outlines Of modern mape; il bears
herds Of huge beats AID cattle after their kind, and
even the snakes and monkeys are crawling in sde
grass or climbing the Dut-tree.
Our faithful satellite almost entirely cold There is
little warmth yet at her heart but its central fire
" "smoOlderiDg, faint and low her volcanoes burn
and smoke lszly and duly; her atmosphere has
dropped every cloud in showa Of froet crystals and
spar gles which lie On the surface scarcely more
moved by her 336 honrs of continuous surshlne than
BY the equally long period Of cold earth-shire With
which it alternstes. There she rolls and sails through
the sky, bark without crew, . snug little world
without tenant.
whirt away again, fantailed sky-sweeper, past the
little asteroids Guit fit for the exclusive and com
fortably retired abodes Of German pnnoes or English
landlords, were they only warm snougb)-past the
cold wstery cloudy spheres Of suer.dsIkness which
We call ftly after hose remdet myths OF time, Sat-
urn and Ouranoe, away to Orion or Bootes, or the
star Bears Tail, wherein HIhonse's fallen angel came