The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1868-11-10
MISCELLANY.
Earthquakes aAd Volcanoes,

account OF the causes of earthquakes and
volcanoes, and of the uses they
serve for mankind, and we in turn abridge
from the columns of the TaceS:
Where the uninstructed mind leaves off
iatigued at the thought of SO much cal
lamity, and puzzled to reconcile such
scourges with the conception Of a benov-
oleht Creator, science appears, laborious-
y studies these strange phenomena in
terrestrial physics, succeeds at length in
connecting them with the general cosmic
plan, anl-last triumph of divining power
boldly procaims that the earthquake
itself, desolatinga as are sometimes its effects,
is but fresh illustration of the great law
Of compensation, but an incident in a vast
system of action, to which we owe the
very ground we stand upon, and the very
land we inhablt.
UNCEAsING DESTRUCTION OF THE LAND.
Everywhere around the coast line of
every continent the sea is constantly at
work wearing against the land, crumbling
away its edges, grinding it into powder,
and carrying the detritus away and spread~
ing il out over its bottom. This process is
slow, but it goes on forever, ard the re
suit is that in time Chat is, in the
secular time in which geology works. the
structure of continents is entirely worn
away and new ones formed out of the ruins
Of the former ones. It is quite certain
that our present land was formerly the
bed of the sea, and that continental mas
sec once reared their forms where now
rolls tie deep and dark blue ocean, =
Now, rightly estimating this mighty pow
cr of the aqueous agents which ncessant-
ly labor, to reduce the inequalities Of the
carths surface to n level, it is easy to see
that, it they went on unopposcd, they
wonld ''clear away and spread over the
bed of the ocean all our present existing
continents and islands" and, indeed, they
have been at work long enough to have,
If nnopposed, produced this very result.
Uses OF TIE VOLCANO
1t is the earthquake and the volcano
which place themselves in opposition to
this destructive tendency 10 that we
may regard the igneous agents as IN con
slant anagonism to The aqueous agents,
the latter laboripg necessarily to obliterstc
the land, while the former are equally
active to restore it, What are those
igneous agents, and what is their source (?
UNIVERSAL sUBTrRRANEAN FIRE.
1t i a fact perfectly assured that, in
proportion rs we descend into the earth,
the heat augmcnts, and the deeper we 90
The hotter the earth is found to be This
i proven by numberless observations that
have been made not only of the temper.
atre Of air in mines, but in that OF rocks
and in the water issuing from them. In
bring Ariessan wells the water comes up
hot, and the deeper the boring the hotter
the water.
In the famous well in Paris, at La Gre
nells, the water rises from depth of L.
194 feet, and its temperature is 80 degrees
Fahrenheit, which is almost that of the
equator. The same thing appears in nat
anal springs, n, for instance, that of
Arkansas, which is scalding hot, and
shows continuous temperature of $50
degrees. This increase is estimated at
about degree of the thermometer add-
ilnal warmth for every ninty feet adj,
tional depth; or about 50 degrees per
mile. cat twenty miles depth" says
distinguished physicist, "accordng to this
rate, the ground must be fully red hot
and at no such very great depth bea
yond, either :he whole most be melted, or
only the most infusible or intractble kinds
Of material, such as our freclays and
ilints would present some degree of sold-
ity.
An immense range of terrestrial phe-
nomena compeIs us to conclude that be-
meath the crust of the earth is sea of
liquid fire, on which the continents and
the land beneath the ocean continually
are floating. This frery sea is not at all
remote from us. The limits science has
yet reached never seem to US more narrow
than when we are reminded how little we
know Of physical phenomena continually
so near US. The fluid is in n state of
energetic elasticity, sometimes producing
violent undulatory motions, and at Others
breaking through the crust and vomiting
forth lava and the central huid-if, indeed,
the two are necessary distinct. The
undulaiory motions are earthquakes, the
elections constitute volcanoes. 1t is their
function to counteract the levelling effect
of water, partely by heaping up matter in
certain localities, and partly by deepen
ing one portion and forcing out another,
of the earths envelope. 1t remains to
see in what manner this is done.
SIR JOHN HFRsCHELL's STATEMENT.
The land, as we have seen, is perpet-
ually wearing down, and the materials
are being carried out to sea--thinning
towards the land and thickening over all
the bed OF the sea. What must happen
If the continents be lightened, they will
rise; If the bed Of the sea receives addit-
ional weight it will sink. 1t is impossible
but that this increase of pressure in some
places, and relief in others, must be un-
equal in their bearings; SO that at some
Dlpcn or other tbis solid Aoat;no, o,,,a, ..,,,a,