The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1879-08-22
WORLD WONDERS.
Eleven Thousand Years of Winter and An
Equally Long Summer.

Eleven Thousand Years of Winter and an
Equally Long Summer.
Mr.. G. Hilton Scribner, ex' Secretary
of State for New York. has been giving
to the Troy Times his views on the
momentous geological changes through
which the earth has passed, and is still
passing. Mr.. Scribner finds a ready
solution of many of the difficulties
which perplex the geologist. The epochs
through which the globe has passed are
due largely, if not wholly, he believes,
to the fact that the earth's axis de-
scribes circle in the northern heavens,
and that the effect of this is to cause
the earth.to pass through long winters
and summers of 1000 years each
During this winter" says Mr.. Serb
ner, "each hemisphere is submerged
under the ocean; its vegetation COM
pressed into coal beds; its whole 81 r
face covered with marine deposits and
sediments transported and scattered by
ocean currents; and, thus enriched, it
rises again after long winter of II 900
years, to be renewed in life, clothed
with vegetation and beauty, to become
again the theater of activity through a
vast summer as long as its season of
repose. Sixty-five coal-beds in hori-
zontal layers, one above another, have
been opened In the British islands,
which makes it probable that at least
sixty-fve of these long years have
passed since the vegetation grew upon
the EARTH" This wonderful change in the
oceans level is brought about, Mr..
Scribner argues, by change in the
earth's center of gravity, and this again
is caused by the vast accumulation of
ice around the pole of the hemisphere
which is passing through it's long win
ter. I'VE have supposed this center of
gravity OF the earth" he says, ito be
shifted southwark, by the causes
enumerated, about two miles, or 10000
feet. This would increase the depth of
the water in the southern oceans 10000
feet, and would decrease the depth Of
water in the northern oceans 10000
feet, in order to keep their surfaces
equi-distant from the earth's center of
gravity, or upon a water-level; but to
increase the depth of the ocean in the
southern hemisphere by an additional
10000 feet would be to submerge nearly
all the lands in the southern hemi-
sphere, and to increasethe depth of the
ocean by 10000 feet north of the equator
would result in draining off vast CONT
nents in the southern hemisphere. This
is the exact condition of things which
the earth to-day presents" Mr.. Serb
ner cites various facts which he believes
to be confirmatory of these views,
and finally sums up as follows: First
the North pole is toward the sun while
the earth passes slowly around the lower
portion of it's orbit. Second, the South
pole is toward the sun while the earth
moves more rapidly around the shorter
portion of it's orbit. Third, this gives
to the northern hemisphere about four
more days of warm and four days less
of cold weather than the southern hem
isphere receives of each. Fourth, this
keeps the ice thinner and with narrower
limits at the North pole, and produces
vast accumulations of ice about the
South pole. Fifth, this changes the
center of gravity of the earth to the
southwark of its center of bulk. Sixth,
this causes the oceans to flow from the
north, draining off vast continents, to
the southern hemisphere, and there
submerging others of equal extent; and
lastly, extending the limit of the banana,
the vine, of grain and of wood 500 miles
farther north than the same varieties
are found south of the equator" All of
which, if not scientifically accurate, is
at least an interesting contribution on a
most fascinating subject.