Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-01-01
THE EARTH IND THE COMETS.

pounded by Hon. Ignatius DonHelly, of |
this state, in his new book "Ragnarok,"
that the great drift deposits of the earth
came from and are evidences of the con-
tact of comet with our globe III some
long previous age, is creating Widespread |
sensation among ali classes Of readers.
The curious relations which the e0ok holds
with the Bible narratives, and the light
which it throws UPON some of the most
mysterious parts of TIE sacred volume rem
der it especial = interesting to the relig-
ious world, CONFIRMING, as it does, in a
strange and unexpected manner the great
traditions of Genesis, giving new mean
ing to that wonderful production, the
Book of job"
There have been some attempts made to
answer Mr.. DOnnelly's argument, but so
far they have been fruitless; the parties
making them are forced to admit, in the
first place, that the old ice theory cannot
explain The drift deposits. Ice does not,
and never did, produce clay OF gravel, and
ice could not have cracked the globe itself
| in great rents, as was done in the so called
glacial age; neithercould ice have melted tie
then surface rocks so far as to extract Che
metals frem them, as was done st that time.
| Neither could ice have evaporated the seas
SO as TO produce the great foods which
marked that period. All these things point
| to g. great accession of heat to the globe
and this heat evidently came from above,
from outside the earth, for the deep-seated
rocks are unchanged, which would not
have been the case had the heat risen to
the surface from the center of the globe.
/ One critic objects that Mr. Donnelly's
theory is impossible because life could not
have existed under such conditions as &C.
companied the drift age. But it must be
remembered that no drift fell on one-half
of the globe; on the other half men and
animals had only to endure the great eli
matte change from heat to cold, and we
| know that men and animals survive to-day
within the Arctic circle, in region of
eternal ice. Moreover Mr.. Donrelly's theo-
ry does not maintain that there was
period OF universal ice; this is the theory
of those who argue that an ioe-sheet once
|
MES the existence of ice-sheets of miles in
thickness covering whole continents; and
asserts that the equatorial regions
of the earth, were, for q lorg time after
the catastrophe the scene of great heat,
which gradually gave way to climate of
excessive moisture and tremendous floods,
and not to ice. sheets. If man survives to-
day in tropical Africa and hyperboresn
Greenland, he could have passed through
any degree of heat and cold which could
have accompanied the driftage.
The same critic objects that comets could
not be, as Mr.. Donnelly suggests, exploded
planets, because the earth is solid and cold.
How then does he explain the undoubted
fact that at the time of the drift the earth
was split in great cracks and that from
these cracks there poured forth vast
volumes of lava, which in some instances,
as in Northwestern America, covered thous-
ands of square miles of land? This melted
rock must have come from some region of
intense heat; solid, cold globe could not
have produced it. Neither could solid,
cold globe produce the volcanic disturb
ances of Hecla and Vesuvius; neither could
1T account for the wonders of the National
park, whore only thin and trembling
crust intervenes between the foot of the
Ie1plsrer and heated abyss which gives
forth volumes of steam, boiling water and
boiling mud.
In fact, no argument has yet been pre-
sented which answers in the slightest de-
gree the theory propounded in "Ragna-
rok." 1t is the only theory which comes
any way near explaining and harmonizing
the great phenomena ..of the drift. Mere
assertion and ridicule are not an answer;
the facts and logic of the book cannot be
poo-poshed away, especially by mon who
admit that the accepted theories are wholly
inadequate to explain the so-called glacial
age.
If science is at last compelled 10 accept
the comet-theory the result will be a far
reaching revolution in the science OF
geology; we will have to look to an exter-
nal source for perhaps many Of the phe-
nomsna, and evan some of the deposits
which are now attributed to purely terres-
trial sources.