Buchanan County bulletin and guardian., 1868-02-21

1t is now pretty well established that the
| earth has two more motions than its dlurnal
and annual. FIRST, there is the diurnal mo-
ton, in which the globe turns on its axis
every twenty-four hours, causing day and
night. Second, there is its revolut on round
| the sun, which takes 3s5 days, 5 hours, 43
| minutes, 57.1 seconds 10 accomplish. Third,
the lOtioa Of the whole solar system in
space that is, the earth, with all the planets
and stars, moving around what is supposed
10 be central sun. Fonrth, a motion in
which. through long period of years, the
poles Of the earth are changed, the equa,o-
rial region in time becoming the polar re-
gion, and rice rersa.
Through the influence Of this motion we
of the temperate zone are gradually ap>
proaching the equator; indeed, it can be
shown, from history, taking given zone,
that il has become warmer as time adyan-
ces. Many trees and plants-:he vine aud
olive, for instance--fonrish in places where
two thousand years ago they did not grow.
The change is 50 gradual aid so slow that
the longes.-lived being cannot perceive il !;
but that the climate change takes place is
very evident, nevertheless. Another evil
deuce is adduced in the peculiarly Of the
animals, the remains of which have been
found in the polar regions, which only have
existed when that region had much more
equatorial bearing than 1T has at present
The proof hat tropical plants grew there is
also undispa.ed. The bearing Of ancien,
Christian churches, which were invariably
built facing east or west, but which now diff.
fer materially from those points, is said to
be another proof Of this terrestrial change.
The phenomenon called the procession of
the equinoxes, in virtue Of which the first
point of Aries recedes upon the eclip,ic of
about fifty seconds in wear, gradually caus-
ing complete change in the seasons an1,
counting from any given time, there must
elapse at least q 900 years before the sea-
son can return to precisely the same period
of the year. 1t he's been ascertsined, so It
is asserted, that up to the year l24s of the
Christian era. year in which the first day
of winter precisely coincded with the eartL's
passage through It's perihelion, the tenpera>
ture Of the southern hemisphere had been in
constant course of diminu.ion. And It is.
moreover, made plain, according 10 the CAL
culation, that after the lapse OF l0,500 years
the sea sons on our globe will be exactly re-
versed.
Therefore, about l0,5o0 years before the
year l24s, or II, 900 years before the pres
eat time, j, was the north pole, and not its
opposite one, which was in its maximum Of
refrigeration our present continents were
then submerged, according TO tie Mosaic
account of the deiuge-not, however, chro-
nologically considered, if we interpret the
Bible too literally. as many who interpre: it
for themselves often do-and there were con-
tiaents unknown to US in the southern hens
isphere. And again, by the same astronom-
ical and natural laws, 10, 500 years after the
last cataclysrn new one will occur, which |
will again submerge the northern hernis-
phere, and allow q new world to emerge |
from the southern ocean.
1t is with this motion Of the earth we have |
to deal when treating on the deluvian phe-
Rerier.