3^ 'V w {UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.} LI BRARY O F CONGRESS. MAP OF THE WORLD.— See p. 68. aEONOMY: A THEORY OF THE OCEAN CURRENTS AND THEIK AGENCY IN THE |0m^ti0tt of iU ffiotttm^ttte; TO WHICH IS ADDED ASTROG-ENEA: A NEW THEORY OF THE FOEMATIOy OP PLAyETiRI SYSTEMS BY J. STANLEY GEIMES, COUNSELLOR AT LAW: AUTHOR OF "PHRENO-GEOLOGY,'' "A NEW SYS- ALBION C0M3IERCIAL COLLEGE; ALBION, 3IICH. BOSTON: Samuel F. Nichols. 1866. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by J STANLEY GEEVIES/ In the Clerk's Office of the Eastern District of Michisfan. DAILY POST PRESS, DETROIT. < PREFACE ^ In 1838 I published a small Tolume, in wMch I demonstra- ted that tlie organs of the brain are arranged in a certain natural order, which had not been previously observed. In 1850 I wrote another work, in which I pointed out the fact that the cerebral organs are added and superadded to each other, in a manner that corresponds with the geological or- der of progressive creation. In-lSoT I published a new sys- tem of nervous physiology, in which I demonstrated that the functions of the body and of the brain are so intimately related, that one cannot be understood except in connection with the other ; and that both must be studied by the light of comparative physiology and geology. I was thus natu- rally led to the train of thought, which has resulted in the production of several es&ays upon the origin of continents, oceans and planetary systems. I ask no favor for the errors which this book contains : they deserve none. But, though the history of science affords me little encouragement, I con- fess that I am desirous that some of the new truths in these pages may obtain a favorable reception. Detroit, June 1st, 1866, To the Son. IMA MAYJELEW, THIS rOLrJTJE IS MESJPECTTmXY DEDICJJ^JEI}, Wh£n, a short time ago, I explained to the Pi^ofessors and Students in the Commercial College, in AMon, Michigan, some of the principles dis- cussed in these pages, a zcish was expi^essed that I wmdd publish a hook 'upon the subject. Candor compelled me to answer that, in all probabil- ity, a publication so purely scientific could only be made at a pecuniary loss^ which no professional publisher iconld willingly incur. Under these ci?'cumstances. the Presidetit of the College, the Hon. Ira Jlayheic, generously volunteered to bear the loss, ichatever it might prove to be. The least lean do is to m^ke this public acJcnowUdgement of his magna- nimity. Indeed. I regard it as no small compliment, that this gentleman —upon ichom the mantle of Horace Mann seems to have fallen, icho has devoted his Ufe to the noble cause of education, and served the State dur- ing eight years, as Superintendent qf Public Instruction^shoidd so highly appreciate the results of my labors. I sincerely hope time wiM prove that, by this ax^t of liberality, he has confeired a favor upon the public, as well as upon His obedient servant, THE AUTHOR. Information concerning the Albion Commercial College, has, at my request, been furnished, and will be found in the Appendix. CONTENTS GEOiSrOMY. Page. SECTION I.— Introduction, 9 SECTION II.— Cause of the Ocean Cueeents and Effects of the Earth's Kotation, . 11 Distinction between Local and El- 19 LEPTicAL Currents — Six Turning Points in Ellipses, 32 Spots on the Sun and their Cause, ... 33 Primitiye Plan, 35-47 SECTION III.— Sinking op the Ocean's Floor Be- neath the Weight of Sediment,. . . 40 SECTION IV.— Local Currents, 48 SECTION V. — Derangement of the Currents^ 57 SECTION VI.— Physical Geography, 61 East AND West Running Mountains,. 71 Mountains of the Moon, 87 Geological Formations, 89 SECTION VII.— Economy of Vital Force, 93 SECTION VIII.— Drift Formation and its Relation to the Local Currents, 102 SECTION X.— System of the Winds, 107 Polar Lights, 120 Cyclones, 122 Recapitulation of Geonomy^ .. . * 128 viii coNTEisT'S. ASTEOGEXEA. Page. SECTION I.— Introduction, 133 SECTION II.— Formation of the Solar System, 139 Magnitudes and Densities of the Planets, 145 SECTION III. — Intervals, and Common Difference OF Orbital Velocities, 153 Formation of Planets from Eings, . . . 159 Formation of Asteroids, 161 Nebltlar Hypothesis, 163 Bode's Law, 167 SECTION lY.— Serial Relations of the Planets,.. .170 Serial Relations of Jupiter's Satel- lites, 179 Serial Relations of Saturn's Satel- ellites, 181 Satellites of Uranus, 183 SECTION V. — Comparative Astrogenea, 184 SECTION VI.— Physical Cause of Gravitation, 190 Recapitulation of Astrogenea, 206 OUTLINES OF GEOl^OMY. SECTION I. IXTRODITCTIOX. THE ^-^ord geonomy is derived from two Greek TV'ords, ffe, the earth, and nomos^ a laTV, and is analogous to astronomy, which is from the Greek astro7i^ a star, and nomos. Before entering upon an explanation of the prin- ciples of Geonomy, let us briefly review the pro- gress of our race in their knowledge of the earth's surface. Previous to the discovery of America, what was called " the civilized world, " was principally con- fined to the borders of that series of land-locked seas that extend eastward from Gibralter to the Indian ocean. This long intermediate region was denominated by Humboldt " a great cleft in the earth's crust," the natural cause of which he regarded as inexpli- XoTE.— I took the liberty to coin the word Geonomy in 1857, and to use it as the title to the small volimie which 1 then wrote on the subject ; and I am pleased to see that the learned Dr. Worcester has adopted it into his excellent quarto dictionary of the English language. 2 ] INTKOBUCTION. cable. It appears to be well adapted by the Crea- tor to the purposes for which it was undoubtedly intended — a nursery of human genius, and a start- ing point in tlie march of our race to a higher plane of civilization. There is abundant evidence that Africa, western Europe, and eastern Asia Avere once separated by wide seas, which gradually became narrower as the continents rose higher and extended themselves toward each other. The navi- gation of those inland waters brought together the various inhabitants of their shores for the purposes of war and commerce. The result was that a mixed and superior people were produced, who in- herited, in combination, all the dominant traits of their several ancestral tribes. Civilization, so far as it can be traced back in authentic history, commenced its career on the banks of the Mle, which flows into the eastern extremity of the Mediterranean. It is now impossi- ble to determine whether the civilization of Egypt did not originate in India or China, but it is certain that under the combined influence of commerce and of arms, it directed its course from the eastern towards the western borders of the Mediterranean. The Phoenicians, the neighbors and allies of the Israelites, and probably belonging to the same race, were the successors of the Egyptians in enterprise and intellectual advancement. They were the first international and maritime merchants of whom we have any account. They traded in . all the countries between Britain and India, and made IXTRODUCTIOX. 11 themselves acquainted with the arts of the various peoples among vrhom they traveled. A short dis- tance west of Phcenicia was the peninsula of Greece, where the eastern merchants founded a colony, and succeeded in infusing a portion of their own spirit and intelligence among the natives, whom they subdued. Thither they transplanted all the arts, the learning and the enterprise which they possessed. There grew the most remarkable people the world has ever known. The very ruins of their temples and their statues are still models which the artists of modern times are j)roud to imitate, but which have never been excelled. The same may be said of their eloquence and poetry. The intellectual influence of this small community is still felt wherever learning is ap- preciated, or science cultivated. A few miles west of Greece is another peninsula, that projects into the Mediterranean, in the form of a boot, as if to assert that it was pre-destined to trample upon the rest of the world. This is Italy, and here is Rome, Avhere civilization took her next stand, with aug- mented resources, clothed with the borrowed learning and arts of the Greeks, whom they equalled in bravery, and far excelled in political wisdom. They extended their power from Britain and Gibralter in the west to Egypt and India in the east. The vast undefined countries that lie north of the great cleft, contained a numerous horde of bar- barous people, whose interior geographical position 12 INTKODUCTION. prevented tliem from enjoying mucli intercourse with Southern Europe, or with each other. Thus their civilization was retarded, while their physical and animal powers were highly developed. The necessary result w^as that these rude but vigorous tribes overv^^helmed the more refined nations near the Mediterranean, and produced the Dark Ages. When the light of modern times began to dawn, it was in Spain, France, and England, the western outposts of the great continent, that it was most conspicuous. Civilization had at length reached the shores of the Atlantic, and seemed to be gazing v>dth prophetic vision toward the w^estern world. It was at this time that Columbus appeared and commenced a series of voyages, which were con- tinued by Magellan, Gama, Cabot, Hudson, Cook, and finally by McClure, and Ross, and Wilkes, until, at length, the outlines of all the continents are made known, and a science of Geonomy has become possible. When sufiicient knowledge had been obtained of the earth's surface to enable geographers to make even imperfect maps of the whole vf orld, there w^ere several striking features of the conti- nents that attracted their attention and demanded an explanation. Some of the most prominent of them are the following : 1. The continents terminate at the South in points. Thus it is with South America, North America, Africa and Australia. INTRODtrCTIO:^-. 13 2. The Western sides of the tropical continents are hollowed out. 3. The continents seem to be arrano-ed in three pairs, namely : N^orth and South America, Europe and Africa, Asia and Australia. 4. Each pair is connected by an isthmus ; thus ISTorth and South America are connected by the isthmus of Central America ; Europe and Africa by the isthmus of Suez ; and Australia and Asia by a chain of islands and a submarine isthmus, which is only concealed by very shallow water. 5. ISTear each isthmus is an archipelago on its eastern side. 6. The shore lines of the continents are loxodro- mic or oblique to the parallels and meridian lines. None of the shore lines run north and south nor east and west; they run north-west and south- east or north-east and south-west. 7. The slopes of the continents are most abrupt on the sides toward the larger oceans, and more gentle on the opposite sides: thus the American and the Asiatic lands are highest toward the Pa- cific, and those of Africa toward the Indian Ocean. 8. Groups of mountains, in many places, are found to consist of remarkably parallel ridges, bearing a close resemblance to a succession of ocean waves, though not so regular or uniform. 9. Volcanoes seem to be in most instances ar- ranged in lines, upon a series of islands parallel with the shore, or on the main land near the shore and parallel with it. 14 IXTKODUCnOX. 10. The Xortliern hemisphere has three-fourths of its surface above the sea, while the Southern hemisphere has not more than one-foui*th. It was very natural that there should be a dis- position manifested to theorize concerning these remarkable arrangements and features of the con- tments. Eeinholdt Forster, the companion of Capt. Cook, and the early friend of Humboldt, was the first to propose an explanation of any of these peculiarities. He suggested that there may have been a tremendous flood or rush of water, from some unknown cause, in a north-east direction, against the western sides of the southern lands, which tore away the shores, and carried the frag- ments across from the western to the eastern sides of the continent; thus furnishing the materials from which the islands near the eastern shores were created. The discoveries which have been made in Geol- ogy since his time have demonstrated the fallacy of Forster's hy]30thesis. It has been proved that the continents and islands have all been elevated above the sea very gradually, by a force acting imder the earth's crust. The borders of the con- tinents have been raised higher than the interiors. In many instances the earth's crust has been raised in a long mountainous ridge, until the crust has broken, so that at the top of the ridge, the two broken edges can be plainly seen, sej)arated fi'om each other by the axis or median line of the ridge ; the succession of geological layers on one side of INTRODUCTIOX. 15 the line being merely repetitions of those on the opposite side. All important mountains are in fact made in this manner, though their broken edges are not always visible."^ If we except this geonomic theory, no hypothe- sis has ever been suo-g-ested to account for the directions in which the internal forces have acted ; nor has even a conjecture been ventured concern- ing the cause of the continents assuming the pecu- liar forms, number and proportions which they do. The favorite, and generally received hypothesis concerning the elevation of the continents, is that first advanced by Leibnitz, and advocated by Buffon, and more lately by Dana, Agassiz, and all the modern geologists, except Lyell. It may be briefly stated as follows : The earth was primitively a globular mass of melted and fluid matter, which was intensely hot. The gradual cooling of the surface caused a crust to form around the liquid mass. The continued coolino; of the internal lava made it contract to *NoTE.— It is necessaiy to consider this argument, when discussing the subject of geonomy with those who admit that the ocean currents have had a great influence in forming the shore hues, but who do not ac- knowledge that the movements of the internal lava were dependent upon the oceanic sediment and the currents. For, if the shores agree in direc- tion with the currents, so also do the mountains, which are certainly cre- ated by upward movements of the lava. If, therefore, the currents de termined the directions of the shores and mountains, they must have done 60 by by regulating the deposits of sediment upon the ocean's bed, which deposits, by their weight, pressed the subjacent lava upward, and thus cre- ated the mountains. Any one who studies this subject thoroughly, will I think, be forced to the conclusion that a true theory of the ocean cur- rents must underlie a proper science of physical geography. 16 INTRODTJCTIOIS". sucli a degree that the enveloping crust became too large for the internal mass. The consequence was that the crust became corrugated ; the lower folds falling inward uj)on the lava formed the ocean basins and the upper folds being left in elevated positions constituted the continents. As the earth, during the long series of geological ages, has still further cooled, the internal folds, that is, the oceanic basins, have sunk deeper, and the external folds or continents, have become relatively more prominent, until the present time. It will be perceived that this hypothesis alone, even if admitted to be true, gives no answer to the questions which naturally force themselves in- to our minds, concerning the forms, number and arrangement of the continents and oceans, the loxodromic directions of the shore lines and moun- tain ranges ; nor, indeed, of any other geographi- cal circumstance, except the mere isolated fact of gradual elevation and depression. In 1857 I wrote a small volume in which I ad- vanced the following propositions, all of which were original except the first : 1. The ocean primitively covered the earth, and was nearly of equal depth over the whole globe. 2. The ocean currents then constituted six ellip- ses or imperfect circles, three in each hemisphere, corresponding with the north and south Pa- cific, north and south Atlantic, and north and south Indian. What caused these six elliptical circuits I could not then understand. IXTRODUCTIOX. iV 3. The elliptical circulation of the ocean currents caused the sediment to collect within the limits of each ellipse, on the ocean floor; which sediment, by its weight, caused depressions of the earth's crust, and, by crowding the subjacent lava upward, j^ro- duced corresj)onding inter-elliptical elevations : thus the oceans and contments were created. 4. If the six basins had simk equally, the conti- nental interspaces would have been nearly equal and symetrical; but the basins sunk iiTCgularly, and thus produced the present unsymetrical map of the world. The 2^riii(*ipal defect of my theory at that time was, that I could not give any philosophical reason for the waters flowing in ellipses, and, of course, I did not perceive the distinction between local and elliptical currents. I assumed that the currents niust have moved in six ellipses, because on that assumption I could readily account, in a general manner, for the actual forms, numbers and positions of the continents. Be- fore my book was published, though it was stereo- ty[)ed, I foimd that it could be improved in so many particulars that I withheld it from the public, and only distributed a few copies among my particular friends. Bv dint of continual investio'ation, I have at length succeeded in discovering the reason why the piincipal currents assume elliptical paths. This has produced such radical changes in the geonomic theory as to render my former book on the subject obsolete, and to make this outline necessary. 2* SECTIOX II. THE GREAT OCEAN CURRENTS AND THE FORCES THAT REGULATE THEM. IT is now admitted by the best authorities, that the cause of the great and constant ocean cur- rents is the difference of temperature between the higher and the lower latitudes. The water, being heated near the equator, expands and overflows north and south toward the poles, constituting a surface current, the y»'ater of which, as it gradually cools, condenses and sinks until it becomes of the same temperature as the polar waters. A large quan- tity of water is also evaporated in the equatorial regions and carried poleward, ]3i'<^l>^bly from five to thirty degrees of latitude, before it falls again into the ocean; even then it is warm and fresh, and adds to the surface current that flows poleward. The loss of so much water in the equatorial region is compensated by the cold under-currents that flow from the polar regions. We thus have a perfect exi^lanation of the fact that an interchange of cold and warm currents is continually going on between the equatorial and the polar zones of the earth. At the first thought we should suppose that these two currents would flow, one due south and the other due north ; but the truth is that they THE GEEAT OCEAN CUEEENTS. 19 are deflected eastward when moving toward the pole, and westward when moving toward the equa- tor. The reason of this fact is now of so much impor- tance that, although it has been stated by many au- thors, and may be well understood by most of my readers, I shall, notwithstanding, endeavor to ex- plain it as clearly as possible, for the benefit of those to whom the subject is not familiar. EFFECT OF THE EAETH's ROTATION UPON THE OCEAN CUERENTS so FAR AS IT HAS HITHERTO BEEN UNDERSTOOD. The poles of the earth are relatively immovable, while each spot at the equator is moving eastward about one thousand miles an hour around the earth's axis. The nearer water, or any thing else, is to the equator, the farther eastward it moves in a given time ; and, on the contrary, the nearer the pole it is, the less is the distance which it travels eastward in the same time. Of course, each degree of latitude has its own rate of easterly velocity. This will be best understood if we take a roimd table and make it turn horizontally upon its centre ; it will then appear that the nearer any object is to the edge of the table the faster it moves ; that is, the farther it moves in a oiven time : and the nearer it is to the centre of the table, the slower it moves. In this case the centre of the table represents the pole or axis of the earth, and the edge repre- sents the equator. If we draw a straight line from the edge of the table to its centre, and place a 20 EFFECT OF THE EARTh's ROTATION billiard ball on the line, near the edge, and when the table is still, give the ball an impulse directed toward the centre, it will move along on the line to the centre. Now set the ball again near the edge, as before, and cause the table to turn rapidly upon its centre; let the ball again receive an impulse di- rected toward the centre, and it will not now move upon the same line that it did before, but will be deflected, gradually, more and more from it to one side, which we will call the eastern side. The reason of this deflection is that the ball carried with it, toward the centre, the greater rate of ro- tary or easterly force which it had acquired near the edge. The water which moves from the equa- torial toward the polar regions of the earth is in the same predicament : therefore, when the differ- ence of temperature — the warmth — impels the water in a current toward the pole, the different rate of easterly velocity — the inertise — impels it eastward. The resultant of the two impulses is, (in .the northern hemisphere.) a movement north- eastward, and, (in the southern. hemisphere,) south- eastward. When water moves from the north polar to the equatorial region, the difference of easterly velocity causes it to move south-west. In reality it moves due south, but the rotation of the earth makes it see77i to move south-west, because it moves relative- ly south-west. This will be imderstood if we place the ball at the centre of the table already described, and when the table is still, impel the ball toward the XJPOX THE OCEAN CURRENTS. 21 edsce : it will move in a straisrlit line in the dii'ection of the impulse. ]S^ow place the ball in the center again, and while the table is in rapid rotation, im- pel the ball as before, toward the edge, and we shall find that it does not pass along the line on which it previously moved, but runs, or is deflec- ted to one side of it, we will call it the west side. The table, in fact, slips past, under the ball, in what we will call an easterly direction, leaving the ball on the west side of the line. Precisely so it is with the current that moves toward the equa- tor. The earth is continually slipping under it, and leaving it relatively more and more westward. As far as I have gone in this explanation, I have merely illustrated the true doctrines of my prede- cessors, without advancing any peculiar ideas of mv own. The foUowino; views are of a difierent character, having nothing to recommend them but their own obvious merits. NEW THEORY OF THE OCEAN CUERENTS. TVv'O CLASSES OF CUEREXTS. It has been assumed by all writers on the ocean currents that the water always leaves the equato- rial, and also the polar regions, possessing the same rate of easterly velocity as the earth does in the latitude from which the current flows. This is not only a great mistake, but it has been the source of nearly all the errors with which this subject has been embarrassed. The truth is that there are two 22 NEW THEORY OF THE OCEAN CURRENTS. distinct classes of currents in the ocean, one of which may be denominated local and the other elliptical. The explanation of the currents already made in the preceding pages, applies only to the local cur- rents. The elliptical currents have hitherto never been recognized as a distinct class, and the theo- retical principles upon which they depend have been entirely overlooked. The two classes of cur- rents have been strangely confounded together. The elliptical currents, when noticed, have been regarded as ordinary local currents, deflected out of their normal paths by accidental circumstances. CAUSE OF THE ELLIPTICAL CURRENTS. Prof. Joseph Henry, of Washington, D. C, in an article in one of the Patent Office Reports, says, in substance, that " there are five immense circuits, or whirls of ocean currents, two in the north and south Atlantic, and two in the north and south Pacific, similar in situation, and analogous in direction and motion. In the Indian ocean an- other whirl, or circuit, exists of the same general character." " It is not pretended," he remarks, " that the cir- cular currents can be continuously traced, but by attentively examining the maps the general out- lines and directions can be made out." Prof. Dana, in his Manual of Geology, makes the same general statement, and illustrates it by an engraving. ELLIPTICAL CUERENTS. 23 While these distinguished writers thus admit that each great ocean possesses an elliptical cur- rent, no explanation of the fact has been proposed, except that the currents, when moving north or south in the manner already explained, are deflect- ed out of their normal directions, and driven into circular movements by adverse winds, or by being forced against the opposing shores of the ocean basins. It never seems to have occurred to any author or navigator that the normal path of a great ocean current is necessarily elliptical, and that it would pursue this path if no shores or winds existed to deflect it from its true course. According to the commonly received theory, a current which moves alternately to and from the equator and the north polar region, must flow north-east from the equator all the way to its nor- thern terminus, as a surface current, and then re- turn as a deep under current, running south-west. The only ellipse formed would be a vertical one; the warm current flowino- above and the cold cur- rent returning immediately below it to the equator. This theory is contradicted in every ocean, by more than half of the actual currents, and conse- quently, its adherents are repeatedly forced to re- sort to adverse winds and deflecting shores to ac- count for the numerous discrepancies Avhich they encounter. Let us take the current that circulates around the North Atlantic ocean as an example, by means of which to explain our theory, and the principles 24 CAUSES OF THE involyed in all the analogous cases of elliptical cur- rents. When a current runs in a circle or ellipse, it cannot be properly said to have a beginning or an end ; but, for convenience of description, let us say tliat this current commences in or near the Gulf of Mexico, at the 25th degree of north latitude, and flows north-east to the banks of N'ewfound- land, in the 45th degree of north latitude ; it then turns and flows nearly due east, almost or quite to the shores of Europe, then south-east to the African coast, then south-west to near the equator, thence due west to South America, and then north- west to the Gulf of Mexico, from whence it started. When the water leaves the Gulf of Mexico — the 25th degree — (1 fig. 1) it doubtless possesses the easterly velocity proper to the earth in that lati- tude. At all events let us, for the sake of illustra- tion, assume that it does so. Of course, according to the principles already explained, it must move north-east. When it has proceeded five degrees of latitude, and has arrived at the 30th degree, it has brought with it a greater amoinit of easterly velocity than the earth in the 30th degree posses- ses. The water of the current differs from the proper water of the 30th degree. Let us represent the difference by the number 5. This surf)lus, or diflerence, the current retains, and proceeds on its way north-east. When it arrives at the 35th de- gree of north latitude, the difference has increased, and now amounts to 10; at the 40th degree it is ELLLPTICAI. CURREXTS. 