Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1890-04-24

them into solids. They tell US that this
collection of burning material belonged
originally to the sun, and was thrown off
nom 1t In consequence of natural law,
and sent ''whirling in space. Do you
understand what space" means? This
globe of ours is wrapped up in huge
cloak, some forty miles thick, called the
atmosphere. Beyond this thick envelope
stretches far away that unknown region
called space What are its boundaries.
no one can tell u.s. Whether it holds other
worlds than ours we can only guess. But
one thing about it is known for certain,
which is, that it is very cold. Its temper
so we have need of our thick, warm at
mosphere
What effect did this intense cold have
upon the mass of fiery gas, sent spinning
out through its depths? Just the same
effect that the cold mountain peeks have
upon the vapor of water. 1t cooled the
gases upon the outside, hardened them,
and In the course of time formed thin
crust. This was Gods first day of crea-
ton, and some men think it was equal tc
thousands and thousands of our years
maybe millions-because this forming of
the crust must have been slow work.
First, little patches of gas became solid.
Then these floated together and perhaps
succeeded in making one crust joined all
Then the boiling, seething mass inside
broke through, and the work had to be
done all over again.
When the Tapor of water was condensed,
rain began to fall.
Tbap oapoa anotlo, A l.,
as the rain fell on the hot crust, it was
changed into vapor again, and sent up
into the air to repeat its work What
boiling steaming, hot ball this world must
have been!
During all this time there were terrific
peals of thunder and flashes of lightning.
Whenever any liquid is changing into a
vapor, electricity is produced; and when
so vast a quantity of water was changing
into steam the intensity and frequency of
the lightning must have been immeasur-
ably beyond anything we can imagine. If
only we could have been at a safe distance
above this steaming world and looked down
upon it, what a sight we should have seen,
and what deafening peals of thunder we
should have heard!
Even though the rain was almost imme-
diately changed into vapor it must have
cooled the earth's crust little, coming di-
rectly from the icy realms of space. And
at last came day when the cold conquer
ed the heat, and the crust became cool
enough for the water to stay down. 1t
filed up the cracks and crannies. and
there was so much of it that only little
bit OF the earth's crust could peep above
It's surface. Of our own continent, only a
narrow strip Of land extending from what
is now Nova Scotia to where the Great
Lakes were to be, and thence westward to
the region now called Alaska, remained
above the waters. In the place now occu-
pied by Europe, there were MAJ little
patches, but no land so extensive as the
strip in the Western Hemisphere
Thick, dark vapors brooded over the
earth and shut out the light of the sun.
And these gloomy vapors, the little pieces
of dry, hot crust, and the surging, boiling
waters, were the beginnings out of which
God was to nuke our beautiful world with
its pure air, its blue sky and snowy clouds,
its dense woods and fertile fields, its hills
and valleys its lakes and rivers.
There could have been no life in those
days-neither plant life nor animal life.
In the first place the crust was too hot;
neither plant nor animal could live on it,
nor In the hot waters that touched it. In
the second place, animals and plants can
not live without sunlight; and no sun
light could pierce those masses of heavy
VapOr.