The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-04-26
THE ENGLISH EARTHQUAKE.


dynamite before highly civilized people in a
very startling and practical form. Earth
quakes and volcanoes, spaslnodic and irregular
as they appear to be in their times and places,
nomena; they only suggest and call to mind
the mighty forces which have brought the
world to its present state of apparent frmness
and continuity.
Not less than by the atmosphere and waters,
by the succession of plants and animals does
the study Of the solid lands prove to
the thoughtful mind that the diversity
of nature which seems endless and with
out order, is actually the highest eXhibi-
ton of a perfect system and law. The
polar ice fields and the equatorial deserts and
jungles were not accidents in the making of
the earth, but were results involved in the
scheme of its formation. The world in which
we live is accounted for, and the method of
its evolution is explained. The scientists
have agreed that it is fre-born, and the poets
have woven the conclusions of science into
their all-embracing fancies. The solid earth
on which we tread in tracts of fluent heat
began. 1t existed as fre-mst, if we accept
the nebular theory as the genetie explana-
ton of the phenomena of the solar system
This one-time hypothesis is becoming the
accepted basis of modern cosmOgony. The
nebulous hypothesis does not cramp the phi
losopher or the theologian as to the origin
of being 1t does net deny plan or purpose
in the system of the universe. 1t conscrts
fully with the Hebraic statement-in the
beginning God created the heavens and the
earth. It stands on the order of nature and
appeals reasonably to the intellect of man.
1t assumes diffused matter and energy as its
starting points without reference to their
subjective nature OF first cause. Its brief
statement is that the primitive material from
which the solar system is evolved possessed
the physical and chemical properties of an
intensely hot and thin vaporous matter
Portions of this have been thrown off from
OlluO Pif'lAONo anu
satellites the rest remains as central sun.
The sun radiates its heat and cools; cool
ing, it contracts, and the contraction of its
enormous bulk suffces, according to Prof.
Newcomb to make up almost the entire heat
it radiates into space, and so the suns heat
is perpetuated into an almost indefinite fu-
H. of he ,+,a1
nebular mass have gone through various
changes, all tending toward solidity and
rest. Our own earth, with its sister planets,
doubtless has cooled from fusion. 1t has
been through all its individual history con-
tracing globe. This contraction has been the
grand agency in determining the evolution
of its surface features, and the sue
cessive phases of its long history
which the study of historical and dynamical
geology so plainly reveals. The earthquakes
and volcanoes of the present times have little
significance when compared with the great
movements of the earth's crust in the past, or
the secular and quiet movements of the pres
ent. They are the straws that show the wind
chips on an ocean current The qualification
which, as a consequence Of pressure, took
place at the fluid earths center, is believed to
have occurred long before the superficial cool
ing which caused the external crust. AS the
center has contracted, the intermediate molten
masses have followed it. The eneroaching
crust has given way, forming the two great
lines of fracture which prevail over the world
transverse to each other, thereby determining
the outline and reliefs of the primitive CONT
nents and ocean basins whose details have
been completed by the action of wind, ice,
water and organic life through the successive
geological ages.
With the formation of continental and
oceanic areas came the denudation of the
former by winds and storm, waters, and the
thckening of the ocean-beds by sedirnenta-
ton, until the unbalanced pressures have
folded the edges of the continents into sue
cessions of mountain chains and ranges. As
the bed of the Atlantic thickened, and,
weighted down by sediment braced itself
against the firm walls of the old world and
SETTLED toward the contracting interior, the
successive pillows of the Appalachian
mountain system appeared, thrown up
by this enormous lateral pressure, applied
at right angles to them. In places the