25 15 ; and when the current reaches Xewfoundland, or the 45th degree of north latitude (2 fig. 1), the difference is 20. Here the current meets the grand banks, which are commonly supposed to deflect it eastward; but when we know that it has been acquiring more and more eastino- from the time that it left the West CD Indies, and that it has now a surplus of it equal to 20; when we further consider that its northerly force has been, during the same time, diminishing, — we can readily understand that it would moye almost due east from Xewfoundland to the Euro- pean coast, eyen if the grand banks did not exist. In proceeding from the 2oth to the 45th degree the current is impelled by two distinct forces, one of which acting alone would haye carried it due north, and the other acting alone would haye car- ried it due east. The northerly force is at its max- imum when the current starts from the 25th degree, and gradually diminishes until it reaches the 45th degree, when it is exhausted. The easterly force — the di;Q[erence — is nothing at starting from the 25th degree, but manifests itself unmediately after- ward, and o^radually and continuously increases as long as the current runs northward. TVhen, at the 45th degree, the current ceases to run northward, it is subject to the easterly force only. It can therefore only moye due east. While moying east- ward it is continually growing cooler, and there- fore has an increasing^ tendency to moye toward the equator; in other words, it begins (3 fig. 1) to moye 3 26 CAUSES OF THE south-east, and continues in that direction until the easting is exhausted. This haj^pens near the 2oth degree of north latitude (4 fig. 1). The water of the current has now become neutral, that is, it pos- sesses no difference from the water of the earth in that latitude; and therefore, as it continues its course towards the equator, it flows south-west. When the current reaches the equator it is in a condition analoo'ous to that in which it arrived at Xewfound- land. It possesses a surplus of westerly force or westing, which may be represented by 20. The tendency to move south is gone, but the westing or difference is at its maximum. In fact it has only a tendency to move relatively westward ; and it actu- ally does move in that direction, from the western point of Africa (5 fig. 1) to the eastern point of South America (6 fig. 1). By this time the water has become so much heated that it overflows to- ward the north, that is, it moves north-west until it reaches the Gulf of Mexico (1 fig. 1). Its west- ing being now gone, it becomes neutral, that is, it possesses the same easterly volocity as th^ earth in the 25th degree of north latitude. Thus the ellip- tical circuit of the north Atlantic is completed. The attentive and critical reader will now per- ceive that a current cannot flow alternately north and south, in any ocean, without moving in an ellip- tical orbit, the diameter of which east and west, will be in proportion to its diameter north and south. The two points in an ellipse (1 and 4 fig. 1), where ELLIPTICAL CURREXTS. 27 the easterly velocity of the current is the same as that of the earth, may be called neutral points. A local current is always neutral at its starting point. When neutral water proceeds from any point to a higher or lower latitude, it accumulates a greater and greater difference of easterly velocity the fur- ther north or south it flows, provided it does not cross the equator. FlGUEE 1. ^^^ 1 ^"^^- X- / ^N / / \: 4 \ \ 1 \ / \ / / I \ 1 i : 1 ! I \ \ \ \ \ J \ \ /" .\ • • We have here a perfect explanation of the fact so well known to navigators, that the currents near 28 SIX TX7RKIKG POrSTS the equator run almost directly west, while those near the polar regions run east. We can also un- derstand why a portion of an elliptical current, when it flows northerly from the equator, must flow noYth'Westj and why such a current which flows southerly from the northern reo;ions, must flow south-east, SIX TURXIXG POIXTS IX ELLIPSES. If we analyze an elliptical current we shall find that it has six turning points which deserve to be separately considered. Li the northern hemi- sphere they may be enumerated as follows : 1. The icest neutral point (1 fig. 1) — which in the north Atlantic is in or near the Gulf of Mexico, and in the north Pacific, in or near the China Sea. Here the waters of the current possess the same Telocity as the earth. From this point the water runs north-east just as a local current would. 2. The due east point (2 fig. 1) — where the cur- rent has expended all its northern tendency, and where its easterly surplus force is at its maximum. In the north Atlantic this point is probably very near Newfoundland, and in the north Pacific near Kamschatka. 3. The south-east turning point (3 fig. 1). — This is where the current ceases to move due east, and, growing colder, turns south-easterly. This point is, in the north Atlantic, near the Bay of Biscay, and in the north Pacific, near British Columbia. IK ELLIPSES. 29 4. The east neutral point (4 fig. 1). — This is on the eastern side of the ellipse, where the cnrrent has the same easterly velocity as the earth has, and from which it moves south-west to the equator, just as a local cold current would. In the north Atlan- tic this point is near the west coast of northern Africa. In the north Pacific it is near the coast of California. 5. The due icest or equatorial point (5 fig. 1) — is where the current ceases to flow southward, but moves due west. Having acquired a maximum of easterly difierence, or westing, and expended the force that sent it southward, it can only move di- rectly westward. In the north Atlantic this point is near the western extremity of Africa, and about five degrees north of the equator. In the north Pacific it is about ten degrees north of the equator, and several hundred miles west of Central America. 6. The north-ioest turning point (6 fig. 1) — is where the current, being heated, overflows and leaves the equator, and begins to move north-west. In the north Atlantic this is near the point of CajDe St. Roque, in South America; and in the north Pacific, it is in or near the East Indian Archipelago. THE SIX TURXIXG POINTS IX THE ELLIPSES OF THE SOUTHERN HE:^^SPHEEE. In the southern hemisphere, the six turning points, though, of course, the directions are re- versed, are repeated in each of the three great 30 TURNIIS^G POINTS IN THE ELLIPSES oceans. We are not practically as well acquainted with the currents in the extreme south, as we are with the northern currents ; and we cannot, there- fore, point out, in all cases, with as much precision as we could wish, the localities where they turn. I have no other means of obtaining positive infor- mation concerning the actual currents than those possessed by all my readers ; but, it appears to me, that when the laws that govern them are well un- derstood, the existence and direction of a current may be indicated theoretically, in any locality, the general geography of which is known, even if no actual observations have been made. Just as an accomplished astronomer, when he is correctly in- formed from actual observations concerning a few points in the path of a comet, can predict its course in regions of space far beyond the scope of hu- man vision — so the geonomer, when the principles and laws of oceanic circulation are well understood, can predict, with equal accuracy, in what direction the elliptical or the local currents must necessarily flow in any unexplored sea. 1. The west neutral pomt^ in the southern hemi- sphere, from which the elliptical current flows south- east like a local current, appears, in the south Atlantic, to be near the mouth of the La Plata. If we rely upon theoretical principles, we must pre- sume that the current flows south-east from the neutral point near the mouth of the La Plata, and that it afterwards turns east and then north-east. But the truth is that we have only vague and con- OF THE SOUTHEIl]S^ HEMISPHEEE. 31 tradictory accounts of the currents in the southern parts of the south Atlantic ; and our actual knowl- edge of the corresponding parts of the south Pacific is equally limited. I have a strong suspicion that the regular elliptical currents are greatly interfered with, in each of the southern oceans, by powerful local currents, which flow north-west from the un- explored Antarctic regions. In the Indian ocean ellipse, the west neutral point, where the current turns to flow south-east, must be near the Cape of Good Hope, and perhaps it is within the limits of the Atlantic ocean. The current of warm water that flows south along; the east coast of Africa, carries so much westing with it that it turns at least half round the Cape of Good Hope, into the Atlantic, before its westing is exhausted. Then it turns and flows south-east toward the Antarctic coast. — {See map of the worlcL) 2. The due east pointy in the southern hemisphere is where the current takes an eastern direction, an- alogous to the current from Newfoundland in the north Atlantic. It is admitted, by all navigators, that all the currents that arrive near the Antarctic coast flow directly eastward. 3. The north-east turning pjohit. — We know pos- itively that there are three currents of warm water, one in each southern ocean, which flow towards the Antarctic coast. We know that along that coast the currents all flow eastward, and we also know that from the Antarctic rerion three currents 32 TURNING POINTS IN THE ELLIPSES of cold ^^ater flow nortli-east, — one to the west coast of South America, another to the west coast of Australia, and a tHrd to the w^est coast of Africa. 4. The icest neutral point. It is well known that a current flows north-west from the west coast of Australia, another, north-west from the west coast of south Africa, and a third north-west from the west coast of South America. All three of these currents approach very near or quite to the equator. 5. The due west^ or equatorial pointy is where the current has a maximum amount of westing which it expends by moving relatively due westward. 6. The south-west turning point,, is where the current in each of the three southern oceans, turns from the equator, and flows south-west, until it reaches the neutral j^oint ; one runs along the east coast of South America, another along the east coast of Australia, and a third along the east coast of Africa. I have remarked that the further a current moves northward the further it must also move eastward. When this fact is realized, it becomes plain that the elliptical currents could not approach nearer the poles than they do. A current starting from the 25th degree of north latitude and impelled tow^ard the north pole, could not get within a thousand miles of that place before it would be moving directly eastward, (see polar view, fig. 3.) and as soon as it cooled it would berin to move south-eastward. This easterly tendency of the OF THE SOUTHEE:Nr HEMISPHEEE. 33 pole^vard currents render large polar interspaces inevitable. I have described the currents as if they move in straight lines fi*om point to point, but the truth is they must move in curves. The current from the west neutral point in the northern hemisphere be- gins by moving almost due north, then a little to east of north, then more and more easterly, until at length the easting is so great that the current moves due east. As it cools it bcQ-ins to turn a little to the south of east, then flows more and more southward, until it ceases to move eastward at all, and for a very short distance it moves al- most due south. But soon it beg-ins to tm-n a little westward, then more and more westward, until at length it moves due west. It now begins to be heated and to turn a little northerly, then more and more northerly until it ceases to move west- ward and has reached its neutral point. From this brief review it is plain that all the Note.— The spots on the sun are believed, from their appearance, to be caused by whirlpools in the solar atmosphere. They are generally arranged near the thirtieth degree of the sun's latitude, and on each side of his equator. Is it not reasonable to suppose that these whirls are produced by north and south moTements of currents in the sun's at- mosphere ? Those who have heretofore speculated upon the subject, have not been aware that an interchange of currents between different latitudes necessarily produces a whirling or elliptical movement. In viewing the drawings which have been published, of the appear- ances of the surface of the planet Mars, we perceive the curved outlines of what may, perhaps, be continents and oceans, produced by currents analogous to those of our oceans. Some of the nebulae seen by our best telescopes, also present interior curves and ellipses, which may possibly be accounted for on the same principle. 4 84 TURNING POINTS IN THE ELL]tPSES currents tend to move in curved lines. We can now perceive the absurdity of the idea, which is expressed in so many of our books, that the trade winds cause the equatorial currents to move wes- terly. The fact is that the equatorial currents generally move more westerly than the trade w^inds do ; and the elliptical currents on their polar side, are more easterly than the winds that blow in the same latitude. This could not be the case if the winds caused the currents. In the Pacific, about 10 degress north of the equator, a counter current runs easterly, w^hile, on each side of it, the main currents run west. If the currents here depend upon the winds blowing westward — what produ- ces the counter current which flows directly against the wind ? It should be remarked that the w4nd only affects the ocean a few feet below the surface, whereas many of the currents extend thousands of feet below. Fig. 2. represents the primitive plan or symetri- cal map of the world as it would appear if the six ellipses had operated equally and uninterruptedly from the beginning to the present time. The six elliptical currents are represented by connected ar- rows, and the directions of the local ^V^^er-elliptical currents represented by arrow heads. It will be seen in this and the other maps that the local cur- rents run counter to the elliptical currents. The local currents are represented as running only in the inter-elliptical spaces. OF THE SOrTHEEX HEMISPHEEE. 35 FiGUEE 2. Primitive Plan. I VICTORIA j^' '■t * V I I / r \ y I ^ AUSTRALIA ! / / / ^•**-<' ASIA <^ \ f \ GRAHAMS"-- LAND ^' ^ / ^ / \ ^ \ /' ^ j N V •^ SOUTH ^ AMERICA, ^x- i ^^^ / / _^-^ NORTH -^AMERICA \ a-- 1 I AFRICA. \ I / \ / I \r \ ::.'S==i^E0ROPE / ^*. --' ^ . 36 SYMISIETRY OF THE OCEAI^S THE SYMMETRY OF THE OCEANS RELATED TO THE SEASONS. Let US enquire why the north and south Atlan- tic, north and south Pacific, and north and south Indian oceans were arranged in such a symmetrical manner that each northern ocean had a southern ocean directly opposite to it. Was this merely ac- cidental ? or was there some physical or dynami- cal cause which rendered this symmetrical juxta- position of the oceans necessary ? The answer is that it resulted as a necessary consequence of the changes of the seasons. If the axis of our planet were, like that of Jupiter, at right angles to its orbital path, I have no idea that the north and south oceans would have been arranged symmetric- ally opposite. The northern and southern hemi- spheres would have been perfectly independent of each other; so that an ocean in the northern hemi- sphere might have had a continent, instead of an ocean, opposite to it in the southern. But the axis of the earth is inclined to its orbital path ; so that the thermal equator, instead of constantly coinciding with the geographical equator, travels north and south several degrees, as the seasons change, and the sun moves north and south in the ecliptic. In mid summer the sun is 23^ degrees north of the equator ; and the cold water of the southern hemi- sphere is poured in under currents, into the north- ern oceans, while the warm water in return, over- RELATED TO THE SEASOXS. 37 flows, in compensating quantities, into the south- ern oceans. In mid-printer the reverse happens : the sun is 23|- degrees south of the equator, and the cold northern cuiTents are forced into the south- ern oceans. During the equinoxes, there is, all else equal, an equilibrium of the waters in the two hemispheres ; neither intrudes upon the other. But at all other times of the year, there is a continual interchange. The whole current of one hemis- phere does not enter the opposite ocean, but only so much of it as may be necessary to restore the equilibrium which has been disturbed by the change of the seasons ; the remainder continues to ciTcu- late in its own hemisphere. The coui'se which the intruding current pursues, after it crosses the equator into an opposite ocean, is, all else equal, the same as that of the proper current of that ocean. The course of the circula- tion of the two oceans together, therefore, may be illustrated by a figure 8, the crossing being at the equator. After this explanation, the reason is evident why the three oceans were placed symmetrically oppo- site to each other, and why the j?ontinents are regularly arranged in three meridional series. It should be observed that there is no isthmus, or connection by dry land, east and west, between the tropical continents, as there is north and south between the tropical and the northern continents. While Xorth and South America are connected by the isthmus of Central America, and Asia and SYMMETRY OF THE 0CEA:N'S 38 Australia by a chain of islands and a submarine isthmus, — there is no isthmus, nor i^ there any chain of intermediate islands, between South America and Australia, or between Africa and South America. The reason is that the changes of the seasons caused a movement of the waters north and south, between the two oceans, and thus prevented lands from rising ; but no such move- ments occurred in an east and west direction. If the changes of the seasons, or any thing else, had caused a similar annual movement- of the ocean east and west, between North and South America, the connecting dry land of Central America would never have existed. The northern continents are nearly connected, east and west, in the polar regions, because the elliptical currents did not extend beyond the 60th degree north. Besides, the three northern conti- nents are normally but three points, or projections of a triangle, the centre of which is at the pole. This will readily be seen if we take a polar view of the primitive map of the world. — (See fig. 3.) SECTio:^ in. SINKING OF THE OCEAN'S FLOOR BENEATH THE WEIGHT OF THE ACCUMULATED SEDIMENT. THAT the central portions of the oceans have sunk, and that their borders have risen, is proved beyond all question. The evidence accumulated upon this subject by Darwin and by Dana, in con- nection with the coral reefs and islands, is highly instructive. It shows that the depressions have been gradual and continuous, in the same locali- ties, from the earliest geological ages. Many of the geological formations also afford the most posi- tive proofs that they were deposited while the crust of the earth — the ocean's floor — was slowly subsiding. Mr. Lyell, in his Manual of Geology says : " The structure and organic contents of some of the an- cient marine formations, point to the conclusion, that the floor of the ocean was slowly sinking at the time of their origin. The downward movement was very gradual, and in Wales and the contiguous parts of England, a maximum thickness of 32,000 feet (more than six miles) of carbonifer- ous, devonian and silurian rock was formed, while the bed of the sea was all the time continuously and tranquilly sub^ siding. The sea remained shallow all the while." " Prof. Ramsay has given me, (says Darwin,) the maximum thickness, in most cases from actual measurement, in a few 40 SINKING OF THE cases from estimates, of each formation in different parts of Great Britain, and tliis is the result : Feet. Palaezoic strata, not including igneous beds 5t,150. Secondary 13,190. Tertiary 2,340. Making nearly thirteen and three-fourths British miles." Again, Darwin says " I am con^dnced that all our ancient formations which are rich in fossils, have been formed dur- ing subsidence. Since publishing my ^iews on this subject in 1845, I have watched the progress of geology, and have been surprised to notice how author after author in treating of this or that formation, has come to the conclusion that it was accumulated during subsidence.'' Mr. Dana thinks there is proof that a por- tion of the Appalachian region subsided not less than seven miles, before it w^as elevated to its pres- sent position. Sir John Herschell and Mr. Babbage have sug- gested that possibly the weight of the sediment, derived from the abrasion of the shores by the ocean currents, may, in some places, produce de- pressions of the ocean's floor and crowd the sub- jacent lava up under the dry lands, thus producing volcanoes, and perhaps adding to the elevation of lands already raised above the sea. They have not proposed to account in this way for the origi- nal formation and elevation of the continents, nor have they pointed to any j^articular locality which they propose to prove to have been elevated in this manner. They have merely thrown out the idea as a plausible conjecture, which is not incon- ocean's floor. 41 sistent with known facts, nor with dynamical prin- ciples. Mr. James Hall, the distinguished geolo- gist of ISTew York, in his latest official report, has expresssed his approval of this speculation. Without knowing anything of the opinions ex- pressed by these distinguished authors, I was led to the conclusion that all elevations, including the continents, were caused by the weight of oceanic sediment. I inferred it from the remarkable rela- tions which I found to exist between the directions of the currents and of the shores, and also the rel- ative positions and number of the oceans and con- tinents. It should be remarked, that if it were perfectly demonstrated that the weight of the sediment had produced depressions, and consequent elevations, this fact alone would be of but little value; since it would throw no light upon the fonns, number, and arrangement of the continents. But when the true theory of the ocean currents comes to be un- derstood,, the fact of the distribution of the sedi- ment, and the depressions produced by its weight, assumes vast importance. K it is objected that I cannot directly prove that elevations are produced in this manner, and that therefore the idea is a mere conjecture — I answer, that it is true we cannot see the lava moving beneath the pressure of the ocean's floor, and therefore it may be said that the geonomic theory does not admit of direct occular proof; but, at the same time, to a philosojDhical mind, the evidence is of such a nature as to be 4* 42 SOURCES OF quite as irresistable as occular demonstration. Herschell quotes from Lord Bacon, the observation that "the confirmation of theories relies on the compact adaptation of their parts, by which, like those of an arch or dome, they mutually sustain each other, and form a coherent whole." When we consider what a vast number and variety of facts are accounted for by the geonomic theory and by no other, while not a single known fact can be found opposing it, our minds are so constituted that we cannot resist the conviction that it must be true. SOURCES OF THE SEDIMENT. It is supposed by some authors that the ocean currents do not abrade the bottom of the deep sea ; and therefore, it may be objected to the geonomic theory that, when the ocean covered the whole earth, there could not have been enough sediment collected to cause the depression of the earth's crust by its weight. It must, however, be considered, that the ocean contains an abundance of other ma- terials for sediment besides those obtained by the mechanical abrasion of its floor. The limestone formations, some of them several miles in thickness, are com]30sed, almost entirely, of the organic re- As soon as an ocean washed the consolidated crust of the globe, it would begin to abrade the surfaces upon which it moved, gradually* loosening and detatching the materials to deposit them again. — Agassiz' Geological "Sketches. THE SEDLME^sT. 43 mains of creatures that have lived and died in the ocean. If it be admitted that a very small quan- tity of chemico vital sediment annually settled upon the bed of the primitive sea, geology steps in with its countless ao-es, and mao;nifies the total amount to more than enough for all the purposes of our theory. . Prof. Philips, in his Manual of Geology, 1859, London edi- tion, p. 633, remarks : — '' Nothing ismore certain than that of all the strata vet discovered, limestone is exactly that which, by the regularity and continuity of its beds, by the extreme perfection of its organic contents and by the absence of proofs of mechanical action, gives most completely the notion of a chemical precipitate. It appears sufficiently probable, in several instances, that the quantity of limestone deposited in a given geological period was least toicard the shores, and greatest toicard the deep sea; exactly the reverse of what happens with the mechanical deposits* of sandstone and shale ; it may therefore be viewed as an oceanic deposit re- sulting from a decomposition of sea water, aided in many in- stances to a wonderful extent, by the vital products of zoo- phitic and moluscous animals." Page 65 he says : " The deposition of limestone by chemico- vital precipitation would probably happen over a large por tion of the bed of the sea, and he abundant in proportion to the depth, clearness and tranquility of the icater ; hence strata of liinestone would thicken toward the center of the oceanic basin. They would be of more uniform texture, and perhaps of purer composition, in that direction." Page 50 : " The attentive observer soon learns to consider the operations by which sandstones and clays were accumu- lated, as of short duration, and intermitting action ; while 44 SOURCES or the production of limestone is regarded as the result of one continuous and -almost uninterrupted series of chemical changes. " The carboniferous system in South Wales, which is prin- cipally limestone, is more than two and a half mile in thick- ness." If any critic still insists that the weight of the sediment is insufficient to account for depressions of the earth's crust, and prefers the theory of Leib- nitz, that the radiation of heat caused the internal lava to contract and the external crust to fall by its own weight ; — I reply, that both theories onay^yQ true, since one of them does not necessarily exclude the other. We may admit that the internal molten lava did cool and shrink so that the crust fell down upon it, and then ask — would it not be certain to fall, in preference, in those places where the oceanic sediment added most to its weight ? When to this consideration we add the fact that the eleyations and depressions coincide with the • ocean currents, is not the proof conclusive ? Note.— Relation of Ocea^tic Depressions to the Magnetic Lines " OF NO Variation. -The mariner's compass is commonly supposed to point north and south, but this is not the case in all places. It has been found to yary to the east or west, though much more in some places than in others. It has been discovered, however, that there is a line extending irregularly east and west across Europe and the Atlantic to America, on which the compass does not vary, but points due north and south. This line, called "the line of no variation,'' is not permanent, but, from some unkno\^Ti cause, slowly changes its location, moving in one direction forty or fifty years, and then returning again to nearly its former position. May it not be that these changes of the line are owing to the alternate movements of the lava beneath the earth's crust, consequent upon the varying weight and pressure of the ocean's bed ? PEIMITIYE PLAJq-. 