Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1877-08-04

sience Of the phenomenon quickly recog.
Dized, it would afford observers on that
planet the Clearest evidence Of the ac
tivity OF subterranean forces within GU,
earth. Those among the observers liv.
ing on Venus who were not content
merely to observe, but exercised also
their reasoning faculties to determine the
meaning Of what they saw, would per.
ceive that on or about Aug. 1874, 1868
and again on May 10 last, tremendou.
throes had shaken some portion of the
southern half Of that long double CONT.
nent lying north and south which thev
have long since recognized on our globe
that the waters of the ocean had Thus
been nightly disturbed; and that A great
wave, or rather succession of great
waves, had swept across the largest Tfthe
terrestrial oceans. They would be able
even, by noting the velocity and varia-
tions OF velocity of the great wave, to
determine the depth of the Pacific ocean,
and the manner according to which tine
depth varies in the neighborhood of diff.
ferent island groups. 1t is not altogether
impossible, indeed, that what we have
here described may actually have oc-
cured though on neither of the oc-
casiOns when the Pacific has of late been
swept by a sea-wave was Venus verv
suitably placed tor observing our planet.
Apart from thoughts such as these,
there is much in a phenomenon like
this great sea-wave well worth con
sdering. When we recognize in the sub.
terranean forces of our earth an energy
competent to disturb the entire surface
ofthe Pacific, we perceive how vain are
the fears OF those who imagine that the
earth's Nulcanian energies are nearly ex-
hausted. There is nothing to show
that at any time of which geology affords
evidence throes more mighty than these
which have shaken Peru and Chill within
the last half century have disturbed any
portion of the earth's frame. In former
times indeed, when geologists were ac,
customed to regard the processes of an
entire era as completed in a single throe,
men might as well believe that the earth
had sunk into relative quiescence. But
now that close study has enabled them
to separate TIE effects of one process from
those ofanother, torecognize-not in full,
perhaps, but in great degree-the infu-
ence of time as an important factor in
geological development, they are able TO
make juster comparison between past
and present disturbances. The result is
that, although we cannot doubt that the
earth is parting with the heat which is
the source of its Nulcanian energies we
find every reason to believe that the loss
of energy is taking place so slowly that
the diminution during many generations
is altogether imperceptibIe. Asa modern
writer has remarked, when we see that
while mountain ranges were being up
heaved or valleys depressed to their pres
ent position, race after race and type
after type lived outon the earth the long
lives which belong to races and to types,
we recognize the great work which the
earth's subterranean forces are still en-
gagged upon. Even now continents are
being slowly depressed or upheaved, and
now mountain ranges are being raised to
a different level. table.lands are being
formed, great valleys are being
gradually scooped out, old shore-lines
shift their place, old soundings vary, the
sea advances in one place and retires in
another; on every side natures plastic
hand is still at work, modelling and re-
modelling the earth and making it con-
stantly a fit abode for those who dwell
upon it,