New-York tribune., 1906-04-08
Various
~ Way Cease to
By CAMILLE FLA

slide first a bubbing spring then as a lin1nid
flVer E ana Hnaly as raging stream; otherwise it
nds entry into the soil by all the assures of the lat
ter quantity of water apparently insignificant
but really important, account of its action that
IS continued Tor centuries is enabled by this latter
means to penetrate the depths of the porous soil.
Should 1t descend far enough to reach sufficiently
hlgh temperature, 1t transformed into Vapor such
fact being most recently the cause of volcanic eruD
tons and OF earthquakes. Generally it enters into
chemical combination with the earth and rocks,
forming hydrates. Such water is of course lost
from the general circulation.
This deprivation of moisture seems to have been
the tate already OF some portions of our solar svs-
TEN. Our neighbOr the moon whose dimensions
are inferior to those of the earth cooled much more
rapidly and passed much more quickly through the
phases OF planetary life. Its former seas whereon
the traces OF the action of the waters are recogn
Fable, at present dried up and no kind of evan
grafton, no cloud, IS discernible thereon On the
planet Mars, which is also smaller than the earth
and certainly in a more advanced period of plan
etary life, without being so aged as the moon we
observe seas reduced to narrow inland straits the
great oceans have disappeared rain is rare: and the
sky IS nearly always clear.
Doubtless the future reserves for us a DESTINY
hrst, similar to that of the present state of Mars
then similar to that of our satellite, the moon.
While to every two hundred molecules of oxygen
and of nitrogen there is found only one of water
vapor this latter possesses, nevertheless eighty
times more energy and efficacy than the other
two hundred. These minute transparent drops
suspended IN the atmosphere act like heat condensers
to concentrate the rays of the and to retain
them in the lower layers of the atmosphere What
VIII happen when this protecting veil shall have
disappeared? The temperature of the soil will be-
come glacial and will render the globe uninhab-
liable. From the summit of the mountains the
mantle OF the SHOWS will be spread over the valleys
driving before it both life and civilization At the
completion of this epoch planet will have reached
a temperature approXimating two hundred and sew
enty-three degrees below zero.
End of the Sun
RUT will globe live long enough to reach this
distant age? and will it finally sleep in this mortal
cold? Could not terrestrial life suffer a different
and more rapid death? Would it not be possible
for the ocean to recover its supremacy over the
continents, and to spread anew, as at the dawn of
terrestrial life its liquid mantle over each part of
the earth?
Everywhere about observe the 1eveing
processes of nature in widely variant forms and to
this leveling process man lends willing hands 1t
IS easy to comprehend the completion of the process
and thus there two different modes of death
two diametrcaly opposed ends, the one resulting
from the disappearance of the water, the other
from its invasion, the processes being carried on
hencetorth with different degrees of intensity
Which OF the two will conquer the other? This
cannot yet be calculated.
The study of the universe shows us a third fate
equally probable Our IS the potent governor
OF all that exists here, and even it invuner-
able to the ravages of time; the dav must come
when ii will lose heat, light, and will finally be eX-
tinguished. The heat radiation of our sun is indeed
one OF imaginary magnitude and the amount of heat
that the planets intercept their passage through
space IS insignificant, representing hardly the two