45 PEEMITITE PLAX OR SY^IMETICAJL MAF OF THE SURFACE OF THE GLOBE, ACCORDIXG TO THE GEONOMIC THEORY. The forces which produced the elliptical citn-ents, namely, the sun's heat and the earth's rotation, were definite, fixed and unchangeable in amount. Each ellipse must therefore have had a definite di- ameter north and south, as well as east and west ; and the six primitive ellipses were probably nearly equal to each other. It might, without experience, be a difficult, though perhaps not an unanswerable question, as to how many ellipses cou]^, under the circumstances, occupy the siu*face of the globe. Fortunately, however, we are saved the trouble ot making the calculation. The actual map of the world, especially the geological map, affords abun- dant evidence that there were three pairs of oceans, and no more. If the six oceanic depressions had been equal, the intervening elevations would also have been equal, and the map of the world would have been perfectly symmetrical (see fig. 2) ; there would have been three meridional series of eleva- tions, three continents in each series, namely: a northern continent, shaped like Xorth America, though smaller; a tropical continent, resembling South America; and a southern continent, project- ing* from the antarctic reg-ion, as North America does from the arctic, and resembling Xorth Amer- ica in form. The borders of the continents would have been elevated into mountains, and their inte- 46 PEmiTIYE PLAX OF THE riors depressed, constituting shallow interior basins. The northern continents would, in form, all have been pointed toward the south, and the southern continents pointed toward the north. The tropical continents would have been pointed north, south, east and west ; they would be hollowed out on the western sides, one hollow on each side of the equa- tor, produced by local currents moving obliquely eastward (see fig. 2), and they would be connected by ithsmuses with the arctic and also with the ant- arctic continents. I cannot well understand why the north and south Atlantic pair was made smaller than the other two pairs of oceans. "Was it because there was not room enough east and west, in each hem- isphere, for three fully developed ellipses? and was it therefore necessary that one of the three pairs of oceans should be forced to take a smaller division than the others ? I have described North America, north-west Europe, and north-east Asia, as three distinct con- tinents ; but, taking a polar view of the primitive plan, we perceive that there was really but one north polar continent, (see fig. 3,) of a triangu- lar form ; Noith America being one of the projec- tions of the triangle, north-west Euro23e another, and north-east Asia a third. Strictly s]3eaking, therefore, there were but five primitive continents, namely: one northern, with three projections jDoint- ing southward; one southern, with three projec- tions pointing northward ; and three tropical con- SUEFACE OF THE GLOBE. 47 tinents, each of a qnadiilateral form. — (see figs. 2 and 3.) FIGUKE 3. Primitive plan of the JSTortheni hemisphere in a Polar view. \ Nv. \ '^. ^ ■ A ^ > r '/'-' 'n> ; ^L SECTION IV. LOCAL CURRENTS. IF two currents proceed from near the equator (or from any lower latitude to a higher,) one of which is local and the other a part of an ellipse, they will not both run in the same direction. The elliptical current wdll, in the northern hemisphere, move noith-west, and the local current north-east. If two such currents proceed from the north towards the equator, the elliptical current will run south-east, and the local current south-west. In the southern hemisphere the same is true, but the directions are reversed. If two such currents pro- ceed from one of the neutral points in an ellipse, they will both run in the same direction. Any one who doubts the correctness of these principles, has only to apply them to the cases of the actual cur- rents to find that they encounter no exceptions, but that every ocean current . known is perfectly ac- counted for by them. I can understand that there mig-ht be a semi- elliptical local current^ under peculiar local circum- stances. If, for instance, the warm Norway cur- rent that enters the Arctic sea, moving in a north- east direction, could move unobstructed, it would LOCAL CUEREXTS. 49 flow out of the Arctic again in a south-east direc- tion, thus pursuing a semi-elliptical path. Each of the five great oceans contains one ellipti- cal current, besides its local currents. The latter are necessary to give circulation to the water whicli is located between the ellipses, or between the shores and the ellipses. I know of no instance where a local current exists within the boundaries of an ellipse. Before the continents emerged from the sea, the water above them, not being included within the ellipses, must all have possessed local currents, the operations of which must have some- what modified the forms of the continents. Each of the tropical continents must have had two local counter currents ; one on the north side of the equator, which moved north-east ; and another on the south side, which moved south-east. The tendency of these two currents was to hollow out the tropical continents on their western sides. Thus one of the hitherto puzzling problems of physical geography is solved. The waters over the rising polar continents must also have possessed local currents before the dry land appeared; and they must have made ter- rible havoc with the lands that were about emerg- ino: from beneath the sea. I knag-ine that each of the three great northern ellipses must have sent oiFsets, or local currents, into the polar sea. These currents were each analogous to the Norway cur- rent that now enters the Arctic One similar to the Norway current entered through Behring's 5 50 LOCAL CURRENTS. Strait, when that passage was unobstructed; and a current of the same character entered from the North Indian ocean. ACTUAL LOCAL CURRENTS. NORWAY CURRENT. The current that runs north-east along- the coast of Norway, is generally regarded as a continuation of the, so called, gulf stream, or north Atlantic ellipse But it appears to me to be only a local current, produced by the wants of the land-locked Arctic sea. The cold waters that flow out of that sea, along the coast of Greenland, render it nec- essary that a warm current should flow into it from the Atlantic. The Norway current would therefore exist, even if the gulf stream were to stop, or if it were to flow west instead of east. If the communications of the Atlantic with the Arctic were cut off*, all the water that now flows into the Arctic, through the Norway channel, would flow south-east to the African coast, and thence to the equator ; in a word it would be analogous to the north Pacific current. But, as it now is, the water flows north-east into the Arctic, and would flow out again south-east, producing another " drift period," if the elevation of the coast did not pre- sent an imj)assible barrier. The current is forced to turn ujDon itself and flow out of the Arctic south- west, through the channel between Greenland and Iceland. Some writers describe the current that LOCAL CTJEREXTS. 51 floTTS out of Baffin's sea as comino- from the Arctic sea ; and perhaps a very small portion of it has come through the strait of Fmy ; but I suspect that most of the T\'ater that flows out of Baffin's sea is the same as that which previously entered it from the Atlantic. In other words Baffin's sea is a mere repetition of the Arctic sea; which has a current flowing in on its eastern side, and another flowing; out on its western side. GULN'EA LOCAL CUEEENT. On the west coast of Africa, a local warm cur- rent is generated, which is called the Guinea cur- rent. It flows south and east into the Gulf of Guinea, beyond which it cannot now be traced. Lieut. Mamy says that it goes to the Falkland islands, and warms the Patagonian coast. This is incredible. Why should a warm current like this, flowing from the equator, move icestward across the south Atlantic ? It is contrarv to Lieut. Maury's own principles. CAPE HOEX LOCAL CUEEEXT. A current, which may be denominated the Cape Horn local cuiTent, is generated near the coast of Chili and Peru. It is analogous to the Guinea local current, and runs south to Cape Horn, be- tween the coast and the cold elliptical current. When this warm local current reaches Cape Horn, it has acquired so much easting that it is imj^elled 52 LOCAL CtlERENTS. to flow eastward, around the Cape, into the south Atlantic and among the Falkland islands. The cold current from the antarctic, which, near Peru, is known as the Humboldt current, flows north along the South American coast to Chili and Peru, chilling the climate of those shores ; while the local current flows in the contrary direction, and warms the shores of the Patagonian and Fue- gean coasts. All the writers on this subject describe this great current as flowing cold from the antarctic, and " dividing into two branches," one of which, after reaching Chili and getting warm, turns back, and flows around Cape Horn. According to our theory this cannot be true. The Humboldt and the ant- arctic currents are parts of the south Pacific ellipse, and cannot flow back. The Cape Horn counter current is distinct, independent and local. There is a remarkable local counter-current, in the triangular space between the west coast of Cen- tral America and the two great elliptical currents of the Pacific ocean, about 10 degrees north of the equator. It seems to be generated in mid-ocean, and flows east and north, as a warm local current in that situation must. It has hitherto seemed strange and anomalous, that two great equatorial currents, one north of the equator and the other mostly south of it, should be flowing constantly due west, and yet that between the two (but nearer to the American than to the Asiatic coast) a warm coimter current be flowing east and north-eastward. LOCAL CUHREXTS. 53 Oiu' theory solves the enigma, by showing the dis- tinction between elliptical and local currents. An elliptical ciirrent must always flow westward near the equator, while a local current must, in the same latitude, flow eastward. There is a local current flowing in and out of the Ochotsk sea, analogous to that which flows in and out of Baffins sea; and doubtless there are other interior currents of a simi- lar character in the Alleutian, Japan, Chinese, and other minor seas along this coast. In the Indian ocean, the elliptical current, accord- ing to the authorities, Ls all south of the equator. It flows fi*om a point near the equator, and south of it, along: the east coast of south Africa. It is divided by the island of Madagascar, a part flow- ing between the island and the continent, and the rest flowing outside of the island; but, before reaching the Cape of Good Hope, the two divisions unite, and are then called " the Lao:ullas current." It has long been supposed that this cun-ent passes entii'ely around the Cape into the Atlantic, and then flows north. According to the principles of geonomy, this is impossible. The current possesses so much westing that it flows into the Atlantic a short distance, and then turns and flows eastward and southward to the antarctic coast. The actual observations of navio^ators seem to have convinced Lieut. ATaury that this was the true state of the case, and our theory of the cun*ents confirms the idea. Prof. Guyot has also, in his map of the world, 54 LOCAL CURRENTS. indicated that this current floT\'S in the manner I have described. There is a large land-locked space north of the equator, in the Indian ocean, the water of which does not obtain its needed circulation by means of the south Indian ocean ellipse, and must therefore depend upon its local currents. It is said by Lieut. Maury that the LaguUas current " has its genesis in the Arabian sea," but this cannot be true. A current that is generated in that sea must flow south-east, if it crosses the equator, and north-east, if it does not. It cannot manifest the westerly tendency that the LaguUas current does, unless it has pre^TLOusly flowed a considerable distance south- west. Probably the Arabian and Bengal seas send a very large proportion of their warm waters into the north Pacific, where they flow north- eastward along the Asiatic coast. Prof. Guyot rep- resents the current as flowing south-west from the Arabian sea across the equator, and along the east African coast. But according^ to our theory, this must be a mistake — unless the current first enters the Arabian sea froim the south, and biings its westing with it. According to the received theory, the warm current that flows south along the east coast of Africa, should flow south-east. Its warmth tends it toward the pole, and the earth's rotation tends to force it eastward. Why, then, does it show such a strong westerly tendency, keeping close to the eastern shore of Afiica, and, as it were, LOCAL CUREENTS. 55 attempting to escape westward around the Cape of Good Hope ? The old theories give no reason for this, though all authors state the fact. According to the geonomic theory, the reason is plain enough. The current conies from the antarctic reo-ion to the equator, and brings a large quantity of westing with it; and when returning northward it exhibits this westino' by forcing^ itself against the Afiican coast, and partially tuiTiing aromid the Cape of Good Hope. Probably the peculiar form of the Cape — rounded on its eastern side — was caused by this current. On the same j^rinciple. Cape Horn received its form from the local current that passes around it in an eastern direction. SEASOX CUEEEXTS OF THE IXDIAX OCEAX. There are currents in the Indian ocean, north of the equator, which flow alteniately in a northerly and a southerly direction. These changes have been generally attributed to the influences of the monsoon or season winds ;- and it is possible that they have some agency in producing them, but I very much doubt it. I suspect that the same causes that produce monsoon or season winds, also produce monsoon or season currents, in the land- locked seas that wash the shores of Arabia and India. When the sun is in the north, the Indian waters north of the equator are the most heated of all the seas on the globe. They are much warmer than the waters at the equator. Under 56 LOCAL CUERENTS. these circumstances, there will naturally be a cur- rent from the equator northward, the water of which will ultimately find its way north-east into the Pacific. In mid- winter, when the sun is in the south, the waters at the equator must be warmer than those along the south Asiatic coast; and local currents therefore flow south-east toward the equa- tor. I do not believe that there is a single instance in which a constant or j)eriodical current of the ocean is produced by the wind. The fact that the winds frequently coincide with the ocean currents, merely proves that the currents of the ocean and of the atmosphere are both produced at the same time by a common cause. SECTION Y. DERANGEMENT OF THE CURRENTS AND THE CONSEQUENT CHANGES IN THE SHORES AND CONTINENTS. IN examining the north and south Pacific, we find that there is a permanent cause of disturbance between the two oceans. The land near Behring's strait is elevated, so as to present any efiectual communication with the cold waters of the Arctic sea ; consequently, the elliptical current does not approach within 35 degrees of the north pole, while, in the south Pacific, it reaches within at least 25 degrees of the south pole. The consequence is that when the two currents meet at the equator, one from the north and the other from the south, they difier in temperature, even during the equi- noxes ; and therefore, the warmer current from the north must overflow into the south Pacific, and the colder south Pacific current underflow in the con- trary direction. Whether this inequality of the two oceans was caused by the elevation of the Arctic lands, or the depression of those in the Antarctic, or by both combined, it is not very easy to conjecture, but the immediate efiect was to produce a permanent de- rangement or obliquity of the circulation in both oceans and a corresponding change in the shore 6 58 deeakgemejST of lines. . Let us assume that tlie land in the north prevented the current from going beyond the 35th degree of north latitude, while the depression in the Antarctic region allowed it to flow to the YOth degree of south latitude. What course did the cur- rent necessarily pursue ? and in what respects did its path differ from that of the normal and primitive current when the two oceans were equal ? 1. Commencing at Behring's strait it did not move as far south-east, and therefore it promoted the elevation of the western side of North America. 2. After crossing the equator it had less westing, and therefore it probably did not reach the coast of Australia, but turned south and south-east near the east side of New Zealand ; possibly it was the means of causing the elevation of that island ; for its geology indicates that it was elevated subse- quently to Australia. 3. The invading current, not having communi- cated with the Arctic sea, was abnormally waiTG. when it crossed the equator, and therefore ap- proached nearer to the south j)ole to get cooled. We will assume that it reached the 70th degree of south latitude. It had now acquired an abnormal quantity of easting, and, of course, it moved an abnormal distance south-east, thence due east, and then north-east. It could not do this without overflowing the then rising and normal continent of Graham's Land in antarctic America, and also the rising, continent of tropical (South) America. Did not this cause the present continent of South THE CUREENTS. 59 America to be placed further east than it would otherwise have been ? And was not this one cause of the narrowness of the south Atlantic ? 4. When the current on its return reached the equatorial region, it had travelled YO degrees of latitude, and, therefore, possessed a great amount of westing ; consequently, it moved an abnormal distance westward before it re-crossed the equator, and also after it had re-crossed it. Of course it must have overflowed the rising and normal continent of tropical Australia, which was then divided into two equal halves by the equator. (See the symme- trical map.) Is not this the reason why the pres- ent Australia is crowded so far south ? and why the archipelago between it and Asia has the appear- ance of a wrecked continent ? 5. When the current had re-crossed the equator, moving in a north-west direction, did it give form and a westerly direction to the islands that lay in its path through the East Indies ? Did it in- trude upon the domain of the north Indian ocean, and contribute to the destruction of that basin ? It certainly must have moved an abnormal distance west, and north-west ; and the actual departure of the present Pacific outlines from the primitive sym- metrical map, are precisely such as this deranged current would produce. If, on a symmetrical map, we mark the path of this current, thus deranged, and observe where it varies from the primitive path, we shall find that we have unconsciously drawn the actual outline of the Pacific. 60 the cureents. Figure 4. In fig. 4, tlie normal and primitive currents of tlie north and south Pacific are represented by continuous lines, and the present deranged currents hj dotted lines. The land is represented as elevated in the north so as to exclude the warm current from the Arctic, and to cause it to vary as al- ready described, and as the dotted line represents. S. P. south Pacific, N. P., north Pacific. The reader will of course understand that fig. 4 is merely a diagram, used to convey a complicated general idea, and is not intended to represent the actual currents. SECTION YI. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AND ITS RELATIONS TO THE NEW THEORY OF THE OCEAN CURRENTS. THE Study of j^hysical geography has hitherto been little more than what the word literally implies, that is, a description of the principal na- tm^al features of the earth's surface, without a phi- losophical explanation of their causes. We are now enabled to look deeper into the matter, and to study the terrestrial masses and oceanic basins, with a better knowledge of the dynamical agencies that created them and gave them their relative posi- tions and forms. The continents, mountains and islands are no longer unmeaning objects, with varying elevations and outlines, that impress our minds with vague wonder. They are historic monuments of the events of ages so vast, that human generations are but as moments in the com- parison. The surface of the globe is covered with ancient hieroglyphics, the alphabet of which is now known ; and which, when properly translated, are found to contain the divinest poetry of nature. To understand the present actual map of the world, we must regard it as a distortion of the primi- tive map. In comparing the two, we find in the act- ual map some remarkable departures and discrepan- 62 PHYSICAL cies; so great indeed are they,iia some places, that the original features are scarcely discernable, except to the eye of science. In studying any science, we are frequently obliged to discriminate between the normal and the abnormal results of nature's laws. "When accounting for any natural production, we must first inquire what form or mode it would as- sume if no disturbing causes were interposed. This being determined, we are better able to account for the forms and conditions that actually exist. Thus, physiology is the science of the functions of organs in their normal and healthful state ; and that must be well understood before the diseased con- ditions of these same organs, and their departures from health, can be comprehended. Applying this principle to the actual continents and oceans, we first ascertain that the ocean primitively covered the globe. We next demon- strate that the oceanic waters must necessarily have become divided into a definite number of ellipses ; and we find, by a mere inspec- tion of the common and geological maps, that there actually were three ellipses in the northern and three in the southern hemisphere, and that they were arranged symmetrically opposite each other. We now make a diagram map as a stand- ard, or representative of the primitive plan in all its simplicity ; and we say — such would have been the present map of the world if nothing had inter- fered with the equal operation of the six ellipses of currents. (See fig. 2.) We next consider the GEOGEAPHY. 63 local ciuTents that must have been generated in the inter-elliptical spaces, and take into account the effects which they must have had upon the forms of the primitive continents. We find that they would natui-ally tend to hollow out the tropi- cal continents on theii' western sides, and to pro- duce much more serious effects upon the polar con- tinents. Xext we consider the changes of the sea- sons and their effects upon the currents, and con- sequently ujDon the relative positions of the north and south continents and oceans. We find that they tend to produce symmetry, by biing- ing each northern ocean dii'ectly oj^posite a south- em ocean, and each northern continent opposite a southern continent. Having thus settled these principles, ascertained the primitive fonns and positions, and made them standards of compari- son, — we are prej^ared to enquire how far the present actual map of the world, and of each continent and ocean, is a departui'e fi^om the primitive plan. We can also form some idea of the nature of the deranging processes, by the influence of which the present distorted map was produced. • The three tropical continents (see fig. 2,) of the primitive map are now imperfectly represented by South America, Afiica, and Australia. The three northern continents by Xorth America, north- western Europe, and north-eastern Asia. The three Antarctic continents, or projections of the primitive plan, have but a few vestiges remain- 64 PHYSICAL ing. Graham's Land and South Shetland, project- ing from the Antarctic, opposite Patagonia, is a poor apology for a continent that should be the counterpart of North America. When viewed, however, on a polar projection map, Graham's Land, though small, has nearly the same form as North America. It should be remarked that it is pointed toward the north, as all the Antarctic projections are, and as, according to the geonomic theory, they should be. The other two primitive Antarctic continents, or projections, are much more defective. The Tas- man sea, which separates Australia from the Ant- arctic coast, is probably very shallow compared with the great oceans east and west of it ; and, therefore, when the physical map of the whole sea bed is completed, perhaps it will appear that a deformed submarine continent exists there. The southern side of Australia is probably hol- lowed out by local currents that flow north-west from the Antarctic coast. GEOGRAPHY. Figures 5 jl>t) 6. RALIA 65 66 PHYSICAL Figures 5 and 6 are well calculated to give a good idea of tlie geonomic tlieory. Figure 5 is a repetition of figure 3, and represents the northern hemisphere according to theory, while figure 6 represents the southern hemisphere as it actually exists. The form of the Antarctic continent is copied from Dr. Hitchcock's Geology of the Globe. The arrows on figure 6 represent very nearly the actual courses of the great southern currents. Their agreement with theory is remarkable. The positions of the lands in the inter- spaces are almost equally in harmony with geonomy. The nortliern continents seem to be developed to an enormons extent at the expense of those in the southern hemisphere. Is it not reasonable to sup- pose that the depression of one hemisphere was the cause of the greater elevation of the other? Not only is ther-e a disproportion and irregularity in the relative magnitudes of the continents, but also in their forms and relative positions. Com- pare Africa and Europe, with their short connect- ing isthmus or neck, and the narrow Mediterranean betweeen them, wdth Australia and Asia, their long disjointed neck, and the wide expanse of interven- ing^ water. The true primitive characters of Europe and Asia are also very much disguised. They are fre- quently spoken of as the " great continent," but geonomy informs us that this " great continent," includes not only two primitive continents, but also a large portion of the bed of the north Indian ocean. GEOGRAPHY. Figure 7. — Mcqy of the World 67 68 PHYSICAL Fig. 7 is a map of the world drawn on Mercator's pro- jection, rej^resenting, in a general manner, tlie ocean cur- rents, very nearly as they rim. The local currents are represented by mere arrow heads, — one moves north-west from the Antarctic ; another around Cape Horn ; another south-east into the Gulf of Guinea. One runs north-east along the Norway coast into the Arctic, and another south- west out of it along the east coast of Greenland. Notice that the directions of the local currents in the tropics are calculated to hollow out the western sides of the continents. These currents must have been very XDOwerful and effective when the continents were rising, and were only one or two hundred feet beneath the surface of the sea. It should be observed that Australia is hollowed out on its southern rather than its western side ; and this harmonizes with the fact that the south side of this continent is exposed to the effects of the cold local currents, that flow north-west from the Antarctic; and in this respect it differs from South America and Africa, which are hollowed out on the west, by the warm local currents of the tropics,, which flow easterly. Observe the remarkable triangular space formed by the mountains where north-east Asia is marked on the map. This is the proper geonomic form of the primitive continent accord- ing to our theory. It is analogous to North America and to Graham's Land. Notice the general parallelism of the ellipti- cal currents to the mountains on the borders of the conti- nents. The mountains are represented by zigzag lines. Observe the east and west running mountains of southern Europe and Asia, while the more primitive mountains run more nearly north and south. The dotted line on the great continent represents, in a general manner, the primitive course of the elliptical cur- rent. It flowed north-west through what is now the Red Sea, just as the analogous current in the Atlantic now flows north-west through the Caribbean Sea. It turned and flowed north and north-east on the east side of GEOGEAPHY. 