Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1890-04-18
The VERY Beginning.

From Through the Back Ages" by Teresa c.
Crofton, in ST. Nicholas for April.
In the burning mass that composed our
earth at first, there existed copper, sulphur
and al the other substances that are on
our earth now. only all were in gaSeous
state. The cold had not yet hardened
them into solids. They tell US that this
collection of burning material belonged
originally to the sun, and was thrown off
from 1t IN consequence of a natural law,
and sent ''whirling in space Do you
understand what space" means? This
globe of ours is wrapped up in a 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 US. 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
allure is two hundred degrees below zero;
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 yapor of water 1t cooled the
gases upon the outside. hardened them,
and in the course of time formed a thin
crust. This was Gods first day of crea-
ton, and some men think it was equal to
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 tlOated together and perhaps
succeeded in making one crust joined all
| overland hot rumpled crust it was
| Then the boiling. seething mass inside
| broke through, and the work had to be
| done all over again.
| When the yapOr of water was condensed
rain began to fall.
Then came another struggle As quickly
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 a
| boiling, steaming hot ball this world must
| have been,
During all this time there were terrific
| peals of thunGP; and flashes of lightning
Whenever any liquid is changing into a
vapor, electricity is produced and when
so vast 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 steamiIg 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 crust a 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 COO
| H., l., 4. 4
filed up the cracks and crannies. anG
there was so much of it that only little
bit of the earth'S crust could peep above
its surface. OF our own continent. only {
narrow strip of land. extending from what
is now Nova Scotia to where the Great
Lakes were to be, and thence westward t.
the region now called Alaska. remained
above the waters. In the place now occu
pied by Europe, there were mm little
patches, but no land so extensive as the
strip in the Western Hemisphere.
Thick, dark yapors 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 make our beautiful world. will
its pure air, its blue sky and snowy clouds
its dense woods and fertile fields, its hill
and valleys. its lakes and rivers
There could have been no life in thost
day:-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. II
the second place, animals and plants cal
not live without sunlight; and no sun
light could pierce those masses of heav,
yapOr.