The Idaho world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1864-1918, 1874-02-12
Horseshoe Bend, Jan. "a. 1874.
Written for the IDAHO WORLD
THE PRIMORDIAL EARTH.
BY d. G. STRONG.

According to the Nebular hypothesis which
we have heretofore shown to be the most sci
entifc explanation of cosmieal phenomena,
our earth presents n remarkable history. Our
solar system, if indeed not the whole universe
of created things, was, according to that theo-
ry. an immense globe of incandescent vapor,
filling all that vast space included within the
orbit of our most distant planet-Neptune.
When, in the process of these evolutions, Nep:
tune, Uranus and Saturn had taken shape and
cooled, and contracted into habitabe condi-
ton. our globe was yet undetached from the
parent nucleus; and, to astronomers situated
on those older worlds, the sun must have SEEM
ed vastly larger than 1t now does.
Finally, in the lapse of the chiliads of aons,
the earth was detached. first, as ring; then,
following the law of its predecessors, assumed
sand miles in diameter as now it was five hum
dred thousands at least. What grand ap-
pearance we must have made to Neptunian as
tronomersi They have watched us from the
their instruments could measure us no longer,
and they have long since stricken our name
| from their tables with marginal note some
thing like this: Lost planet-shattered in
some terrible convulsion of nature Alas
poor finite calculators what seemed TO you to
be a destructive age. was TO us n constructive
one.
Lost 10 others, we will have the more leis
urc for selfstudy- rapid and long-contnued
radiation into space would produce cooling and
contraction-in this outer and thinner atmos
phere, the oxygen and hydrogen were combined
into vapor and clouds; and, as such, was pre-
ciptated toward the center: but the intense
heat of the lower strata Of the atmosphere pre-
vented the rain from ever reaching the solid
part of the earth-but re-cOnverted it and sent
it back again into space as steam. Thus tor
geologic cycle, this ebullition ragged in mid-air
..The excitation of the electricties developed
lightnings and thunders and the disturbances
of the thermal equilibria awakened gusts ane
whirwnds and tempests.
Finally, the waters are triumphant. the fires
are subdued, and seething ocean OF waters
lie upon the face of our globe. Another age o
cooling and the dense vapors are dissipated
and the long-ost sun again looks down upon hi
latest born and wonders at the changes which
haze befallen it. But by we'll known law thu
} inner portion OF the globe contracted more
RAPIDLY than the outer and vacuum was form
ed between them this necessitates wrlnkllns
in the earth's crust-here, then, we have de
pressions and elevations, the waters seeking th'
former, and the latter becoming the outlines
future continents Upon this subject you
readers will thank me for the following quota
t;on from Prof. Winchell: "In North Americ;
the germ of the land was V.shaped ridge, 10
| Gated north of the St. Lawrence-the ian'
grew by successive annexatiOns on the south
east and southwestern an opportune juncture
after some ages of premonitory trembllngs' on
grand series of paroxysms upheaved the pom
derous masses of the Alleghanies. A simila
upheaval at later period brought up the mas
ses of the Rocky Mountains"
While these changes were going on in thl
mart Of the world, the Eastern continent wa
taking shape in the same general manners
that there is no material difference in the ag
of the two continents Let us pause here 7
/, |inouire into the age of our plannet. 1t wi
mot be expected that our chronology can
: absolutely determined, yet it is marvellous ho'
o far science leads us back on the track OF COZ
mical development.
1st. From the relative thickness OF the dl
| ferent strata, time ratios, are deduced-tnes
are az follows, for the Paleozoic, Mesozc'c On