69 the Scandinavian mountains, just as now the gulf stream flows' north-east on the east side of the Alleghanies. It moved east to north-east Asia, just as the guK stream now flows east to Europe. It turned south-east and then south-west, and flowed to the equator, just as the analogous Atlantic current now does. It is well known to geologists, that, lq the carboniferous period, more than three-fourths of the land within the dotted circle on the map was beneath the sea. The northern half of Africa, and the southern half of Europe was in the same con- dition : of course a '*' gulf stream" must then have circulated in the north Indian ocean. Prof. Guyot remarks that there is a north and south Pacific, and a north and south Atlantic, but, he adds, "the Indian is only half an ocean." This is true, but the other half existed (geological- ly speaking) but a short time ago. To satisfy our- selves of this, we have only to study a geological map. We there find that a short time before the tertiary period, more than two thirds of Europe and Asia were covered by a north Indian ocean. The Alps and the Himalaya mountains were most- ly beneath the sea. In a word, three double oceans then existed. The progress of the elevation of the land around the ancient north Indian ocean, was from the north toward the south and east, in Europe ; and from the north toward the south and west, in Asia. Scandinavia, and a part of north-western Russia, were the first portions of Europe that were raised above the sea. The elevation next extended to 10 PHYSICAL Germany, Britain, France and Spain. Western Europe was advancing toward Africa, and tlie Mediterranean was becoming narrower. The Euxine, the Caspian, the Persian, the Red, the Arabian, and the MediteiTanean, were one great connected ocean ; into the midst of which islands were beginning to rise, and peninsulas to project, some of which were destined to become the bases of the Pyranees, the Juras, the Appennines, the Caucasian and the Alpine mountains of our age. The Sca]idinaYians constituted, at first, the wes- tern boundaries of the north Indian ocean. But, as the elevated plains extended eastward, the boimds were transferred to the Urals, which were elevated by the subsidence of the Siberian basin. The northern part of the north Indian ocean was, at one time, divided into east and west basins by the Ural mountains, which were then islands ; but after Europe became elevated, this ocean was limi- ted to the Siberian basin. At length, that also was elevated and drained. In Asia it was the north-eastern j)art, where the mountains run north- erly, that rose first : an independent, isolated con- tinent, of a triangular form, wide at its northern base, and pointed southward, if we may judge by its present mountams. It was washed on the east by the Pacific, and on the west by the north Indi- an ocean. India and southern China were prob- ably volcanic islands. The tropical waters of the Arabian sea poured a warm "gulf stream" north- east, and along the eastern side of the Urals, into the GEOGKAPHY. Yl arctic ; giving to Siberia a temperate climate, where now perpetual winter reigns. EAST AND WEST RUNNING MOUNTAINS. The remark is frequently made by geographers, that the principal mountains of southern Europe and Asia run nearly east and west, while those of all other parts of the world run more nearly north and south. Why are the mountains in this part of the great continent an exception to those of all the rest of the globe ? We know that the moun- tains of north-west Europe and north-east Asia were created first, and these run north and south. The locality where the mountains run east and west is where geonomy teaches us that the north Indian ocean once existed. This is the only one of the six great ocean basins that has been elevated ; and it is to be expected that it should therefore be exceptional in its physical structure. Geology demonstrates that the east and west running mountains of the great continent were not created until after the normal continents of Europe and Asia were. The Ural mountains, that run nearly north and south, were created after the Scandina- vians were : probably the Altai mountains were ele- vated at nearly the same geological time. Siberia was thus made a separate basin ; bounded by the Stanovoi mountains on the east, the Urals on the west, and the Altai on the south. Nearly the whole of southern Europe and Asia was then be- neath the sea. We learn from geological surveys. 72 EAST AND WEST that altliousfli the Ural and the Altai mountains were among the first that were elevated, the Sibe- rian basi7i remained beneath the sea xmtil the latter part of the tertiary period, and probably a portion of it still later. I believe that the Altai mountains have abrupt slopes on their northern sides ; thus in- dicating that the Siberian basin, relatively, sunk beneath its weight, while the Altai mountains were rising. The Siberian basin was probably analo- gous to the Mississippi valley, in this respect, that while the depressions oi the great oceans caused the gradual elevation of the whole continent, the sinking of the Siberian basin, in its central parts, caused relative interior depressions, and abrupt slopes. For the same reason that the depression of the north Atlantic caused the Scandinavians to run nearly north and south, and the depression of the north Pacific and the Ochotsk sea, caused the Stan- ovoi mountains to run in the same dii^ection — the depression of the western extremity of the Sibe- rian basin, caused the Urals to run north and south. Reasonino^ in the same manner in reo-ard to the Altai, and the other mountains that run east and west, we say that they necessarily run in that di- rection, because the basins that created them did so. The Altai had on their north side the Siberian sea, and on the south the southern two-thirds of the ancient north Indian ocean, which then ex- tended east and west Jfrom Britain and France to China. The depression of this ocean would of KUXNIXG MOUXTAIXS. 73 course produce east and west mountains. From that time to the present this ocean has been re- treating southward, followed by the succession of east and west mountains and plateaus that now constitute the principal portions of southern Asia and Europe. These elevations were the conse- quences of the repeated depressions of the Indian ocean south of them.* In the north Atlantic, between Newfoundland and Ireland, is an elevated region beneath the sea, which has lately been called the telegraphic plateau. It runs irregularly east and west; and was undoubtedly created by the depression of the ocean's bed at the south of it. It is probably still rising. The volcanoes upon the northern islands, be- tween Europe and America, and the gradual eleva- tion of the north of Sweden, while the southern part is sinking ; the depression of the southern part of Greenland, while Iceland is overflowing mth rivers of lava ; — all this indicates that the process which has gone on to consummation in the north Lidian ocean, is being repeated in the north At- lantic. The same i)rocess is also going on, and is much further advanced, in the north Pacific. Between Asia and America the mountain ranges run *XoTE.— "It is hardly to be doubted, from the geological e-vidence already collected, that the whole monntain-raiige from %yestem Europe through the continent of Asia, including the Alps, the Caucassus and the Himalayas, was raised at the same time. A convulsion that thus made a gigantic rent across the continent, giving egress to three such moun- tain ranges, must have been accompanied by a thousand fractures in contrary directions."— Agassiz's Geological Sketches. 7 74 PHYSICAI. nearly east and west; so do the Aleutian islands, and their chain of active volcanoes, that extend in a curve around the borders of a basin which, when elevated, may be regarded as the analogue of the Siberian basin; while the Aleutians will re- semble the Altai. Assuming that there were originally six sinking ocean basins, the lava crowded from beneath them would be forced to rise by elevating those neigh- boring intermediate parts of the earth's crust, upon which the deposits of sediment were least weighty. As the sediment would mostly fall be- neath the paths of the currents, or be collected within the limits of the elliptical circuits, the smallest amount of deposits would be made in the angular inter-elliptical spaces; these therefore would become elevated, and constitute the normal con- tinents. If, in consequence of the derangement of the currents, one or more of the rising continents, or parts of continents, should become included in the circuits of the cmTcnts — then such included parts would be loaded with sediment, and caused to subside again, and the subjacent lava be forced to rise in other places, beyond the limits of the aque- ous ellipses. Again, if, from any cause, one of the six sinkingr basins did not accumulate as much weight of sediment within its limits as the other five did, it would not sink as deep ; and the others would, by virtue of their superior weight, force their subjacent lava underneath the lighter basin, and thus produce its elevation above the sea. This GEOGEAPHY. 75 is evidently wliat has happened to the north In- dian basin. The land in the northern hemisphere, is, when compared Trith that in the southern, as three to one. The lava that has been forced fi*om mider the southern basins, has been driven up under the northern continents, which have thus been made of more than tAvice the normal size. As the lava came from the south, it forced itself imder the nearest, or extreme southern parts of the northern continents, and thus caused their extension m a southern direction. The progress of elevation in America and in Asia was south and west, in Eu- rope it was south and east : in all three cases the continents were abnormally extended in a southern direction. The elevation and drainino; of the north Indian basin was commenced by enlarging, in a southern direction, the two northern continents which then partially bounded it. Asia extended it- self south and west to Afiica, and Em-ope extended itself south and east to Africa ; so that between the three continents, the north Indian ocean became landlocked; and the former fi-ee communication with the waters of the equatorial region was cut off. Its elliptical ciiTulation being thus rendered imperfect, or entirely destroyed, the accumulation of sediment became gradually less ; until at length, like the weaker power in all contests, it was forced XoTE.— Akago has suggested that the bottom of the Indian ocean must be composed of very weighty materials, to counter-balance Asia in the opposite hemisphere. 76 PHYSICAL to succumb to the greater weights in the three neiorhborin^ ocean basins. In Europe, the southern progress of the conti- nent was arrested by the vicinity of Africa, which served as a protection to the Mediterranean, and prevented its bed fi*oin being entirely elevated. To imderstand this, we must consider that Africa was elevated simultanously with north-western Eu- rope. When, therefore, the three neighboring great oceans began to encroach upon the north Indian basin, by crowding lava under it from beneath themselves, the continent of Africa prevented, by its position, any lava from being crowded under that side which bordered upon Africa. The lava from under the Atlantic could elevate Spain and Note.— ''Recent researches have shown that an immense region around the Black, Caspian and Aral seas, and extending on the east side of the Uralian mountains, through Siberia to the North sea, was, during the latter part of the tertiary period, covered by brackish water, such as that which now fills the Caspian. In other words, that sea, during a long period, had that immense extent, and was not directly connected with any ocean. It is probable that during the tertiary period the water of the ocean flowed through the valley of the St. Lawrence, so as to separate the Al- leghanies from the hypozoic region around Hudson's Bay, as well as from the Eocky mountains, forming, in fact, three large islands of North America. During the period in which the palsezoric rocks were in the course of deposition, America was divided into six large islands — three in North and three in South America. The Ozark mountains also formed a small island, or bank, in advance of the long island of the Rocky mountains. In Africa, a large part of the continent formed a single island. In Europe^ Scandinavia constituted the largest island, while the Urals formed an- other, and six or eight smaller ones existed. In Asia, there were from three to five, though one of them was vastly the largest.— Hitchcock'! Geology of the Globe." GEOGRAPHY. 77 France at the western extremity of the Mediter- ranean ; and that from under the Arabian sea could elevate Arabia, at the eastern extremity; while the lava from beneath the sinking basin of the Mediterranean itself, elevated the Atlas mountains, the Appenines, and the Alps, around its own borders ; but it was not practicable for the great ocean basins to force their lava in the proper di- rection to undermine this sheltered basin. K the place of Africa could have been occupied by an ocean like the Indian, I have no doubt that the place of the -Mediterranean would have been filled by a range of mountains like the Himalayas. 18 physical Figure 8. GEOGRAPHY. 79 Fig. 8 is a representation of the American series of three continents. The antarctic continent of Graham's Land be- ing represented as extending to the south i)ole and the arctic to the north pole. I requested the artist to otherwise pre- serve the forms and proportions as they actually exist ; my object being to- show that Graham's Land is merely an im- perfect repetition or counterpart of North America ; and Pata- gonia a counterpart of Central America, so called. In re- ality, according to geonomy, Graham's Land is South America, and South America, so called, is Central America. The hollowing out of the tropical continent on its western side is well exhibited, so also are the local currents which probably caused it. On the eastern side, there being no local currents, but only the great elliptical currents, the pointed form of the continent at cape St. Roque, corresponds with this fact, and harmonizes with theory. The large arrows represent the great elliptical currents ; and it will be readily conceived that were it not for the effects of the local currents, the western sides of the tropical continents would have been pointed just as the eastern sides are. The American series of continents has departed less from the primitive plan than the other two series have. This is doubtless owing to the fact that the American is the only one of the three se- ries that has had two great oceans on the east, and two others on the west of it. Had the north In- dian ocean maintained its integrity, instead of having its bed elevated and drained, the other two series of continents would have exhibited a much more striking resemblance to the Americas. The triple series of continents is so j^lainly in- dicated, that it has been recognized, and is men- 80 PHYSICAL tioiied, by several eminent geographers. Johnson, in his great physical atlas, speaks of all the con- tinents as being " equal to three Americas." Guyot denominates them "three double worlds." Geo- nomy demonstrates, that primitively they were three trij^le worlds ; and this would now be evident enough if the antarctic projections were normally developed. Fig. 9 is made to represent the outlines of tlie three series of continents as they would appear if the north Indian ocean basin had not been elevated. This simple illustration conveys a better idea of the geonomic theory than a hundred pages of verbal explanation. The analogy between the eastern points of Africa, of Australia and of South America is here apparent. So also is the relation of these three points to the elliptical currents that turn from the equator and flow north-west and south-west. We can now readily perceive the analogy of the Red sea and the Mediterranean, to the Caribbean sea and the Gulf of Mexico ; and the analogy of both to the East Indian seas. This diagram enables us to appreciate the remark that " all the continents together are equal to three Americas." Is it not evident that instead of the currents being turned aside by the eastern projection of America, that projection was originally created by the currents ? The primitive function of the Red sea can now be perceived. 'The current formerly ran through it into the Mediterranean, and thence north-east into the Arctic. Observe how much the form of Asia, in the diagram, resembles that of North America. Observe that Australia now appears to be only the southern portion of a continent, of which the islands north of it were once a part ; its analogy to South America and to Africa is thus made more apparent. GEOGRAPHY. FiGUKE 9. 81 82 PHYSICAL Professor Hitchcock, in his geology of the globe, says : " The form of North and South America appears to be the type of all the other continents, if we unite Africa to Europe, and New Holland to Asia. This renders it probable that their forms are not accidental, hut resulted from the mode in which the internal forces acted.'' If the Atlantic had been as large as the Pacific, the Americas would have been still nearer to the primitive type ; and the mountains on the eastern sides would have been as high and regular as those on the western. The mountainous edges of the continents rose first, and the lava was not crowded under theu' in teriors until a long time afterwards. The whole rose gradually but irregularly; more upon one side than upon another. Xaturally any land would rise most on the side next to the largest ocean. Every mountain has its abrupt slope toward the basin, the subsidence of which produced the elevation of that mountain. When a continent, or any large area of the earth's crust, was rising, the central portion generally became depressed — or rel- atively depressed — while the exterior edges were rising ; that is to say, the exterior and siuTounding parts rose more rapidly than the interior. The great interior seas, and large lakes, can be ac- counted for on these principles. The Caspian is in a basin, the bottom of which is protected from the GEOGRAPHY. 8 invasion of lava waves by its distance from the great oceans. This whole middle region, however, from Portugal to China, has, during the historic period, and indefinite ages before, been liable to be disturbed by earthquakes, produced, as all earth- Cjuakes are, by movements of lava fi'om beneath the great ocean basins. These earthquakes tend to adjust the balance, which must be constantly maintained, between the continents and the heavy ocean beds, whose weights maintain the dry lands in their elevated positions. The American lakes seem to puzzle geologists ; but, by the light of geonomy, they appear to re- sult naturally, from the depressions of the two great oceans east and west of them. I presume that Hudson's Bay was the interior of the primitive Xorth American continent. A small part of the Atlantic ocean current flowed north- east through lake Erie, lake Ontario and the river St. Lawi-ence. The lands at the east of this chan- nel were large continental islands, which gradually rose and obstructed the channel, until onlv the present lakes and the St. Lawrence river were left. On the west side of Hudson's Bay was another channel, in which a small portion of the cold cur- rent floAved south-east along the line of lakes Win- nepeg, the lake of the Woods, Superior and Mich- igan. The Gulf of Mexico then extended north nearlv as far as the sjreat lakes ; and western North America was a continental island. The lava from under the Atlantic has not elevated the beds of 84 CURVES OF MOUNTAINS AND ISLANDS Erie, of Ontario or of the St. Lawrence, nor that from under the Pacific, the beds of Winnepeg, Superior and Michigan. These regions are, how- ever, frequently disturbed by earthquakes, and will probably continue to be so until the lakes shall cease to exist. CURVES OF MOUNTAINS AND ISLANDS AND THEIR CAUSE. It has been remarked by geographers that no mountain range, and scarcely a single mountain, is straight. The long ranges of mountains curve toward the great oceans. K we attentively study the chain of continental islands, that extend along the eastern coast of Asia — the Aleutians, the Kurile, the Japan — we observe that each is convex toward the great ocean, and concave toward the minor sea that divides it from the Asiatic continent. The explanation is, that a large area of the bed of the ocean, along the eastern shore of Asia, is rising. This rising area is broken up into a chain of minor basins, the centres of which are relatively depressed, and the islands constitute the outer edges of the basins. Of course, it is natural that the islands, under these circumstances, should be concave towards the interiors of the minor basins. The same explanation aj)plies to Cuba and the An- tilles. Bringing these princij^les to bear upon the moun tains in the interiors of the continents, we are en- abled to form some idea of their origin, and the AXD THEIfi CAUSE. 85 causes of their slopes and curvatures. Many of them were primitively continental islands, concave toward a basin which is now elevated and drained to constitute a plateau. The Asiatic and European systems of mountains that run east and west, are the boundaries of sev- eral chains of basins, analogous to the series of basins that now exist along the eastern shore of the great contment. The origin of the spurs or transverse mountains, can now be understood. They result from depressions of the extremities of long: minor basins while the continent as a whole was rising. HOLLOWING OUT OF THE WESTERN SIDES OF THE TROPICAL CONTINENTS. I have remarked that the local currents would hollow out the western sides of the tropical con- tinents. If the oceans and continents had re- mained perfectly symmetrical, each tropical conti- nent would have been hollowed out, symmetrically, on each side of the equator. There would have been a hollow on the western side of Africa, north of the equator, similar to that on the south of it which is known as the gulf of Guinea. So also, there would have been a hollow on the western side of South America, north of the equator, simi- lar to that now existing in Peru. The greater development of the oceans in the southern hemisphere has caused the hollows to be more strongly marked there than in the north. 86 HOLLOWIXG OUT The Guinea local current, and the analogous South American current are powerful and de- cided in their effects, but their counterparts in the northern hemisphere are of inferior importance. The " counter current " in the north Pacific, which runs eastward toward the coast of California, is unquestionably the imperfect representative of the local tropical current which once impinged on the western coast of tropical Central America. An analogous current, but still more imperfect and slight, exists on the shores of France, and in the vicinity of the Bay of Biscay. The southern part of Australia was probably hollowed out by the local currents that flow north- west from the Antarctic coast. I presume that there is a tropical local current, analogous to the Guinea cuiTent, that flows south-east among the islands north of Australia ; this, however, is only a theoretical inference, founded uj)on the analogy of their positions. Note.— The Mountains of the Moon.— The mountains of the moon are not analogous to those of the earth, nor to the volcanic craters to which they are often compared. Most of the elevations are called riDg mountains, because they are circular in form. The external part of the ring is elevated considerably above the general surface of the moon ; but the interior is a deep pit, the sides of which are almost perpendicu- lar ; and its bottom, instead of being depressed, is more or less elevated into a cone shaped mass, like the bottom of the inside of a wine bottle. Some of these pits are hundreds of miles in diameter, while others are too small to be distinctly seen, except under very favorable circum- stances. The longest ranges of lunar mountains are curved, the con- cave sides bein^ toward the centre of the moon's face. The only reasonable theory which I can conceive, to account for these mountains, is the foUo-^ing : In one part of her orbit the moon approaches 26,000 miles nearer to OF THE CONTIXENTS. 87 the earth than in another part. In her primitive state, the moon was composed of a liquid substance. When she was nearest to the earth, the attraction of our planet caused her face to protrude ; and when it retired 26,000 miles, the protrusion receded. When we consider that the moon keeps the same face constantly turned toward the earth, we can readily conceive that the alternate monthly protrusions and recessions would produce the very appearances which it now presents ; and which, as the moon gradually hardened, would become permanent. The convex bot- toms of the pits were probably produced by the last efforts made to protrude. If the earth's attraction had no agency in the matter, and the mountains were made by an internal force, acting in all directions toward the surface, the moimtaius and the pits would all have appeared oblique to us, excepting those in the central parts of the moon's face. Near the edges of the moon the pits would have all had their mouths turned outward. This is not the case. The elevations and depressions are made in the very directions which they would be if the force that made them had proceeded directly from the earth. SECTION VL GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS. EACH rising continent was a plateau, or table beneath the sea, upon the top of which suc- cessive layers of sediment were rained during a long series of ages. This sediment, pressed and baked into rocks, folded into mountains and val- leys, and abraded by the ocean currents, now con- stitutes what are called geological formations. The organic remains which are mingled with the sediment, indicate the relative age and elevation of each formation. When the continents commenced rising, the animals that existed, and whose remains fell upon them, were of the lowest and most simple forms. It seems that the elevation of animals in the scale of beings, kept pace with the elevations of the continents from the bottom of the sea ; as if there was some causal connection between the two classes of phenomena. As the continents rose higher, the submarine climates, scenery and circumstances become more various and complex; and adapted to sustain, if not to create a greater variety of or- ganic beings. When the continents rose above the sea, and the dry land came in direct contact with the atmosphere, it was like the creation of a new and higher world, adapted to beings of a nobler FOEMATIONS. 