of the Tor is as different from what is quarried from below as the surface of the flint is from the interior. The granite and the flint alike testify to this fact, everything on the surface of the earth which is not living is decaying.' And as decay produces soil, all life depends on the decay of what has not life.

IT IS ONLY FIRE WHICH KEEPS OUR HEADS ABOVE WATER.
SOLIDS SUSPENDED IN LIQUIDS OBEY THE LAWS OF LIQUIDS.
ORANGE SHAPE OF THE GLOBE OWING ΤΟ THE ACTION OF
CENTRIFUGAL FORCE ON LIQUIDS. ABSURDITY OF THE DOCTRINE

OF THE ORIGINAL INCANDESCENT

FLUIDITY OF THE GLOBE.

COMPARATIVE EVAPORATION FROM SURFACES OF EARTH AND

WATER.

which keeps

our heads

above water.

It is only fire which keeps our heads above water. It is only fire It is only owing to subterranean igneous action that the solids of the globe are not submerged below, shall I say 3000 feet of water. It is true that the quantity of liquid in comparison to the solids of the globe is infinitely small. But, owing to one of its attributes, water plays a part infinitely great. That attribute is, that like the atmosphere, it will get to the top. So that, notwithstanding our friend fire, water even now covers three quarters of the surface of our globe. But water not only has a tendency to find one level for itself, but to reduce the solids of the

globe to one level. And as this principle is for ever at work, a uniform level of all solids would take place below water but for fire.

The great Laplace has guessed, as some think very erroneously, that the average depth of the sea might be about the average height of the land, or 3280 feet. From Sir James Ross's soundings (Principles, page 105), it would appear that the greatest depths of the sea may not differ much from the greatest height of moun

tains.

Our highest mountain would be represented. by a grain of sand, on a globe of six feet in diameter. Therefore, the deepest part of the sea would be represented by the cast or impression of a grain of sand on such a globe. What a puddle then is the sea, in point of cubical contents, compared with the solid globe! But withdraw the inequalities of the solids and the puddle flows over them, and

Full fathom five thy father lies,

together with all organic terrestrial existence. This appears paradoxical, because in our everyday experience we see liquids running down solids, and seeking a level below them. The reason is still more paradoxical, as follows: Though water is heavier than the air, it is perpetually ascending

through the air in the form of vapour. It is then

condensed, and descends as rain, or snow, or dew. What is not evaporated, runs down to the sea, either continuously on the surface, or, if it sinks below the surface, by springs and rivers, and the largest rivers are merely returning vapour. This water carries with it solids to the sea, which sink to the bottom of the sea; and the same act which sinks the solids of the globe raises the liquids of the globe. Every one must see that this all-pervading ever-acting circle of causes must result in depositing existing continents under the sea. And this is going on now, and has been going on, as man might say, from all eternity; and as old continents have disappeared, new continents have been raised, and old ones hoisted farther up by subterranean igneous action. And I end this paragraph, as I began-it is only fire which keeps our heads above water.

It is this circle of causes also which determines

the form of the globe. For while solids are suspended in liquids they obey the same laws as liquids; and as the globe has, for countless ages, daily spun on its axis, its surface solids being as obedient to centrifugal force as liquids, it has been whirled into the form of an orange or flattened ball; though fire continues occasionally to lift an

* As I have stated in the Geological Magazine for August 1864, I consider a rainless district to be an impossibility.'.

Solids suspended in li

quids obey the laws of liquids.

Orange shape of the globe owing to action

of centrifugal old continent, or to poke up a new bit above the natural aqueous surface of the ball.

force on liquids.

Absurdity of the doctrine of

the original

incandescent

fluidity of the globe.

Playfair originated this idea in his magnificent illustrations of our yet unappreciated Hutton. Herschel, the immortal son of an immortal father, has confirmed it. Herschel, however, with Lyell, makes the sea, acting on its shores, 'grind down' the solids, instead of the universal circle of causes. If this is so, we shall have some high cliffs at Chimboraço, and along the Andes. A cliff 24,000 feet in height would be worth seeing. What a squat, tame cone the Peak of Tenerife would be to this! But what average height would Orographers allow for the cliff from Panama to Patagonia? 15,000 feet? Inconvenient for landing even if it was only 1500.

Natural causes, however, now in action, are sufficient to have given this world the form of a flattened ball. And we may reject the idea of the original fluidity of the globe, whether igneous or aqueous, and the universal chaotic ocean, velut ægri somnia.

I will take Mr. M'Clausland (Sermons in Stones'), as the latest expositor of the igneous fusion' theory, which was originated by Leibnitz nearly two centuries ago (1680). According to this theory, the globe began as a mass of matter melted by heat. As it cooled, a coating of