The Savannah morning news., 1903-04-01
EARTH NOT A SPHERE.
Paris Scientist Says 1t Is Shaped
Like Pyramid.

L
Like a Pyramid.
sterling Helig, in New York Press.
Paris. March 7.-"Our earth is
four-sided pyramid" he said.
And not an orange f1attened at the
noes?" 1 exclaimed.
III is not fattened at the South Pole.
on the contrary. it is like vast egg or
cream puff, except that it's liquid in
terror. composed of molten matter, is
hotter than 1000 degrees centigrade,
While it's thin crust is comparatively
cold Biologists now agree that this
crust is not more than forty-three
miles thick. What is that in compar-
ison with the molten mass more than
1900 miles in diameter from crust to
crust?"
1T sounds dangerous" / said.
ION the contrary, it is the thinness of
of the crust that saves u.s." he answer
ed. when it gets thicker there will
be explosions in comparison5 with
which our volcanoes are nothing. The
moon. which had it's end in this way,
shows craters forty, fifty and sixty
miles in diameter all over it's surface"
The speaker was one of the most cell
ebrated as we'll as one of the youngest
of European astronomers-the Able.
TIL. Moreux of the Observatory of
Saint Celestin at Bourges. Two years
ago he published his monumental vol
ume on THE Solar Problem" showing,
with the latest theory of the sun and
its system, the cause and nature of the
sun spots and the intimate character
of their influence on the climate and
magnetism of the earth. Since that
time his studies of his sun spots have
been in connection with the action of
volcanoes on our earth. Just as the
periodicity curves of the sun spots
show their decisive effect on our
earths rainfall, temperature, advanced
or late vegetation, the price of &C.
reals the return of migrating birds,
polar auroras and magnetic deviations,
so they correspond with the periodicity
curves of our earth's volcanic activity.
None of this, however, astonished me
so much as to hear the earth-Which l
had always imagined to be a sphere
called four-side pyramid. | said so.
Yet the statement is neither new nor
my own" replied the subtle able. THE
original discovery was made by Mr..
Iowthian Green. In spite of its beau
tiful simplicity, it is still little known
scientific progress penetrates with diff
Guilty to the masses, and the majority
of the people are about thirty years
behind it. After the nebular form our
earth passed into that of a pasty mol
ten matter covered with thick clouds.
The planet Jupiter is still in this latter
state Under the action of the CEN
trifugal force developed by it's rotation
the earth fattened itself'a little at the
equator; but we must not forget that
the intense cold of space quickly form
ed over this pasty mass crust that
thickened century by century.
cat first this rigid crust formed
compact whole" continued the cele-
brated French astronomer, but as the
volume of the central pasty mass de-
creased by contraction the crust enVel-
ope soon became too large for it. Hence
cracks and folds, the first inequalities
of the earth's surface.
Mature acts always by law. Once
it was thought that the mountains of
our earth had been thrown up by haz-
ard; but Mr.. Lowthian Green has
shown that these great lines of frac-
ture We're produced by the most beau
tiful rule Every sphere submitted to
internal compression tends to the form
of a regular four-sided pyramid. Our
earth is in this case. 1t is not pre-
cisely round, neither is it simply flat
tened at the poles, as was once taught.
Examine a terrestrial globe. The
oceans, you will see, are laid out regu-
lar on three sides. There is, first, the
deep ditch of the Pacific; secondly, that
of the Atlantic, and, thirdly, that of the
Indian ocean. These enormous depres-
sions, some of which attain depths of
five miles, correspond to the great lines
of fracture"
What are they?"
1.-THE Rocky Mountains and their
continuation in the Andes; the high
plateaus of Greenland, Iceland, the
Alps from the nerth to the south of
Europe; the mountains of Abyssinia
and Madagascar form another uninter-
rupted line, and finally, the high sum-
mits of Thibet, the Malay Archipelago
and their continuation in the Austria
liam continent form the third
There are the three edges of the
pyramid" said. "And l can see that
the three oceans and their adjoining
flat land surfaces form three of it's
sides; but where is the fourth side
the base-of the pyramid? And where
is it's apex"
"The fourth great plane is found at
the North Pole he replied. "Since
the voyage of Nansen doubt is no
longer permitted; a profound depres-
sion exists there. And its correspond
ing summit is at the South Pole, where
on a we'll marked continent explorers
have discovered excessively high
mountains"
1T is true" I said, that these great
lines of fracture seem to contain all
the volcanoes, or nearly all"
Certainly, because the resistance is
less great. The whole west of the two
Americans is bordered by pronounced
volcanoes of Iceland, the extinct vol
canoes of Auvergue, the volcanic els
tricts of Italy, Sicily and Abyssinia
And the third, need not point out
gives the volcanoes of Java, Japan
and so on, united by the volcanoes of
the Aleutian Islands to the fracture
lines of the Rocky mountains. Take
n rnUinnG
submit to the law: witness the VOL
canoes of Erebus and Terror, always
in eruption. More than this, Mr..