89 order. This land was at first low, warm, moist and insular ; fitted only for reptilian life : but the lands continued to rise, and with them rose the ftale of organic beings. The digestive, respiratory, pre- hensive, intellectual and emotional organs became more and more special and complex, until at length man was introduced to wield the scepter of the world. It has been believed by a majority of geologists that the piimitive earth was inconceivably hot, and has been constantly cooling and contracting to the present time. I agree with Sii' Charles Lyell, that there is not sufficient evidence to warrant the admission of this hypothesis ; and that the proba- bility is that the gradual cooling of the continents has been caused by their gradual elevation. If all the lands were now to sink, except a few small islands, I have no doubt that the climate of the world would be such as geology indicates that it was in the carboniferous period. Those geologists who believe that the surface of the earth has gradually cooled from a molten state, regard the succession of geological changes as the natural re- sults of the cooling process. Theu' idea is that the whole earth, including the polar regions, once possessed a hot climate, on account of the radiation of internal heat ; and the succession of geological formations, together with oceanic depressions and continental elevations, are all the necessary con- sequences of the cooling process. Mr. Lyell thinks that the differences of climate 8* 90 GEOLOGICAL indicated by geology may be explained by the changes of level in the earth's crust. I would go furth^ and say, that all the geological phenomena may be regarded as the direct or remote effects of the same cause. The ^^rimary formations were probably deposited before the continents began to rise. While they were rising to the surface of the sea, the silurian formation was being created. The old red sandstone formation was produced when the edges of the continents were emerging from the ocean, and were subjected to the powerful abrasion of the currents, and the storms that agitated the sur- face of the sea. The carboniferous and coal forma- tion was produced when large areas of low, swampy lands had just risen a little above the sea, and were in some degree protected from the ocean by the higher rocky shores. The succeeding formations were produced in local basins, lagoons, or inland seas, where the materials derived from the land were mingled with those in the sea ; and where the terrestial productions predominated more and more over the marine, as the continents rose higher and liio;her. I regard all geological and all organic changes as the direct or indirect results of depressions and elevations of the earth's crust. The same con- ditions which were necessary to the production of the lowest geological formations, were also favora- ble to the creation of the lowest forms of organic life. When the continents rose higher, the natural and organic forces acted under different conditions, FORMATIONS. 91 and, therefore, produced different organisms. If all those conditions are not now understood, that is a sufficient reason why we cannot yet account for the progressive elevation of organisms in a perfect- ly satisfactory manner. SECTION vn. ECONOMY OF VITAL FORCE AND ITS RELATION TO THE ORGANIC SCALE AND TO THE ELE- VATION OF CONTINENTS. I T is certain that from the earliest geological- ages to the present time, there has been a gradual improvement of organisms. Not only has there been an advance in the intellectual and emo- tional characters of conscious beings, but a similar progression is demonstrable in every dej^artment of organic nature. They have all made successive advances fi'om the lowest, most general, and simple modes and forms, to the most complex and special- ized. So much is this the case that some modern philosophers assume that there is, in the very na- ture of all organisms, a mysterious principle of progress, a law of developement, by virtue of which certain- inherent, latent powers, faculties and org^ans are evolved in a natural succession and or- der of creation. Another class of reasoners at- tribute the progress of organic beings to the in- fluence of external circumstances, operating upon organs during a succession of generations, and stimulating them to special developements ; the improvements of one generation being retained, and transmitted with additions to the next, and so on, during a long series of ages ; the present ex- VITAL FOECE. 93 isting organisms being the results of those ac- cumulations. A strong indication of the insuf- ficiency of this doctrine is found in the fact, that the progressive principle pervades some depart- ments of organic nature, where no cii'cumstances, with which we are acquainted, appear to be capa- ble of producing such effects. It is not difficult to imderstand that the intellectual and emotional na- tures of conscious beings might advance from gen- eration to generation, in consequence of the stimu- lus of associations, contests and natural selections. But this will not apply to the changes in the con- stitution of the blood, the developement of the lymphatics, the spleen, or mammilary organs in the higher animals ; nor to the changes of motion- less plants, from Howerless, seedless, fiwtless forms, to those possessed of the highest characters of beauty and complication, with the addition of instincts that seem to rival the sexual and pa- rental affections of the higher animals. The differences among animals of the same species are termed varieties^ and are admitted by all writers to be the results of various physical in- fluences, such as climate, food, and scenery. But the differences of sjyecies^ are by many of the ablest naturalists, believed to have been coeval with the creation of the first ancestors of the several spe- cies, and to continue in spite of the external in- fluences that produce varieties. A powerful argument in favor of this doctrine is drawn from the fact that in examining the sue- 94 ECONOMY OF cessive geological formations, new species appear to be suddenly introduced, so widely differing from any previously known, that it is thought their existence cannot possibly be accounted for by those gradual and progressive changes, by which external influences are supposed to affect organ- isms. It has been observed that those apparently sudden catastrophes, as they are called, by which new mountain ranges have been elevated, have in- variably been followed by the introduction of new and higher species of organisms. Are we to infer from these facts, that gradual elevations caused those slight changes only which constitute varie- ties, while catastrophes — j^roduced by sudden great depressions of the ocean's floor — originated species ? Is a new species a perpetuated and multiplied quasi monstrosity, engendered and developed under new and peculiar conditions, and economically adapted to them ? A large and highly respectable class of thinkers, despairing of any natural solution of the problem, attribute the succession of advances in organisms to the repeated miraculous interpositions of the Supreme Creator. It appears to be natural for a religious mind to explain all the mysterious phen- omena of nature in this manner; and when, after- wards, it is found that the facts thus supposed to be explained, result from the operation of a natural law, it almost seems as if the Creator is dej^rived of a part of his glory; and our religious feelings are prone to rebel against scientific advances that thus VITAL FOECE. 95 appear to be made at the expense of our theological opinions. But, in our zeal, we must not forget that the Supreme Being is as much the author of the natural laws by which material beings are formed, as He is of the results which we denominate mirac- ulous. To my mind it is a much more wonderful exercise of Almighty power and wisdom to estab- lish an eternal law by the operation of which, imder certain conditions, a given result must al- ways follow, than to perform a single and ex- ceptional act, on a special occasion, in contraven- tion of his own natural laws. If a single act of the Creator is a miracle, each one of his natural laws is continually producing miracles. There appears to be a natural law, hitherto un- recognized, which underlies all the phenomena of organic progression. I denominate it the law of dy- namical economy, or, the economization of organic force. The advantage which is gained by any ad- vance in the oro'anic scale is that it economizes force. It produces a given result in a superior, because more economical, manner. In the lower organisms a great number of supernumerary parts abound, which, in the higher organisms of the same class are dropped, and only the few that are absolutely necessary are retained. Upon these few the vital enero^ies are concentrated, renderino* them highly effective. As an instance, contrast the lowest insects with the highest — the centipede and the caterpillar, and their indefinite number of loco- motive appendages, with the spider, the bee and 96 ECONOMY OF the butterfly that have but six. Again, contrast the great number of eggs produced each year by the lowest fishes, to perpetuate their species, with the few produced by the shark to accomplish the same object. It would not be difficult to -prove that all the instances of the developement of special organs, and the additions of special functions, which dis- tinguish the higher from the lower classes of ani- mals, has economy for its purpose. But in this brief article I only wish to announce the general law, and leave its more particular illustration to some fixture occasion. The advance of animals in intelligence, seems to be but one of the modes in which this economic law is manifested. The advantage gained by the more intellectual animals over those of lower grades, is that they can accomplish the same ends with a lesser expenditure of force, or of time, or with less difficulty or danger. Intelligence is econ- omic of physical force. Animals are organic ma- chines, and the higher animals are labor saving machines. Dynamical laws underlie the scale of org^anic beino-s. The brains of animals are labor- saving in proportion to their comj^lication, and the degrees of their developement. The brain of the philosopher saves labor by creating machinery as a substitute for muscular power. The ability to economize force and use it to the best advantage, constitutes the difference between the ape and the savage, the savage and the philosopher. The question now arises — whence came the necessity VITAL FORCE. 97 for the higher organisms economizing force ? why- must they economize it more than the lower? The answer is, that the whole quantity of available force has been constantly diminishing ; and in many situations organisms have been forced to perish, or to undergo economic changes of structure and function. Organic force, in its primitive nature, is the same as any other natural force. All the forces of natui:e are identical, though they assume dif- ferent forms or modes of manifestation. Heat, light, electricity, muscular force, machine force and vital force, are all one and the same force in different disguises. All the force in the earth exists under these and analogous forms. It is distributed un- equally to different substances. Some substances have a large quantity of latent force, others have but little. The same substance may contain a great quantity under some circumstances, and lose it imder others. Some elastic substances retain force with great tenacity, and others part with it readily. Xo substance can acquire force except from other substances. All the force acquired by organic bodies, therefore, is taken from other bodies which resist the change with greater or less ten- acity. As the continents rose from the bottom of the sea, their heat was radiated away. The continents became colder. Free force was scarcer, and latent force was retained more tenaciously. Now, when we consider that the functions of organisms caused them to abstract the latent force from surrounding 9 98 VITAL FORCE. things, and convert it to organic force, — it is plain that as force became more and more difficult to ob- tain, that which was acquired would be used more and more economically and advantageously. This I conceive to be the secret of the progres- sive advancement of organized beings. Moisture contains a large quantity of latent force, which organisms can appropriate. As the continents have risen higher, moisture and free heat have become less in quantity, and have been retained with more tenacity; organisms have therefore obtained it with more difficulty, and administered it with greater economy. If the continents were all to sink gradually, so that in a thousand human generations the lands were reduced to a few low, moist islands, — I have no doubt that all the higher organisms would become degraded : and if even those islands should disap- pear, and the ocean's bed resume its original level — during all this long period of depression, the scale of organic beings would indicate a corres- ponding depression, until only the lowest possible grades would remain in existence. SECTION vm. DRIFT FORMATION. AFTER tlie northern continents had assumed nearly theu' present forms and elevations, and the present geological period was about to com- mence, a sudden change occurred in the climate, which had always previously been warmer than it is now. It became so cold as to destroy nearly all the land animals in the northern half of the tem- perate zone. The hills were coA^ered with glaciers, the fields were clothed with ice and snow, and cur- rents of water from the Arctic rescion overflowed a large portion of the temperate zone. These currents carried south-eastward such an immense quantity of gravel and boulders, that it would seem that noth- insc less than the wreck of a continent could have fur- nished the materials. It was only the tops of the highest mountains that were out of the reach of this wonderful invasion. The duration of the drift period is unknown, but it is believed to have con- tinued many thousand years ; and when it ceased the climate assumed its present condition. The causes of the drift are unknown. Several ingenious theories have been suggested in relation to it, but none that accoimts for all the facts. It seems to be proved that a large portion of the 100 DRIFT FORMATION. drifted territories were covered by glaciers, analo- gous to those which abound at the present time in some of the Alpine regions of Europe. The sur- faces of many rocks, over which the drift passed, are smoothed, and some of them scratched, in pre- cisely the same manner as those rocks are which glaciers are well known to have acted upon in Switzerland. In many places the ground is fur- rowed, or raised into groups of oblong mounds which glaciers alone could produce. Any proper theory of the drift must show: 1st, the condition of things previous to its commencement; 2d, the nature of the changes which caused the drift ; 3d, the changes which brought it to a close. It must also explain the existence of glaciers, boulders and gravel ; and, above all, why the course of the drift was south-east. I shall endeavor to show that the drift was caused by the operation of the ocean currents, while the Arctic lands were rising above the sea. Let us first endeavor to form a correct idea of the polar currents, before any of the land rose to interfere with them. There were three elliptical currents in the northern hemisphere, all of which approached within twenty-five degrees of the pole ; consequently there was a polar interspace, nearly three thousand miles in width, which had a ten- NoTE.— We have no clue to this great change.' * * * ^\ sudden winter that was also to last for ages fell upon the globe. * * * An Arctic climate prevailed in the temperate zone, and that of the temperate zone extended much farther south.— Agassiz's Geo. LOGICAL Sketches. DRIFT FOEilATIOX. 101 dency to rise, and tln-ougli wliich local or seuii- elliptical currents flowed. Each of the ellipti- cal currents sent warm offsets, analogous to the present Norway current, noilh-east into the AiTtic sea. These three local currents all passed out of the polar interspace in a south-east direction as cold currents. Thus three semi-ellipti- cal local currents were created. Eeasoning theo- retically, we have good reason to conclude that such was the state of things at that time. When the lands beo-an to rise, thev interfered with this arrangement. The elevation of the north Indian basin stopped the current fi'om that ocean long before the drift commenced. The offsets fi*om the Atlantic and from the Pacific were probably con- tinued until the drift period. The Norway current is now the only one of importance that circulates throug-h the Arctic sea. It enters in a north-east direction, and finding no outlet south-east, is forced to become neutral and to escape between Green- land and Iceland. K the shores of the Arctic sea could now be lowered five hundred feet, what course would the cuiTcnts pursue ? Geonomy answers that a power- ful waiTU current would enter the polar sea fi'om the Pacific in a north-east direction, between Asia and America, and pass out south-east through Baf- fin's sea. If the passage fi'om Bafiin's sea should afterwards be gradually shallowed by the eleva- tion of the earth's crust, the current would over- flow the northern lands for a vast distance around, and repeat all the phenomena of the diift. 102 DEIPT rOEMATION. Geonomy demonstrates that the drift was pro- duced by warm currents entering the Arctic sea north-east, and flowing from it in a south-east di- rection. All geologists agree that the drift, what- ever was its cause, moved in a south-east direction across both Europe and America. This fact, which is of vital importance now that the laws of the ocean currents are understood, has been, hitherto, regarded as of no special value, except as a proof that the drift currents moved from the Arctic re- ofions. But the south-east direction of the drift proves that it was the complement or continuation of a warm current, that entered the Arctic in a north-east direction ; for no other current would move south-east. The easting of the drift currents must have been acquired while they were warm, and before they began to flow into the Arctic sea. If a mountain were suddenly to rise at the north pole, the waters would not move from the disturbed centre south-east, but south-west; or, if an im- mense quantity of ice and snow should melt in the northern regions, the resulting currents would move south-west and not south-east. It must be recollected that the Arctic ocean was about 3,000 miles in diameter, and could, therefore, if disturbed, readily furnish the immense quantity of gravel, boulders, cold water and ice, which the drift theory and the actual facts require. The drift floods were probably annual. The polar lands were, in the mean time, gradually rising to the surface, and being abraded by the powerful DEIFT FOEMACIONS. 103 currents that coursed through the Arctic sea. When all this is considered, we need not wonder that an enormous quantity of gravel and rocks were transported south-east, or that glaciers abounded during the drift period. To explain the drift in a general way, it is only necessary to say that the warm currents which passed into the Arctic from the Pacific, or from the Atlantic, or from both, were prevented, by the elevation of the ocean's floor, from passing out through their former channels ; they, therefore, overflowed the surrounding countries, and carried ice, gravel and boulders a great distance south-east, turning summer into winter, and causing immense quantities of snow and ice to accumulate upon lands that, both before and since, have been free from them during three-fourths of the year. The north-east direction of the Scandinavian mountains, proves that they were indirectly cre- ated by the Norway current that now runs north- east, and near them, into the Arctic sea. The regu- lar elliptical current would have made them run north-west, like the mountains in north-western America. This shows that the Norway current is very ancient, and has probably always supplied the Arctic sea with most of its warm water. It is re- markable, and worthy of special consideration that Baffin's sea, and several accessory channels, run south-east. This channel must, therefore, have been created by a powerftil current which once poured through it, into the Atlantic, in a south-east direc- 104 DRIFT FORMATION. tion. Was it, then, the complement or continua- tion of the Norway channel ? Did nearly all the Arctic waters pass out through Baffin's sea ? and did the elevation of the northern part of the floor of that channel produce the drift ? Was there also a warm, jjowerful current that entered from the Pacific before the drift period, and which has since then been excluded ? However, these ques- tions may be answered after the geology of the Arctic regions is better understood — the undoubted fact must still remain, that the drift was caused by warm currents flowiuQ* into the Arctic sea north- east, and flowing out again south-east as cold cur- rents. If the drift was caused by the rising of the Arctic land, it was also brought to a close by the elevation of the shores of the Arctic sea, and the formation of a sufficient channel through which the currents can now move without overflowing^ their proper bounds. Is another drift period impossible ? Suppose that the channel between Greenland and Iceland should be obstructed by the elevation of its bed, — are the Arctic shores high enough to prevent the consequent flood from sweeping and spreading over the northern parts of the temperate zone? Much has been said of the north polar sea, but I have no where seen it suggested that there is also a polar sea in the southern hemisj)here,"though this is undoubtedly the case. There can, however, be no doubt that it is entirely and permanently frozen. DEIFT FOEMATION. 105 The lands around the south polar continent are high and bluff, but probably the interior, near the pole, is a plain or basin, Tv^hich can be easily traversed when once the mountainous borders of the continent are surmounted. I should rather undertake to reach the south pole than the north; and I have no doubt that the journey might long since have been accomplished if half the sacrifices had been made for that purpose that have been made to reach the north pole. Dr. Hitchcock says : In Terre del Fuego is a deposit of boulders which were derived from ledges lying from sixty to one hundred and twenty miles to the south-west and west.— Hitchcock's Geology of the Globe. From this extract, and from other authorities, we learn that a drift period occurred in the south- ern hemisphere. Possibly it happened simultane- ous with the one in the north. That it was pro- duced by similar causes may be inferred from the fact that the dii-ection in which the boulders were carried was north-east and east. Xo mere local current could flow easterly from the polar region. It was, therefore, a warm current that entered the polar region, and returned, flowing north-east, car- rying boulders with it. I do not believe that it was an elliptical or a local current, purely, but a semi-ellipse, which partakes of the nature of both. From the best information that I can obtain, I am convinced that the elliptical currents are in no 10 106 DRIFT FORMATION. cases the bearers of icebergs. They are conveyed by local currents only. Maury says that icebergs are conveyed from the southern part of the Indian ocean into the south Atlantic as far as the thirty- seventh degree of south latitude. They must move north-west to reach the Atlantic, and this is the very direction in which a local current would neces- sarily flow from the Antarctic. (See the map.) SECTIOX X. THE SYSTEM OF THE WINDS. THE study of the oceanic circulation has natu- rally led me to reflect upon that of the at- mosphere, and to enquire what different principles are brought into operation in the two systems. In order to make this theory more clear to our minds, let us first present it in its simplest form, divested of all the circumstances that render the problem complicated. Let us suppose the earth to be entirely covered with water; and thus leave out of our calculation all the disturbances now prodiiced by the elevations of the continents. Let us also overlook the effects produced by the changes of the seasons, and, for the time, suppose the days and nights to be always equal. Under these circumstances the sun's heat would be greatest exactly at the equator, and pro- gressively less in each successive parallel of lati- tude to the very poles. The dynamical problem now to be solved is, — what must necessarily be the system of the winds under these conditions ? The rays of the sun pass through the atmosphere without communicating much warmth to the air ; but, after striking the earth, the rays rebound, and warm the lowest portions of the atmosphere, 108 THE SYSTEM OF Figure 10. — System of the Winds. causing the air to expand and rise until it reaches a point where the atmos- pheric air is of the same density as itself. At the equator, where the earth is hottest, the greatest quantity of air is heated, and rises to the greatest height. From the ele- vated position which the most heated air attams, it moves, as if down an inclined plane, to the thirtieth degree, on each side of the equator; here it reaches the earth, and moves again to the equa- tor to repeat the circuit. The air also moves from the thirtieth dec^ree to about the sixtieth, where it rises and re- turns, as an upper cur- rent, to the thirtieth de- gree. It there sinks to the surface of the earth, and returns again to the sixtieth degree to repeat the circuit. From the polar regions the air moves along the eqV '^TM \^ ..->^ :--^.. \ 7P>^.. THE WINDS. 109 surface to the sixtieth degree, where it rises and returns, as an upjDer current, to the polar regions, and there sinks to the earth's surface and repeats the circuit. This theorj' seems to be sustained by all the facts which are known concerning the actual directions in which the winds blow in the different zones. In the northern hemisphere, according to the best au- thorities, the winds blow as follows : in the torrid zone, from the north-east ; in the temperate zone, from the south-west ; in the frigid zone from the north, north-east, and north-west. In the southern hemisphere, reversing the directions, the same rule seems to obtain, and three zones of wind exist, the essential counterparts of those in the northern hemisphere. K there were no lands to produce di- versities of temperature, and no change of seasons, these three serial zones of each hemisphere would be developed with perfect unifonnity and regular- ity ; and even now their prevalence in their respec- tive limits, would seem to be sufficient to prove the existence of the general laio beyond all reason- ble doubt. Extract feom Nichols' Cyclopedia of the Physical Sciences. — On tlie nortliof the equator, between the parallel of the 30th and 60th degrees north, the wind is variable to the west and south-west. Between Europe and America the south- west prevail in the ratio of two to one. The mean direction of the xDrevailing winds in this zone, deduced from numerous observations, is, for England, south 68 degrees west; France, south 88 degrees west ; Germany, south 76 degrees west ; 110 THE SYSTEM OF Denmark, south 62 degrees west ; Sweden, south 50 degrees west ; Russia, north 87 degrees west; North America, south 86 degrees west. Russia is the only country in which the mean direction of the wind is a little to the north of west. In the north Atlantic, the most prevalent direction of the winds is between south 45 degrees west and south 10 degrees west. When the sun is in the northern hemisphere, they prevail from south-Avest to west south-west, but when he is in the southern hemisphere, they blow from west north-west to north-west. On the south of the equator it is observed that between the parallels of 30 and 50 degrees south, the winds blow periodically south-west ai^ north-west, that they vary west to north-west when the sun has south decli- nation ; whilst during the rest of the year they are in general from west to south-west. In the frigid zone of the Atlantic north winds are the most regular and dominant. The cold- est mnds are those from the north-north-east, but in June and July they frequently blow from the south south-west, and sometimes with violence. At Spitzbergen, during the earlier part of the year, the winds blow from the south, and they are northerly during the remainder. On the coast of Greenland, from May to July, the weather is fine with changeable winds mostly from the south south-west. The coldest winds are from the north-east. In Hudson's Bay it has been remarked that from October to May the winds are from the north to north-west, and from June to October south-east to east. Capt. McClure found the prevailing winds from the north-east along the American shore of the polar sea. Parry found that the wind in the arctic region blew from the northerly direction 215 days in a year, from the southerly direction 52 days, variable 100 days. If we reflect upon the subject, we must conclude that there are three zones of counter currents in the upper regions of the atmosphere : that there is in fact an upper counter current corresponding to THE WIXDS. Ill each lower current ; and that the two together con- stitute an ellipse, the position of which is not hori- zontal nor veitical, but between the two — that is, oblique to the plane of the earth's surface. It seems that two currents flow in opposite di- rections from the 30th deg:ree, at the earth's sur- face. The air that supplies both these currents must come from opposite directions above; for, the current that flows on the surface toiffi^d the pole, does not reach there before it is met by an oppos- ing current coming along the surface fron the pole. There is no outlet beloio for either. They must rise near the 60th degree, and, having risen, they must overflow in the same manner and for the same reason that the rising column at the equator does : one portion goes to the pole sinks and returns, the other portion goes to the tropic (30th degree) and there sinks and returns. The air oversows north and south at the equator and also at the 60th de- gree, and ii?ider^ows toward the equator, at the poles and at the 30th degree. The air rises and ovei'flows because it is expanded and rendered lighter by heat beloic, and it sinks and underflows because it has been condensed and made heavier by the cold above. In confirmation of this theory are the facts revealed by the barometer concernino; the differ- ences in the weight of the atmosphere in the dif- ferent zones. Near the equator, and near the 60th degree, the atmosphere appears to be lighter than elsewhere. These are the very places where, ac- 112 THE SYSTEM OF cording to our theory, the air is ascending in con- sequence of its lightness. At the 30th degree, and also near the poles, the barometer testifies that the atmosphere is heaviest ; and it is in these places where, according to our theory, the heaviness of the air causes it to descend. The circulation of the atmosphere, according to this theory, is contra- dictory to our traditional ideas, and to all our authorities ^icerning the geographical sources of cold and warm currents. In the ocean the cold currents of water, in all cases, move toward the equator, and the warm currents in the opposite direction, but* in the atmosphere a difierent rule obtains. Warm currents of air are generated at the surface of the earth, and move upward; cold cur- rents are generated in the upper regions, and move downward. This is true in all latitudes. The circulation of the air, therefore, is not so much be- tween difierent latitudes as it i^ between difierent altitudes. It is not necessary for a current of air to move toward the polar regions to become cooled ; for it is as cold four or five miles above the surface at the equator, as it is at the surface in the polar circle. Now, when we consider the natural tendency of heated air to expand and rise, w^e may Note.