The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1877-08-02

/ silence of the phenomenon quickly recOg-
nized, it would afford observers on that
planet the clearest evidence of the ac-
tlvlty OF subterTanean forces within eur
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. 1914. 1868.
and again on May 10 last, tremendous
thrOes had shaken some portion of the
southern half of that long double CONT
nent lying north and south which tbev
have long since recognized on our globe;
that the waters of the ocean had thus
been nightly disturbed; and that great
wave, or rather a succession of great
waves, had swept across the largest ofthe
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 the
depth varies in the neighbOrhOOd of diff
ferent island groups. It 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 veTv
suitably placed for observing our planet.
Apart from thoughts such as these,
there is much in a phenomenon like
this great sea-wave well worth con
sidering. When we recognize in the sub
terranean forces of eur 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 Vulcanian energies are nearly ex-
SRI Ig 70 ghO
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 &C
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 of another, to 0recOgnize-nOt in full,
perhaps, but in great degree-the inf1u-
ence of time as an important factor in
geological development, they are able to
make a 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
Jn6 source OF It's uICdnldn 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 impereeptible. AS 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 Outen 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
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 il one place and retires in
another; on every side natures plastic
band is still at work, modelling and re-
modelling the earth and making = con-
stantly fit abode for those who dwell
upon it.