— At the equator, and its neighborhood, the average height of the mercury in the barometer is 29.84 inches. At latitude 10 deg. the pressure or heighth begins to increase visibly, augmenting on toward latitude 30 or 40 deg. when it seems to reach its maximum, being there 30.08 inches. Beyond this zone the mean height diminishes, descending in the arctic regions to 29.76 inches. According to some observations it would appear that the pressure once more increases on nearer ap- proach to the pole.— Nichols' Cyclopedia of the Physical Sciences. THE WrS-DS. 113 well discard the common idea that the air moves poleward because it has been warmed, or toward the equator because it has been cooled. FnoM Mrs. Somertille's Physical Geography. — The mean height of the barometer between the tropics at the level of the sea is 30 inches, with very little fluctuaticn, but, owing to the ascending currents of air from the heat of the earth, it is less under the equator than in the temperate zones. It attains a maximnm in western Eiu'ope between the parallels of 40 and 45 degrees ; in the North Atlantic the maximnm is about the 30th parallel, and in the southern part of that ocean it is near the Tropic of Capricorn. It is a singular fact, discovered during Sir James Ross' last vovage, that the mean height of the barometer is an inch lower (the atmosphere is less heavy) throughout the Antarctic ocean and at Ca.]}^ Horn (ooth to 60th degree) than it is at the Cape of Good Hope (30th to 3oth degree) or Valparaiso. M. Erman observed a similar depression not far from the sea of Oschotsk, in eastern Siberia (near the 60th degree). Sir John Herschell has observed that on account of the upper flow of heated air not being immediately compensated by polar currents, the barometer is two-tenths of an inch liigher at the tropics than at the equator. My idea is that in every instance in which a sur- face current of air moves toward the pole, it does so because it is cold. The column which rises at the equator acquires its coldness and hea^'iness above, before it bes^ins to move to the 30th des^ree. The column that moves from the 30th degree poleward does so because it is cold. It has descended from above, and is seeking the vacuum which the heat at the surface is producing there, between the 30th 10* 114 THE SYSTEM OP and the 60th degrees. The current in the upper regions, which moves from the 60th degree to the pole, does so because when it has risen high enough to become chilled it begins to sink, by its own weight, to the polar surface, w^hich is compar- atively warm. A vacuum is being constantly produced there by radiations from the land, the water, and even from the ice and snow ; for, how- ever cold it may be within the polar circle at the surface, it is still colder a few hundred feet above. From Mrs. Somerville's Physical GEOGRArnY. — As there are eiglity-two degrees difference between the equa- torial and polar temperature, the light warm air at the equator is constantly ascending to the upper regions of the atmosphere and flowing north and south to the poles, from whence the cold heavy air rushes along the surface of the earth to supply its place between the tropics. * * The current from the north pole becomes a north-east wind before arriving at the Troi)ic of Cancer, and that from the south pole becomes a south-east wind before it comes to the Tropic of Capricorn, their limit being about the twenty- eighth parallel of latitude on each side of the equator. In fact, the difference of temperature puts the air in motion, and the direction of the resulting wind, at every place, de- pends upon the difference between the rotary motion of the wind and the rotary motion of the earth. The whole theory of the winds depends upon these circumstances. There is a perpetual change between the different masses of the atmos- phere, the warm air tempering the cold of the higher lati- tudes, and the cold air mitigating the heat of the lower. Mrs. Somerville, in her excellent treatise on physical geography, gives a correct idea of the THE WI jps. 115 opinions current in the highest circle of philosophi- cal society in Europe ; and the preceding extracts show what those opinions" are in relation to the sources of the wind. It will be noticed that she confounds together two things which are entirely distinct, namely, the effects produced by the dif- ference of elevation, and those produced by the difference of latitude. She says in one place that " the light warm air at the equator is constantly ascending to the upper regions of the atmosphere and flowing north and south to the poles^ from whence the cold heavy air rushes along the surface of the earth to supply its place between the tropics." In another place she says : " The average direction of the winds, in England, France, Germany, Den- mark, Sweden, and Xorth America, is from some point between south and west. Xoith westerly- winds prevail in the corresponding latitudes in the southern hemisphere." This statement is doubt- less correct ; how then is it possible for her other remark to be true that " from the poles cold heavy air rushes along the surface to the tropics ? " The learned Professor Tyndall, in his beautiful work on heat, gives the same explanation that Mrs. Somerville does ; and it must certainly be admitted that all the highest authorities are opposed to this theory. Are they not also opposed to well known facts? If the wind blew as the water flows, from the equator to the polar regions before it began to re- turn, it would possess so much easting when it 116 THE jOrSTEM OF anived that there would be a constant current blowing toward the east in both polar regions. This is not the case. We may, therefore, from this fact alone infer that these winds have traveled over but few degrees of latitude. TTe have hitherto proceeded upon the assump- tion that the sun remains at the equator, and the days and nights are equal. During the summer solstice, when the sun is in the north, more than half of the frigid zone becomes temperate, and more than half of the temperate zone torrid. The thermal equator being many degrees north, of course the three zones of wind are crowded in the same direction, and the north winds scarcely blow southward beyond the polar circle ; while the winds from the south and south-west blow across the borders of the arctic, and take possession of the abandoned territory in the frigid zone. In the winter, the reverse takes j^lace. The frigid zone, in turn, invades the temperate regions, and cold northern and north-eastern winds blow for months over countries that during the rest of the year know onlv southern breezes. In a word, the changes of the seasons merely transfer the three zones alternately north and south, without permit- ting either to be entirely conquered. The lines that divide the three serial zones from each other are still preserved unbroken and even unbent, ex- cept from local causes. These lines advance and retreat northward and southward with the change- ing seasons, like the parallel columns of two oppos- ing armies. THE WINDS. 117 The irregularities of the Trincls which are the most complicated, are produced by the greater or lesser elevations of the land. In the tropics the land is hotter, that is, it communicates more heat to the air than the sea does. In the frigid zones, on the contrary, the land is colder and the sea com- municates more heat to the air. The reo:ular trade winds do not blow upon the land, nor within 100 miles of the continents. This fact shows the great modifying influence of the land upon the normal system of the winds. The elevation of some por- tions of the land into mountains also has an effect upon the winds, by deflecting them from their projDcr courses, by intercepting and chilling the warm moist winds that blow against them, or by preventing the cold winds from sweeping over a particularly favored region. In order properly to estimate these modifying circumstances, we must first learn, by theory, the normal and i3rim- itive course of the winds in each and every locality ; and then look upon all departures from these direc- tions as the results of irregular elevations, and other local causes which are to be specially investi- gated. In the tropics, the normal trade winds should continually blow obliquely toward the equator, with more or less of westing in them ; but the extreme heat of some lands in the tropics causes the wind to vary from its normal course, and blow northward during one period, and south- ward during the next, so that these alternate or periodical winds are called monsoons or season winds. 118 THE SYSTEM OF As the object of this essay is not to give a de- tailed account of all the local "winds, but to estab- lish a true general theory oi the normal AYinds, as a basis and point of departure, from which to reason concei^ning local and irregular winds, I shall not give any particular account of the monsoons or local season currents of air. Some of the winds which have hitherto been res^arded as local and capricious, are probably owing to the northern and southern movements of the sun, causing: a corres- ponding transfer of the limits of the respective zones of winds farther toward the north and the south alternately. These same changes would take place, but with much greater regularity, if the ocean covered the entire earth, and there were no land to produce iiTegularity : thus in England, and in Xorthern Europe generally, there is a contention of the north-east and the south-west winds, each pre- vailingr alternatelv, thougrh the southwest wind is the most continuous. The same is true in the cor- responding latitudes of Xorth ^\merica, excepting that here the northerly winds are more prevalent. So also in Russia the coldness of the land, acting as an auxiliary to the northerly wind, causes it to pre- vail during: most of the time, while, in the same ~ 7 3 latitude, in western Europe, southerly winds pre- dominate. The great quantities of heat derived from the neighboring contiaent of Africa, and the influences of the warm waters of the so-called Gulf stream, must be taken into the account of the European winds, and left out when considering those of America and Russia. THE WLNTDS. 119 When the upper current of air from the equator descends at the 30th degree, another current from the opposite direction descends near the same place at the same time : one mores north and the other south. I have described the currents from the south as all returning to the south again, and the currents from the north as all g-oino- aeain northward. But this may not necessarily be always the case ; for, if the two currents should be very unequal in tem- perature or humidity, I can easily conceive that they might mingle, in some degree at least, so as to produce an eqiulibrium. There would probably be a collision and a partial interchange of currents, and in this way air, and even volcanic ashes, may perhaps be transferred from one zone or hemisphere to another. THE AUEORA BOEEALIS OR POLAR LIGHTS A^'D THEIR RELATION TO THE ATMOSPHERE. The phenomena of the polar lights have never been reduced to a consistent theorv. I have often thought, as I watched their fitftil changes, that they must be in some way connected with the at- mosphere. They seem to be associated with light, thin, silver-ojrev clouds, that an-angre themselves in rays, which are not as changeable as the lights themselves. I have lately been led to suspect that they may be produced by the sudden condensation of the moisture, in the column of wann air that rises near the 60th deg-ree of north and also of south latitude. "The auroral arch is always east 120 AURORA OR and west, never north and south," and in this it agrees with the zones of the winds. M. Struve and Admiral Wrano-el assio-n a moderate elevation to the aurora. Thiereman, in Iceland, regarded the clouds as the substratum of the aurora. Frank- lin, Richardson and Wrangel confirm this idea. The clouds are thin and light, and it has been noticed that the rays are most abundant near them. Humboldt remarks that "these clouds seem to ar- range themselves like rays in the day time. After a display during the night, the same clouds are sometimes seen in the morning^ that before were luminous." "The most modern observers place the aurora in the region of the clouds ; they believe it to be blown to and fro by the wind. Capt. Frank- lin saw an aurora illuminate the loicer surface of a cloud." It has been observed that the aurora is most frequent and brilliant near the sea coast. Does not this indicate that the condensation of the mois- ture derived from evaporation is concerned in pro- ducing the phenomena? It is well known that thunder is seldom heard in the polar regions. Why is this ? Is it not because the moisture is con- densed and frozen before it has time to collect into large ctouds? It is known that the aurora is dis- played in the most remarkable manner during the changes of the seasons. This is what might be expected if it is produced by the column of air that rises from the zone of the 60th degree. At the equator, the immense quantity of moisture POLAK LIGHTS. 121 that rises is formed into vast clouds, the condensa- tions of which produce tremendous thimder claps, and terrific flashes of lio'htnino-. At the 60th de- gree the rising column of warm air contains com- paratively little moisture, and that is probably- condensed as it rises, and before it has had time to form into large clouds, or to unite into rain drops. The heat thus suddenly set free is probably con- verted into electricity, which leaj)s from particle to particle, producing the auroral light, and disturb- ing the magnetic needle. Tliis theory of the northern lights could not have been advanced before it was known or even sus- pected that a column of warm air rises at the 60th degree. I suppose that lightning is nothing but latent heat, suddenly converted into electricity by the condensation of the clouds ; and that the aurora is merely a subdivided and diffused lightning storm, the separate flashes being too minute to produce thunder. Some observers have declared that they have heard cracklins; noises issuino; from the aurora — but this, though probable, does not seem to be fully confirmed. CYCLONES. Cyclones are whirlwinds which originate in certain localities near the equator. In the northern hemisphere they generally commence 10 or 15 de- grees north of the equator, and move north-west to 11 122 CYCLONES. near the 30th degree when they change their course and travel north-east. In the southern hemi- phere they proceed in the same manner, but their directions are reversed : that is to say, they com- mence a few degrees from the equator, and travel south-west to about the 20th degree, and then change their course and travel south-east. They obey a double movement : one a gyratory or rotato- ry, and the other a movement of translation. North of the equator this gyratory movement is from right to left by the north, or in a direction con- trary to the hands of a watch. South of the equator the movement is in a direction coincident mth the hands of a watch. The movement of translation is from 2 to 40 miles per hour. The whirlwinds vary in diameter from 50 miles to 1000. Several questions have long been asked concern- ing these cyclones without receiving any reason- able answer: 1. Why do they originate in both hemispheres •at about 10 or 15 degrees from the equator? 2. Why do they never cross the equator, or even approach very near to it ? 3. Why do they infest certain particular locali- ties? 4. Why do they, in the northern hemisphere, move north-west a certain distance, and then change their course to the north-east ? 5. Why do they, in the southern hemisphere, pursue exactly the contrary course ? 6. Why are these whirlwinds most frequent at the change of the seasons? CYCLONES. 123 A true theory of the cyclones will answer all these questions. A whirlwind is a body of air, whirling like a top, which may be driven in any direction by a force that impels it by acting on one side of the mass, while on the oj)posite side it meets with but little resistance. The question then is : what force, in the northern hemisphere, acts upon the whirling mass to drive it in a north-west direction a certain distance and no farther? and why does it then turn and move north-east? We must consider that the trade wind in the southern hemisjohere blows toward the' north-west, and when a particular locality a short distance north of the equator is abnormally heated, the trade wind from the south- ern hemisphere crosses the equator into the north' em hemisj^here. It does not proceed far without encountering opposite currents, and a whirlT\dnd is created, which receives an impetus from the in- truding currents in a north-west direction, the di- rection in which the intruding trade wind itself is mo^dng. The north-west impulse, not being con- tinued or repeated, is soon exhausted, and, there- fore, the whirlwind no longer moves north-west. From this turning pointy which may be considered a neutral x^oint^ it moves north-east for the same reason that the normal wind and the ocean cur- rents both move in the same direction between the 30th and 60th parallels. There is a perfect analogy between the path of the cyclone and that of the elliptical ocean current. They both pursue the 124 CYCLONES. same course in the same localities. The elliptical current in the north Atlantic moves north-west from the equator to near the 30th degree, and then turns and moves north-east. The reason of this has been explained in another place, and the same principles apply to the course of the cyclones. RECAPITULATION OF GEONOMY. 1. The ocean waters primitively covered the whole globe. The difference of temperature caused warm currents to flow poleward, and cold currents to flow from the poles. 2. A current cannot flow alternately to and from the polar and ecjuatorial regions without pui^suing an elliptical path. The reason is that the easterly force which the water possesses in the lower lati- tudes is carried with it when it flows to the higher, and causes it to flow more and more easterly ; and when the current is cooled and begins to return to lower latitudes, the easting is not yet exhausted ; therefore, in the northern hemisphere the elliptical current moves south-east from the polar region ; but before it reaches the equator it turns and moves relatively south-west. After reaching the equator it moves nearly due west until its warmth causes it to overflow toward the pole ; and then it runs north-west a considerable distance before its KECAPITULATIO^'. 125 westing is exhausted, and it begins to flow north- east. 3. The easting which a current acquires in mov- ing poleward, and the westing which it acquires in moving toward the equator are both so great that, a cuiTcnt moving to and from the equator and the sixtieth deo-ree of latitude, must necessarily move in an ellipse, the diameter of which, east and west, is so great that not more than three such ellipses can exist in one hemisphere. This is the reason why, when there was no dry land, there were just three elliptical currents in the northern hemisphere, and the same number in the southern. 4. The sediment of the ocean, which at first was mostly of a chemical or an organic character, fell in the largest quantities upon the ocean floor vrith- in the limits of the ellipses, or immediately be- neath the currents. The weio-ht of the accumu- lated sediment caused the crust of the earth to sink, and thus created an oceanic basin. Thus it was that six immense basins were formed, namely : the north and south Atlantic, the north and south Pacific, and the north and south Indian oceans. 5. The lava crowded away from beneath these six basins was forced to rise in the angular spaces between them. These inter-spaces constituted three series of continents : Xorth and South Amer- ica and Graham's Land constitute one series ; north-east Asia, Australia and Victoria constitute a second series ; Europe and Afiica, and an indefi- 126 RECAPITULATION, nite and partially submarine portion of the Ant- arctic continent, constitute the third series. 6. Five of the six primitive ocean basins still exist ; but the sixth, namely, the north Indian, has been mostly elevated and drained. The Medi- terranean, Euxine, Caspian, Red, Persian, and Arabian seas are vestiges of the ancient north Indian ocean. The east and west running moun- tains of Asia and Europe were produced by the repeated depressions of the ocean south of them, after the noith and south running mountains were elevated. 'Z. The primitive and normal mountains, on the borders of the continents, run in loxodromic or oblique directions, — that is, north-east and south west, or south-east and north-west ; and not direct- ly north and soiith, nor directly east and west ; in this respect they harmonize with the currents that indirectly produced them. 8. The reason why the continents are connected, north and south, by narrow necks of land, and are not thus connected east and west, and also the rea- son why each northern ocean has a southern ocean directly opposite, — is because the changes of the seasons caused an annual interchange of currents between the northern and southern hemispheres ; and no such currents moved east and west. 9. There are two classes of ocean currents, namely : the elliptical and the local. The local differ from the elliptical in the fact that they do not move alternately north and south ; they either KECAPITULATIOX. 127 move north or south in a local and limited region, and do not return ; or, if they partially return, the course they pursue is a semi-elliptical curve. 10. Local currents produced the hollowing out of the T^'estern sides of the troj)ical continents. 11. The cold south-east currents from the Arctic sea, by which the drift formation was jDroduced, were the complements of warm, north-east local currents, that previously entered that sea while the Arctic lands were rising. 12. If the six ocean basins had sunk equally, the continents would hai^e been equally elevated, and the map of the world would have been per- fectly symmetrical. 13. The latest formed mountains are the hiofhest : because the loads of sediment on the ocean's floor have been constantly increasino; from the beg-in- ning ; and consequently the later depressions have been deeper and more sudden. 14. The atmospheric circulation differs from that of the ocean in this, that the air becomes chilled by risingr three or four miles into the hio-her regions of the atmosphere ; whereas, the water is compelled to flaw three or four thousand miles for the same purpose. 15. When the column of warm air that rises at the equator becomes chilled, it gradually moves down an inclined plane to the earth, which it reaches at the thirtieth dcQ-ree of latitude, and flows along the surface to the equator. From the thirtieth deo-ree a current flows to the sixtieth de- 128 RECAPITULATION. gree, along the surface, and then rises and returns as an upper current, to the thirtieth degree, when it sinks and repeats the circuit. From the polar re- gion a current moves to the sixtieth degree, where it rises and flows to the polar region, and there sinks and repeats the circuit. 16. The polar lights are probably caused by the column of air that rises at the sixtieth degree ; the heat in the air, and in the moisture, being converted into electricity. 1 7. The cyclones, or traveling whirlwinds, that occur in certain limited localities near the equa- tor, and which, in the northern hemisphere, al- ways move first north-west and then north-east, are probably caused in each instance, by the nor- mal current of one hemisphere overflowing into the opposite, to fill a vacuum produced by great local heat. When the westerly impulse given to tlie cyclone by the intruding current is exhausted, it moves easterly for the same reason that all the other polevv ard currents do. astrogene:a: A THEORY OF THE FORMATION OF PLANETARY SYSTEMS. BY J. STANLEY G-RIMES. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, by J, STANLEY GRIMES, In the Clerk's Office of the Eastern District of Michigan. DAILY POST PRE88, DETROIT. CONTENTS, SECTION I.— iN-moDucTioN. SECTION II.— -FOKMATION OF THE SOLAK SYSTEM ; CAUSE OF THE Relative MAajsriTUDES and Den- sities OF the Planets. SECTION III. — Intervals; Common Difference of the Orbital Telocities of Planets. SECTION IV.— Serial Relations of the Planets* SECTION v.— CoilPARATIVE ASTROGENEA. SECTION YI.— Physical Cause of Gravitation; Cause OF THE Sun's Heat; Cause of the In- ternal Heat of the Earth. ASTROGENEA. SECTION I. . INTRODUCTION. THE ancients possessed some correct ideas con- cerning astronomy; but the first important step toward a true theory of the solar system was taken by Copernicus. In the year 1543 he gave to the world the evidences, which he had long been accumulating, that the earth rotates upon its axis ; and that all the planets revolve, in concentric or- bits, fi'om west to east, around the sun. The proofs of this new doctrine were, however, so incomplete, that Tycho Brahe, fifty years afterward, rejected it ; and Lord Bacon regarded Copernicus as " a man who thinks nothing of introducing fictions of any kind into nature, provided his calculations turn out weU." But the revelations of the telescope, which Galileo first applied to astronomy in 1609, literally shed a flood of light upon the subject. It was foimd that the sun and all the known plan- ets revolve on their axes ; and that both Jupiter and Saturn are centers, around each of which a 134 INTRODUCnO]^. family of secondary planets revolve. The next great discovery was that made by Kepler. He demonstrated that the distances of any two plan- ets from the sun are so mathematically related to their orbital revolutions, that when one is known the other can readily be calculated ; the squares of the periods of two planets being, to each other, in the same ratio as the cubes of their mean distances. The reason of this intimate relation between the periods and the distances, was the next great dis- covery. It was made, or rather completed, by Newton. With the aid of suggestions and discove- ries previously made by Kepler, Galileo, Descartes and Picard, he demonstrated that the planets move in orbits around the sun, because they are acted upon by two different forces ; one of which is gravitation, and is directly as the mass of the sun, and inversely as the square of his distance. He did not pretend to give any theory of the ori- gin, or physical cause of gravitation ; but he proved that it operates in all known bodies by one invari- able law. The other force, which antagonizes grav- itation, and modifies its effects upon the motions of planets, is called centrifugal or tangential. The origin of this force is also unknown ; but it is sup- posed to result from a primitive impulse, received by each planet in the following manner : the nebu- lous matter of which planatary systems were prim- itively composed, was collected from a diffused state, into comet-like masses, situated not very dis- tant from each other in the regions of space. These INTRODUCTION^. 135 masses, by mutually attracting one another, came into collision. The necessary result was a whirl- ing or rotatory motion of the united mass, and the consequent generation of centrifugal force. If this was the origin of all axial rotations, as it probably was, it is not to be expected that any common law, or serial relation, will be found to exist among them, analogous to the other serial re- lations, which are discussed in a subsequent part of this essay. It is true that the known axial ro- tations of the planets are nearly in the same ratio as their magitudes ; but this coincidence is prob- ably fortuitous. By means of these discoveries of Kepler, New- ton and others, astronomers are now enabled to account for all the motions, periods and purturba- tions of the planets. There are, however, several prominent facts in regard to the solar system that have remained still unexplained. No reason has been given why the planets differ as they do in their magnitudes, their densities, or their intervals ; nor why they all agree in moving in the same di- rection, and in the same plane. It has, however, been suspected that these peculiarities are in some way related to the circumstances in which the planets were originally formed. ' The idea was vaguely expressed by Tycho, Kepler, Galileo, and even by Newton, that the sun and planets may be merely precipitations and aggregations of matter which had previously ex- isted, in a diffused state, in the regions of space. 136 INTRODUCTION. But Sir William Herschell was the first astronomer who remarked that the appearances assumed by some of the siderial masses, indicated that they may be planetary systems in a nebulous, mist-like, imperfect state of condensation, rotating upon their axes. He suggested that possibly a vast rotating globe, or wheel, of nebulous matter, may ultimately resolve itself into a sun and planets. Taking up the subject where Herschell had left it, Laplace undertook to conjecture concerning the manner in which the planets of our system became detached from the primitive nebulous wheel, of which they had once formed a part. He supposed that the nebulous matter was kept in a vaporous and expanded condition, by means of the great heat which it possessed ; and that the radiation of the heat caused the nebula to shrink into a smaller space. On mechanical principles, he knew that all the rotatory force possessed by the nebulous wheel in its expanded condition, would be retained in its more condensed state ; and therefore, the centri- fugal force would gradually increase, and at length become so great as to overcome the sun's attraction; consequently, the outer rim of the nebulous wheel would be detached from the main body, and constitute a separate rotating ring. In the same manner a second ring, and then a third was detached; and this was repeated until the sun alone remained. Each ring afterward became concentrated into a planet, in a manner which Laplace does not very clearly describe. IXTEODUCTIOX. 137 Notwithstanding some glaring defects in this "nebular hypothesis," it has been regarded as reasonable, and probably in the main true, by some able astronomers ; while, on the other hand, it has been unmercifully condemned by many- others. That the solar system has been evolTcd out of a single nebulous wheel, there are, to my mind, the most satisfactory proofs. The concentric, and al- most circular orbits in which the planets move, all in one dii'ection, from west to east, in nearly the same plane as the sun's equator, — can be accounted for upon no other rational theory. But, while we must admit that the sun and planets were origi- nally a single ^ mass, it does not follow that we must adopt the hypothesis of Laplace, concerning the manner in which the nebula was transformed into rings and planets. Independent of the new theory advanced in this essay, the most serious objection to the hy- pothesis of Laplace, is one which I have never seen mentioned. It is founded upon the dis- tribution of matter in the solar system. If we suppose all the matter to be divided into 768 parts, 767 of these are in the sun, and one part alone includes all the matter of the planets and satellites. Again, if we estimate all the matter of the planets, exclusive of the sun, as consisting of 475 parts, 338 of these parts are in Jupiter alone, and 101 parts are in Saturn. These two planets are included within the inner third of the distance from the sun to the orbit of Neptune: only 36 parts 12* 138 INTRODUCTION. are found in the outer two-thirds of the radius of the system. Surely centrifugal force could not have prevailed and thrown off the planets from the central part, while so large a proportion of the matter was movino; toward the centre. It is clear that centripetal force must have predominated dur- ing the formation of the planets, and that it came very near carrying the whole of the matter to the centre ; it came so near that it actually did carry 767 out of 768 parts of it there. We now begin to wonder what process it could be, that concen- trated so large a portion of the nebulous matter in a central space less than one million of miles in diameter, and yet allowed so small a portion as the 768th part to be scattered over a space about 6000 millions of miles in diameter. SECTION IL FORMATION OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM. CAUSE OF THE EELATIYE MAGNITUDES AXD DEN- SITIES OF THE PLANETS. The new theory which I propose concerning the formation of the solar system is all embraced in the following proposition: The relative raagnitudes^ densities cmd distances of the sun and planets^ are such as tcould necessarily residt from the axial ro- tation of a nebidous 7nass in a resisting medium. Jf we admit the existence of an etherial fluid, — such as that, the vibrations of which produce light and heat, — we must also admit that it will present a slight resistance to the passage of a body through it. By regarding the etherial fluid as analogous to atmospheric air, we can readily understand that the lighter a body is the greater will be the re- tarding efiect of the resistance. We can also un- derstand that the resistance of the medium will be in a direct ratio to the velocity of the body that moves through it. One of the objections, which it is said that Newton made to the now received theory of light, nam^y, that it is the vibratory or undulating motion of an etherial fluid, was, that such a fluid medium would deflect the planets from 140 FORMATION OF THE their normal and proper orbits, and cause them to move by spiral paths to the sun. The undulatory theory of light is now firmly established ; and the existence of a resisting medium cannot, therefore, be denied. Indeed, it seems impossible to avoid the conclusion that the fact of gravitation, itself, demonstrates the necessary existence of a medium through which that force is communicated from one planet to another : for it is certain that force cannot be communicated except through a material medium. When it was found that Encke's comet approach- ed nearer the sun with each revolution, — so that in thirty thousand years it must fall into it, — the ablest astronomers in Europe, after exhausting all other modes of explanation, finally concluded that the comet, being exceedingly light, is deflected in- ward by the resistance of the etherial air which it encounters in space ; and that it is, therefore, actu- ally pursuing a spiral path toward the sun. " Now it appears probable that this comet is approaching the Sun : on every successive appearance, its orbit appears somewhat contracted; and there is reason to believe that the contraction wiU go on nntil it ia either absorbed in that luminary, or altogether dissipated by ^^, beams. And after searching earnestly for some other cause, nrost inquirers are inclined to refer this extraordinary and hitherto unparalleled change, to a resisting medium or ether occupying the planetary spaces. " I cannot but express my belief," said Professor Airy, " that the princif&l part of the theory — viz., an effect exactly similar to that which a resisting medium would produce — ^is perfectly established by the reasoning in SOLAR SYSTEM. 141 Encke's memoir ;'* and similar opinions have been offered by other great authorities. * -^ ^ How singular is it that we should have been guided to a truth so remote and difBicult — one concerning which the grander phenomena of our system are silent — ^by the motions of a wandering object, in comparison with whose etherial nature, even one of these light flocculi or flakes of cloud, which scarce stain the sky of a summer evening, is heavy and substantial !" — Nichols. When the nebulous wheel, from whence the solar system was formed, commenced its rotation, it must have been composed of matter which was exceed- ingly attenuated; quite as much so as that of any comet, and, if possible, more so : it is, therefore, perfectly reasonable to presume that it was sub- jected to the influence of the same resisting medium which now has such a decided effect upon Encke's comet. K, at the commencement of its rotation, the nebula was no more dense or massive in the centre than elsewhere, the first effect of the resisting me- dium would be to cause a large portion of the lighter matter to accumulate there, and assume the office of a primary body — a sun. The attraction of this central mass would at once establish orbital motions in all the surrounding nebulous matter, whatever might be its form or condition. The laws of Kepler, so called, that now govern the motions of all secondaiy planets, must have con- troled the motions of the secondary nebulous mat- ter, that was thus necessarily forced to move in orbits or rings around the central body. Accord- 142 FORMATION OF THE ing to these laws, the portions that were nearest to the centre, but not actually attached to it, must have moved around it with the greatest velocity ; and those portions which were most remote, with the least velocity. Sir Charles Lyell, in his "Principles of Geology," objected to the prevailing opinions concerning geo- logical catastrophes ; and insisted that it was more philosophical to account for the changes which the earth has undergone, by referring them to the operation of still existing causes. I am not only a convert to his doctrine, but I would apply it to the formation of the planets. The same causes which now produce the differences of orbital velocities, were in operation before the planets were formed, and caused differences in the velocities of the chaotic materials of which the planets were sub- sequently composed. If all the planets could now be crumbled to dust, and that dust be scattered equally between the orbit of Neptune and that of Mercury, — each separate particle of the dust would have a tendency to move in an orbit of its own. This tendency would, in some degree, be overcome by the mutual attraction of the pg-rticles for each other ; and the result would be the formation of a series of concentric rings, differing in width and velocities : the width of the rings would increase, and the velocities decrease, in accordance with their increasing distances from the sun. In fact, the same law prevailed during the formation of the planets as that which now determines their relative velocities. SOLAR SYSTEM. 143 The velocity of Mercury is nine times greater than that of Neptune, — five times greater than that of Saturn ; three and a half times greater than that of Jupiter;, and twice as great as that of Mars. At the distance of nine millions of miles from the sun, the velocity of a body would be twice as great as that of Mercury ; and at the distance of four mil- lions it would be four times as great, or more than four hundred thousand miles an hour. It is plain, therefore, that the resisting medium would pro- duce its greatest effects between the sun and the orbit of Jupiter; and that its effects would be gradually ^ess as the orbital velocities decreased with the distances from the sun. To form a correct idea of the actual effects of the resisting medium, upon the form and proportions of the embryo solar system, or nebulous wheel, — we must consider what would necessarily have been the form of the nebula, if the resisting medium had not produced any effect upon its proportions. It is well kno-wn to mechanical philosophers that a fluid mass, rotating rapidly on its axis, must ne- cessarily tend to assume the form of an oblate spheroid, — a double convex lens — a wheel, thickest in the centre, and gradually thinner to the outer edge. This would have been the form of the em- bryo solar system, had it not been for the resisting etherial medium, and the greater orbital velocities of the secondary matter near the sun. In the very place (between the sun and Jupiter) where the planetary matter would otherwise have been most 144 FOEMATION OF THE abundanjb, the resisting medium caused it to be the least in quantity. The nebulous wheel, instead of being thickest at the centre and gradually thinner from the centre outwards, was, by the resisting medium, made thickest at the centre and at the orbit of Jupiter, and very thin between the sun and Jupiter, where the four small, dense planets are now situated. FiGUEE 1. The outer lines in figure 1 represent the primitive form which the nebulous mass would have possessed if there had been no resisting medium. The spaces A and B represent the matter which was swept into the centre, in consequence of its great velocity in- creasing the resistance. After the nebula had been denuded of most of its matter near the centre, it was thickest at the place (J) where Jupiter was formed, and much thinner be- tween the orbit of Jupiter and the sun, where the four small, interior planets are located. Beyond the orbit of Jupiter it gradually became thinner, so that Uranus and Neptune are very much smaller than Saturn. SOLAK SYSTEM. 145 CAUSE OF THE RELATITE DENSITIES OF THE PLAXETS. Let lis consider the effect of the resistino- me- dium, combined with the differences of orbital velocities, upon the relative densities of the planets. The matter comj^rising the embryo solar system was undoubtedly possessed of different degrees of density. The natural tendency of the condensing nebulous matter would be to form itself into a coimtless number of meteoric or comet-like masses ; each separate mass consisting of a dense central nucleus, and a less dense atmospheric envelope. Such, in fact, is now the actual constitution of the comets. The nebula became a vast wilderness of comets. As the resisting medium affected the lighter and more expanded matter more than it did the denser, it follows that there was a tendency of the atmospheric envelope, or outer portion of each mass, to become separated from the denser nucleus, and to move to the sun; leaving the denser portions behind to constitute planets and planetet- tes. The greater orbital velocities of the nebulous matter near the primary, caused all but the very densest portion of it to be swept into the sun. As the distance from the sun increased, the influence of orbital velocity was lessened, and the densities tended to decrease in the same ratio. Let us examine a table (l) of the densities, (ac- cording to Humboldt,) and compare them with the velocities of the same planets, to see how far they confirm this theory. 13 146 formation of the Table 1. Mercury, 123 110 Venus, 94 81 Earth, 100 68 Mars, 96 55 Jupiter, 24 30 Saturn, .14 22 Uranus, 18 15 Neptune, 23 12 It will be seen that from Mercury to Saturn the actual densities are generally accordant with our views ; beyond this point they increase in density, and thus appear at first thought to contradict theory. But, upon a more careful examination, we find that this apparent discrepancy is in reality a confirmation. The matter swept into the sun from the interior parts of the system was, in some de- gree, replaced by that swept inward from the mid- dle regions ; and that swept inward from the mid- dle regions was replaced by that from the outer regions : but the light matter swept inward from the outer regions could not be replaced ; and, there- fore, the outer planets would be more dense than those in the middle, while those in the interior would be the densest of all. The internal heat of celestial bodies must make some difference in their densities. The density of the sun is about the same as that of Jupiter ; and this is readily accounted for by the amazing heat which counteracts the vast force of gravity that presses toward his centre. In another essay, I have SOLAR SYSTEM. 147 attempted to show that all celestial bodies generate heat internally, in the direct ratio of their masses, by the assimilation and condensation of etherial mat- ter, and the conversion of its expansive force into radiant force. If this is true, the larger planets will, all else equal, be less dense than the smaller ones. The mutual attractions and purturbations of of the embryo planets, during the countless ages of their progressive formation, must have had some influence upon their relative magnitudes and densi- ties, and, perhaps, also upon their intervals. The attraction of an immense exterior mass, like Jupi- ter, would certainly prevent much of the light mat- ter from reaching the orbit of Mars ; this would not only account for the anomalous smallness, but also for the great density of Mars. The second satellite of Jupiter occupies an analogous relative position, and, like Mars, it is remarkably small and dense. At the first thought, it would seem that, according to this theory, the magnitudes of the planets should be successively greater from Mercury to Neptune ; whereas, they only increase outwardly to Jupiter, and then decrease. A little examina- tion will show us that the facts are in strict ac- cordance with the requirements of theory. It should be recollected that the tendency of rotation was to make the nebulous wheel thickest in the centre and gradually thinner to the outer edge ; and that the influence of the resisting medium did not change this form, except between the orbit of Jupiter and the sun. Beyond Jupiter the form re- 148 FOEMATION OF THE mained the same as if there had been no resisting medium: that is to say, the wheel became gradual- ly thinner from Jupiter to the outer edge. This is in accordance with the fact that Saturn is smaller than Jupiter, and Uranus and Neptune smaller than either. This theory is doubly confirmed by the satellitic systems of Jupiter and Saturn. In each of these the distribution of matter is essentially the same as in the solar system. There is, first, a central primary, containing many times more matter than all the secondaries together; second, there are several small secondaries near the primary; third, there is one giant secondary, containing more mat- ter than all the other secondaries of that system to- gether; fourth, beyond the giant are one or more smaller bodies with wide intervals. Figures 2, 3 and 4 represent very clearly the analogies of tlie three systems, and are well calculated to impress our minds with the idea that a common law operated in their formation, though modified by the peculiarities of each sys- tem. The dotted line around the solar system represents the primitive nebula from which it is supposed that the planets were formed. A single glance at the figures is sufiicient to show that as Jupiter is a giant among the planets, so is Ganymede a giant among Jupiter's satellites, and so also is Titan a giant among the satellites of Saturn. The analogies would doubtless ap- pear much more striking if all the undiscovered bodies in all the systems could be represented. In the present sys- tems of Astronomy, these common points of resemblance are entirely meaningless. Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, SOLAK SYSTEM. FiGUEE 2. — Solar System. 149 Jupiter, \ f i Mars,. ^ Earth, . , Yenus, . Mercury, sxnsr. 150 FORMATION OF THE Fig. 3. — Jur. System. Fig. 4. — Sat. System. ' Japetus, ^ Callisto, Ganymede, , Europa, . lo. S Hyperion, Titan, Rhea, ^ Dione, ^ Tethys, @ Enceladus, ^ Mimas, © SOLAR SYSTEM. 151 INTEE-PLAXETARY SPACES, AND THE RELATIVE ORBITAL VELOCITIES OF THE PRIMITIVE RINGS AND PLA^^ETS. I agree with Laplace, that the nebula was first divided into rings, and that each planet was formed by the concentration of the matter of a single ring into a globular mass ; so that the intervals, could they all be accurately known, would indicate the width of the rings that once filled the same spaces. But I propose to give a very different explanation from that of Laplace, of the manner in which the rings were separated from the parent nebula and from each other. My idea is that a nebula could not rotate in a resisting medium, without having a large proportion of its lighter matter drawn into its centre. The great central mass, thus accumulat- ed, would necessarily assume the office and power of a primary planet, and compel all the nebulous matter in the neighborhood to perform the offices of secondary bodies: that is to say, the matter near the sun would either rush into its bosom, or revolve in concentric orbits around the centre. The mutual attraction of all the parts of the nebula would tend to bind it together, in rigid con- nection with the central mass, like the parts of a vast planet. This aggregating tendency would be opposed by the tendency of the matter, at different distances from the sun, to move with different orbital velocities. The greater the difference of any two portions of the nebulous matter in their 152 FORMATION OF THE distances from the sun, the greater must have been their tendencies to a difierence of orbital velocities. If the cohesive or aggregating tendency could have been sufficiently powerful, the whole nebula Avould have remained in a single mass. If, on the con- trary, the tendency to differ in orbital motion could have been unopposed, there would have been a di- vision of the nebula into an almost infinite number of concentric rings, each of which would have moved with a greater velocity the nearer it was to the sun. These two forces antagonized each other; one tending to prevent the formation of any rings, and the other tending to the formation of a count- less number of rings of extreme narrowness : the necessary result of the antagonism was a com- promise. A limited number of rings were formed, which were wider the farther removed they were from the central primary. Let us illustrate this proposition. If a row of bodies could be arranged so as to extend in a radial line from the sun to the orbit of Xeptune, the mutual attraction of those bodies would tend to preserve the line unbroken ; but the differences in their orbital velocities would not permit this. The line would be broken up into a definite number of shorter lines ; the longest line in the series being the one most distant from the sun, and the shortest the one nearest to the sim. The length of the lines would be regulated by the ratio in which the velocities decreased with dis- tances. This is a perfect illustration of the manner in which rings were formed. sectio:n" m. INTERVALS AND COMMON DIFFERENCE OF THE ORBITAL VELOCITIES. LET us denominate the nebulous matter that moved around the embryo sun, secondary mat- ter. Let us represent the force of aggregation, or mutual attraction between the particles of the sec- ondaiy matter, by the number 1,582. This aggre- gating tendency was the same in all parts of the disk of secondary matter; it was equal to 1,582 in the inner, the middle and the outer parts. The tendency of this cohesive force of 1,582 was to pre- vent the formation of rings. Of course, no rings could be formed without overcoming it. The dif- ferences in orbital velocities were opposed to it. But it required a certain difference of distance from the sun to obtain a difference of velocities sufficient to antagonize 1,582. Not only so, it requii-ed a greater difference of distance to overcome 1,582, the further the secondary matter was situated from the sun. Whenever the difference of distance was so great, in any place, as to cause a difference of orbital velocities equal to 1,582 miles per hour, ag- gregation or cohesion was overcome, and a separate ring was formed. It follows, that since there was a common force of 1,582 to overcome, there must 14 154 INTERYALS AND * have been a common force at least equal to 1,582 to overcome it ; and any two consecutive rings must, all else equal, have differed ui orbital veloci- ties 1,582. If all the riftgs had been formed into planets, they also would have differed 1,582. If several rings, from any cause, were prevented from becoming planets, then those planets that loere formed would differ in their orbital velocities twice 1,582, or thrice, or four times, or some greater mul- tiple of 1,582. By referring to the following tables, it will be seen that the actual velocities of the known planets and satellites are in remarkable ac- cordance with this theory. It will be noticed that each system has a different number for its common difference, though all are subject to the same Imo. EXPLAl!^ATI0N OF TABLE 2. In the following table, tlie difference between the velocity of Mercmy and tliat of Yenus is put down as 1,582, multi- plied by 19, which is equal to 30,058. This being deducted from tlie velocity of Mercury, leaves 80,682 for the velocity of Yenus. Again, 1,582 is multiplied by 8, and the product, 12,656, is deducted from 80,682, leaving 68,026 for the velo- city of Earth. Proceeding in this manner, I show that 1,582 comes very near being a common divisor of all the dif- ferences of the orbital velocities ; so near, indeed, as to force upon us the belief that the rings, from which the planets were formed, must have originally had a common difference of their orbital velocities of very nearly 1,582. In a parallel column I have placed the actual velocities, taken from Dr. Lardner's hand book of Astronomy, to show how closely they agree with those derived from theory. - DirrEEE:s'CE of yelocities. 155 Table 2. eelatiye oebital yelocities. Theoretical Actual Velocities. Velocities. Miles per hour. Miles per hour. l._Velocit7 of Mercury, 110,740 110,725 Subtract 1,582 x 19= 30,058 2.— Velocity of Venus, 80,682 81,000 Subtract 1,582 x 8= 12,656 3.— Velocitv of Earth, 68,026 68,090 Subtract 1,582 x 8= 12,656 4.— Velocity of Mars, 55,370 55,812 Subtract 1,582 x 16= 25,312 5.— Velocity of Jupiter, 30,058 30,203 Subtract 1,582 x 5= . , 7,910 6.— Velocitv of Saturn, 22,148 22,306 Subtract 1,582 x 4= 6,328 7.— Velocitv of Uranus, 15,820 15,730 Subtract 1,582 x 2= 3,164 8.— Velocity of Neptune, 12,656 12,570 Table 3 relatiye oebital yelocities of the satellites of jupitee. Theoretical Actual Velocities. Velocities, Miles per hour. Miles per hour 1.— Velocitv of lo, 38,772 38,772 Subtract 7,000 2.— Velocity of Europa, 31,772 30,716 Subtract 7,000 3.— Velocity of Ganymede, 24,772 24,513 Subtract 7,000 4— Velocity of Callisto, 17,772 17,743 156 INYERYALS AND Table 4. relative oebital velocities of the satellites of satur]s^. Theoretical Actual Velocities. Velocities. Miles per hour. Miles per hour. 1.— Yelocity of Mimas 34,986 34,986 Subtract 714 x 5= 3,570 2._Velocitv of Enceladus, 31,416 30,975 Subtract 714 x 5= 3,570 3._Velocity of Tethys, 27,846 27,776 Subtract 714 x 5=: ^ 3,570 4._-.Velocit7 of Dione 24,276 24,516 Subtract 714x5= 3,570 5._yelocity of Rhea, 20,706 20,763 Sabtract 714 x 10= 7,140 6.— Yelocity of Titan, , . . . 13,566 13,635 Subtract 714 x 2= 1,428 7._Yelocity of Hyperion, 12,138 12,215 Subtract 714x6= 4,284 8._Velocity of Japetus, 7,854 7,968 Table 5. relative velocities of the satellites of URANUS. Theoretical Actual Velocities. Velocities. Miles per hour. Mies per hour. l.—Yelocity of the 1st, 12,500 12,500 Subtract 600 x 2= 1,200 2._Velocity of the 2nd, 11.300 11,200 Subtract 600x2= 1,200 3.— Velocity of the 3rd, 10,100 10,056 Subtract 600 x 2 = 1,200 4.— Yelocity of the 4th, 8,900 8,828 Subtract 600 600 5.— Velocity of the 5th, 8,300 8,178 Subtract 600 600 6.-^Velocity of the 6th, 6,700 7,636 DIFFERENCE OF VELOCITIES. 157 I was led to discover the law of common dif- ference of planetary velocities in the following manner. In 1857 I printed a small volume, en- titled "Geonomy, or the Creation of the Conti- nents." In writing an introduction to a proposed new edition of that work, I attempted to make a brief statement, and a plausible defense, of the nebular hypothesis of Laplace. Being thus led to examine the subject critically, I convinced myself that the hypothesis is erroneous. I therefore en- deavored to frame a more reasonable theory in its stead. After many unsuccesful experiments, I at length succeeded in producing the theory, that the relative magnitudes and densities of the planets are owing to the rotation of the nebula in a resisting medium ; and that the rings were separated by the antagonism between the aggregating tendency and the differences of the orbital velocities. I gave the substance of this theory in a public lecture, in the winter of 1860, before the members of the Mer- cantile Library Association, in Boston. Shortly afterward it occurred to my mind that if this theory is true, there should be some evidence of it found in the actual relative velocities of the known planets and satellites. I proceeded at once to con- struct tables of the orbital velocities, and was, of course, much gratified to find my theory confirmed in such a remarkable manner. A brief and imper- fect statement of this discovery was published at the time in the Scientijie American; but I have not, until now, been able to present the subject to 158 i:ntervals and the friends of science in a systematic form, and in connection with the serial relations of the square roots of the distances. DEFINITE WIDTH OF THE RINGS OR INTERVALS, AND THE LAWS OF THEIR INCREASE WITH DISTANCE FROM THE SUN. I have said that the rings must have been nar- rower the nearer they were to the sun. The reason is that it requires less difference of the distances near the sun to obtain a given difference (1,582) ol or- bital velocities. This will be seen by inspecting the tables which represent the velocities and distances of the planets. The two known planets that differ most in orbital velocities, are those nearest to the sun and to each other, namely, Venus and Mercury; they differ in their velocities nearly 30,000 miles per hour, yet they differ in distances from the sun only 27 millions of miles. The two known planets that differ least in their velocities, are those most distant from the sun and from each other, namely, Neptune and Uranus ; they differ in distances about 1,000 millions of miles, but in orbital velocities they differ only 3,160 miles per hour, which is nine times less than the difference between Venus and Mercury. Since the nearer bodies are to the sun the less difference of distances was required to ob- tain 1,582 difference in orbital velocities, it neces- sarily follows that the rings must have been wider the further they were from the sun. DIFFERENCE OF VELOCITIES. 159 Figure 5, COMMON DIFFERENCE IK ORBITAL VELOCITIES. H INTERVALS OF THE PLANETS. Miles per hour, 1582 ' '864 millions of miles from Hercules to Neptune. Miles per hour, 1582 1 ,.592 from Neptune to Pluto. Miles per hour, 1582 424 from Pluto to Uranu?. Miles per hour, 1582' Miles per hour, 1582 1 f^ Miles per hour, 1582 Miles per hour, 1582 11^. 313 from Uranus to Apollo. .239 from Apollo to Miner v a 185 from Minerv^a to Yulcan. . .13T from Vulcan to Saturn. This figure illustrates at a glance tlie idea that wliile tlie planets may have a common difference of 1582 miles per hour in their orbital velocities, they have an increasing dif- ference in their intervals of space which is represented by the numbers increasing from 137 to 864 millions of miles. FORMATION OF PLxVNETS FROM RINGS The nebula must have become divided into rings as soon as the sun was sufficiently large and at- tractive to establish orbital motions in the sur- 160 FORMATION OF ASTEROIDS. rounding secondary matter. We have already- seen reason to conclude that the resisting medium caused the nebulous matter to move interiorly by spiral paths toward the sun. This proceeding did not stop when the rings were formed ; on the contrary, it was probably the means of forming rings into planets. A large mass of the lighter portions of nebulous matter, situated in the outer part of a ring, would be certain to move spirally to the inner edge ; in doing this it would, of course, attract to itself nearly all the matter of the ring, and thus form a globular planet. Two masses, moving in the same orbit, at a great distance from each other, would never come together. But let one of the masses be com|)osed of much lighter materials than the other, and the resisting medium would have a greater effect upon it, and cause it to move in more open spirals, and thus enable it to get the inside tract and overtake the other ; or, at least, come so near to it as to attract it to itself and add it to its own mass. It was in this manner that I suppose that the rings were transformed into planets. FORMATION OF ASTEROIDS. We can readily understand how, on this hy- pothesis, many of the rings were prevented from becoming planets. If one of the rings were very massive, as in the case of that from which Jupiter was formed, its attraction would prevent the next FORMATION OF ASTEROIDS. 161 interior ring or rings from undergoing the pro- cess already described as necessary to the for- mation of a planet : that is to say, the spiral in- ward movement of the light matter in the outer part of the ring, would be retarded, or entirely prevented, by the attraction of the massive exterior ring. This retardation would be the most likely to take place in the interior parts of the system, where the rings were very narrow. We know that there is a zone of asteroids, about one hundred millions of miles wide, in the interval between the orbits of Juj)iter and Mars. According to the theory here advocated, there were originally fifteen rings in this interval. The attraction of Jupiter has rendered them all asteroids ; that is to say, it has prevented the inward spiral movement which was necessary to form each of them into a normal planet ; and thus it forced them to become aggre- gated into a great number of planetettes, which are abnormally small and near each other. Is it not a strong presumptive proof of the truth of this theory that the regular planets are all soli- tary ? In no instance do we find two moving in the same orbit, or the same zone ; nor does any planet come near the orbit of another. If the rings had been broJceii up by any such accidents as the advocates of the nebular hypothesis commonly imagine, the inevitable consequence would have been that, in some instances, several planets, or fragments, would have the same or nearly the same orbit. 14* 162 FORMATION OF ASTEROIDS. The following somewhat poetical account of the nebular hypothesis is from Nichol's Cyclopedia of the Physical Sciences : Has our reader walked in a mood of tranquil thought along the side of a quiet river, Tvliose waving banks re- flect a thousand currents, by the intermingling of which numerous' dimples or whirlpools are produced — their easy course only marking the river's stillness ? Has he followed these dimples as they pursue each other in gambol, and watched the phenomenon of the near approach of two or three? Then may he have witnessed the secret of the mystery of the double and triple stars ! When one of these dimples approaches the vortex of another, the two begin to revolve around ea<^7i other ; and in fact they must, on ap- proximation, act upon each other as two wheels ; so that a revolution of each around the other must immediately supervene, and increase in rapidity, until by external pressure they are forced into one. If such single neighboring nuclei were rotating, it would be precisely a case of two contiguous whirlpools ; and how could revolutionary motion 'be prevented ? Two such masses in approximate contact must originate such a motion : as the principle of gravity draws the nuclei nearer each other, the velocity of revolution must manifestly in- crease ; and the two bodies would constitute themselves into a stable system when the rapidity of revolution sufficed to counterbalance their mutual attraction. It is known to mechanics, that a grindstone may be made to revolve with a rapidity sufficient to cause splinters to fly from its rim, and even the whole rim to break in pieces — indicating that the centrifugal force of the rim with that velocity, more than counterbalances the mutual attraction or cohesion of the particles of the stone. Now if the rim, in- stead of being formed of brittle stone, had consisted of an elastic belt, say of caoutchouc, what would result in such a case ? Clearly a separation of the rim from the mass of the FORMATION OF ASTEROIDS. 163 rotating body; it would expand somewhat, just as tlie orbit of a planet in a similar position ; and, if other circumstances permitted, it would revolve around the stone as a separate ring at a distance where the balance or equilibrium of the forces would be restored. First, As the separation of the rings resulted from the centrifugal tendency of the particles composing them, and as tliis centrifugal tendency must always be greatest at the equatorial region of the rotatory mass, the rings must all lie nearly in the plane of tJiat equator. Therefore, we are en- titled to conclude, that into whatever forms or bodies these rings may ultimately be resolved these hodks must all lie in nearly one plane — the plane, viz., of the equator of the central globe. Secondly, The rings being circular, or, what is the same thing, the motion of each particle composing them being circular, the orbits or paths of whatever bodies are ultimate- ly formed out of them, must also he nearly circular. Thirdly, As the rings must continue to move as the nebula was moving when they were abandoned, the planets into which they may be resolved must all move in the same di- rection — that viz., of tlie rotation of the centred orb or sun. Our subject is thus rapidly simplifying. We have already — even at this stage — deduced from this memorable hypothesis the necessity of the principcd three of those fimdamental arrangements which gravity could not explain. But let us proceed. Resuming our direct investigation, we inquire now what forms would such rings most probably ultimately assume ? There are three possible forms : — 1. The mass, if tolerably equable in its original constitution, and imdisturbed from without, might settle down into a rotating ring ; but the chances against such a result are so numerous, that we would expect the phenomenon to be very rare in the Uni- verse. 2. If the mass broke up or separated while condens- ing — as its own internal irregularities would, in all probabi- 164 FORMATION OF ASTEROIDS. lity, constrain it to do — ^it might divide into a number of por- tions so equal in attractive energy, that none of them would have any tendency to coalesce with, or fall into the others ; so that the ring would ultimately be transformed into a num- ber of distinct small solid bodies, revolving around the central mass at nearly the same distance from it. 3. Even this second supposition, however, is not a very probable one, in- asmuch as its essential condition — the separation of the mass of the ring into equally balanced nuclei — could, in the nature of things, occur but rarely. By far the likeliest result is the division of the ring into nuclei of unequal power — the larger of which would, by its superior attrac- tion, assume the others into its mass — the whole solidifying into one considerable globe. According to our theory, asteroids would be cer- tain to be formed in the interior jjarts of the sys- tem where the rings were narrow, and where an exterior ring or planet was very massive. If we examine the table, we shall see that fifteen rings have been rendered asteroidal by the powerful at- traction of Juj)iter exterior to them. If our reasoning may be relied upon, there are asteroids within fifty millions of miles of Jupiter's orbit, though none have yefc been found within two hun- dred millions ; there are also asteroids within ten millions of miles of the orbit of Mars, though none have been seen within fifty millions of miles. The same influence of Jupiter which prevented the known asteroids from becoming planets, came very near preventing the creation of Mars. It has evi- dently prevented a large portion of the matter, that normally belonged to him, from reaching him. rOE]VIATION OF ASTEROIDS. 165 It has thus rendered him abnormally small and dense, besides depriving him of a moon, and nearly preventing him from inheriting even an atmosphere. It is difficult, now, to determine how much the at- traction of Jupiter influenced the formation of the earth ; but, in conjunction with Mars, our theory indicates that it has rendered seven rings asteroidal between the orbits of Mars and of our planet. It also indicates that one of the primitive rings was within four millions of miles of the earth. Does not this ag^ree with the observations which have been made in relation to the zodiacal light ? Be- tween the earth and Venus seven rings existed, one of which was within three and a half millions of miles of the earth's orbit. The large mass and the great density of Yenus probably prevented that planet from being rendered asteroidal by the at- traction of the earth. The formation of a moon was actually prevented, in all probability, by the earth's influence, together with that of the nearest rings. Between Venus and Mercury are eighteen rings : nor is this surprising when we consider that the rings in this interval were only from one to three millions of miles wide ; and that Venus, a large exterior body, aided by the earth, was op- posed to their concentration. Of course. Mercury, under these circumstances, could not have a satel- lite. Between Mercury and the sun the rings be- came so rapidly narrowed, and so numerous, that normal planets were out of the question. We can now understand the reason of the greater space be- 166 FORMATION OF ASTEROIDS. tween the sun and Mercury than between Mercury and Venus, or between Venus and the earth. The same fact exists in Jupiter's system of satellites, and also in that of Saturn : the space between the primary and the nearest secondary is greater than between the first and second satellites. Our theory indicates that there were four primitive rings be- tween the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn, which must have all been rendered asteroidal. Between Uranus and Saturn there were three rings, all of which may now exist in the fonn of planets, though as yet they are undiscovered. The influence of Saturn may possibly have prevented the rmg near- est to his orbit from forming a planet ; but I can- not doubt that the other two (denominated Apollo and Minerva in the tables) actually exist, and that they will yet be discovered in the orbits indicated in the tables. Between Uranus and Xeptune there is probably another planet, Pluto, whose velocity, 14,238 miles per hour, is a mean between that of Neptune, 12,570, and that of Uranus, 15,730 miles per hour. The distance of Pluto from the sun is 2,230 millions of miles. Being 600 millions from Neptune, and 400 from Uranus, it could not have been made asteroidal by their influences. If, there- fore, a ring ever did exist in this interval, a planet is moving in it now. bode's law. 167 bode's law of the planetary distances. Kepler was the first astronomer who noticed the fact that the intervals between the planets become greater as we proceed outward from the centre. He also noticed that the interval between Jupiter and Mars, and also that between Venus and Mer- ciuy, was too great for the rule. He therefore suggested, or rather predicted, with the bold enthu- siasm that characterized him, that a new planet would be discovered in each of those intervals. Prof. Bode, of Berlin, has expressed the idea of the increasing intervals, by a scheme of numbers, which is known as ^^ BocWs TjClw!''^ It is as follows: Mer. Ven. Earth. Mars. Ast. Jup. Sat. Uran. Nept. 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 3 6 12 24 48 96 192 384 4 7 10 16 28 52 100 196 388 3-9 7-3 10 15-2 27-4 '52 95-4 192 300 The first line of figures is a repetition of 4 ; th'e second line begins with 0, then 3, next twice 3, then four times 3, and so on. The third line is ob- tained by adding the figures of the two upper lines together. The fourth, or last line, represents the actual distances of the planets from the sun. Althoug:h Prof. Bode could oiye no reason for the law or relation of the distances, which he and others had obsei-ved, we can now, by the light of the principles which have been explained in this essay, perceive that Bode's law has \i^ foundation in na- 168 bobe's law. ture. The primitive rings, or (which is the same thing) the planetary intervals, actually did in- crease in width bv a reg^ular law, thouQ^h it was not identical with that of Bode. The real cause of the increase in the width of the ringrs with dis- tance from the primary, was the rate of the de- crease of the velocities. This rendered a greater difference of distance necessary to produce a ring in the outer part of the system than in the interior. Had the decrease of the velocities been uniform, that is, so much for each mile, the rings would have been of a uniform width. The increase in the width of the rings^ therefore^ was in the same ratio as the departure of the decrease of the velocities from uniformity. Imperfect as Bode's law is, astronomers have hitherto 230ssessed no other means by which to judge, or even to conjecture, concerning the proba- ble distances of undiscovered j^lanets. When as- tronomers found that the perturbations of Uranus indicated the existence of an unknown j^lanet, be- yond the orbit of Uranus, they had no means whatever of guessing its distance, except the mere fact that from the Earth to Uranus the intervals are about doubled. Leverrier and Adams, therefore, predicted that Xeptune would be found about eigrht hundred millions of miles farther from the sun than he actually is. K the law of common difference of velocities had then been known, this mistake would not have been committed. It is a curious fact that our theory indicates that Hercules, bode's law. 169 the next planet (in the table) beyond the orbit of If eptune, is very nearly the same distance from the sun as Leverrier and Adams supposed Xeptune to be. May it not be that the calculations of those two eminent astronomers were more correct than has been supposed, and that Hercules, and not Jfeptune was the planet for which they were look- ing ? (See the tables.) Hansen, one of the ablest astronomers in Europe, declared, before Xeptune was discovered, that the pertui-bations of Uranus indicated two distui-bmg unknown planets : our theory and tables indicate more than two. Some yery distinguished mathematicians haye expressed doubts whether the calculations of Ley enier really indicated the existence of Xeptune ; and are inclined to look upon its discovery by Dr. Galle as a for- tunate accident. K this is true, it follows that the disturber or disturbers of Uranus, one or more, are yet to be found. Let us hope that the serial rela- tions herein explained may contribute to their discovery. 15 SECTION IV. SERIAL RELATIONS OF THE PLANETS. THE Telocity of Mercury, tlie planet nearest to the sun, is, (according to Lardner,) 110,725 miles per hour, which is, of course, greater than the velocity of any other planet. If a series of rings originally existed that differed 1,582 miles per hour in their orbital velocities, it foUoTvs that each successive ring beyond Mercury had an orbi- tal velocity of 1,582 less than its next interior ring. If we call the orbital velocity of Mercury 110,740 miles per hour, and divide that number by 1,582, we obtain a quotient of 70 without any remainder. There could not, therefore, have been more than 70 rings, beyond and including Mercury ; for the rea- son that beyond the 70th a difference of 1,582 could not be obtained. The outermost possible ring had an orbital velocity of just 1,582 miles per hour; the second ring just twice 1,582; the thkd thrice 1,582, and so on to Mercury, which must have a velocity of just 70 times 1,582 — equal tollO ,740. It is upon this principle that what I call the serial relati07iSj are founded. In constructing the following tables, I have adopted 1,582 miles per hour as the common differ ence of orbital velocities, because I thus avoid the OF THE PLANETS. I7l necessity of using fractions ; though, perhaps, this number is not as near the truth as 1580. For the same reason I have assumed that 110,740 is the orbital velocity of Mercury, instead of 110,725, which is probably more correct. These slight variations are, however, unessential. EXPLANATION OF TABLE 6. The first or left hand column of figures is a repetition of 1,582, the common difference. The second column contains a series of numbers from 1 to 70, which I denominate the serial numbers, because they represent the series of rings; the most distant possible ring, or planet, (Chaos) being 1. The third column contains the orbital velocities of the rings, or planets, obtained by multiplying 1582 successively by the several serial numbers. The fourth column contains the ac- tual velocities, so placed that they can readily be compared with the theoretical numbers in the third column. Common -„i Square Roots Squares or A«f„oi Square Root lumbers «^ Theoretical p^t^nces of the Series. J^^i^bers. Distances. Distances. -t^istances. Callisto.... 24,895.3 -f- 22 = 1,131.6045 1,280,529 1,152,000 Gan^Tnede 24,895.3 " 30 " 829.843 688,639 680,000 Europa ...24,895.3 " 38 " 652.771 425,100 426,500 lo 24,895.3 " 48 " 518.651 269,000 269,000 The first, or left-hand column in table 11 contains 24,895.3 repeated. This number was obtained by multiplying 518.651, the square root of the distance of lo, the nearest of Jupiter's satellites, by its serial number, 48. The second column con- tains the serial numbers, by which 24,895.3 is successively divided to produce the square roots in the third column ; the squares of which are the theoretical mean distances in the fourth column. The fifth column contains the actual mean distances. seriai. relations of the orbital velocities of Saturn's satellites. explanation of table 12. Let us now examine the system of Saturn's satellites, and apply the foregoing principles to them. The orbital velocity of Mimas, the satellite nearest to Saturn, is 34,986 miles per hour. This number divided by 714, the common difference, gives a quotient of 49, which is therefore assumed as the serial number of Mimas. The most distant possible satellite of this series has a theoretical velocity of 714 miles per hour, which is the same as the common difference. Japetus, the most distant known satellite of Saturn, has 11 for his serial number, because his velocity is 11 times 714 miles per hour The following table (12) will now be understood. OF THE PLANETS. 181 Table 12. Names of known Common Serial '^^loHtief Actual Velocities-^ . Satellites. Difference. Numbers. jYi^gg p_ j^^^j.. ^^^^®^ P^^ ^°'^'^' 714 X 1 = 714 714 " 2 " 1,428 714 " 3 " 2,142 714 " 4 " 2,856 714 " 5 '' 3,570 714 " 6 " 4,284 714 " 7 " 4,998 714 " 8 " 5,712 714 " 9 " 6,426 714 " 10 " 7,140 Japetus 714 '' 11 " 7,854 7,968 Hyperion 714 " 17 " 12,138 12,215 TiW 714 '' 19 " 13,566 13,635 Rhea.... 714 " 29 " 20,706 20,776 Dione 714 " 34 " 24,276 24,516 TethTs 714 " 39 " 27,846 27,776 Enceiadus 714 ^' 44 " 31,416 - 30,975 Mimas 714 '' 49 " 34,986 34,986 seeial relatioxs of the square roots of taxces of s satellites. THE distances OF SATURX's explanation of table 13. We T\411 next examine table 13 of the square roots of the distances of Saturn's satellites. The mean distance of Mi- mas, the nearest satellite, is 126,000 miles. The square root of this number is 35.5, which, if multiplied by the serial number 49, gives a product of 1,740, which is the square root of the distance of the most distant possible satellite of this series. 1,740 being divided by the serial number of any sattelite of this series, gives, for a quotient, the square root of the mean distance of that satellite. The tables of Saturn's serial relations are interesting on accoimt of the remarkable resemblance which they bear to those of the solar system. 182 SEEIAL RELATIONS Table 13. Saturn's system Satellite's Serial Square roots of the Theoretical Actual known Names. Numbers. mean distances. distances. distance. 1,740 -f- 1 — 1740. 1,740 2 a 870. 1,740 3 a 580. 1,740 4 a 435. 1,740 5 ii 348. 1,740 6 {< 290. 1,740 7 a 249. 1,740 8 a 217. 1,740 9 ti 193. 1,740 10 (I 174. Japetus. . 1,740 11 (( 158. 2,496,000 2,414,000 1,740 12 (( 145. 1,740 13 n 134. 1,740 14 (( 124. 1,740 15 a 116. 1,740 16 a 109. HTperion. 1,740 17 (( 102. 1,080,000 1,050,000 1,740 18 a 97. Titan.... 1,740 19 a 91.5 837,000 800,000 Ehea.... 1,740 29 i( 60. 360,000 358,000 Dione . . . . 1,740 34 u 51. 260,000 256,000 Tethys... 1,740 39 a 44.6 200,000 200,000 Enceladui 5 1,740 44 ii 39.5 156,000 161,000 Mi "mas. . . 1,740 49 a 35.5 126,000 126,000 SERIAL RELATIONS OF THE SATELLITES OF URANUS. EXPLANATION OF TABLE 14. The satellites of Uranus are yet the subjects of discussion and doubt, and their elements are generally regarded by astronomers as unsettled. In constructing table 14, I have put down four of the satellites according to Dr. Lardner. The two nearest satellites to the primary are not mentioned OF THE PLAJS^ETS. 183 by him, and have been but lately discovered. I find their distances stated in Nichol's Cyclopedia of the Physical Sciences; and from this datum I have calculated their orbital velocities. The agreement of the actual velocities of this series of six satellites with those derived from theory, is, under the circumstances, remarkable; and indicates that the observations of astronomers are not far wrong. There are two other and more distant satellites in this system, the 7th and 8th from the primary, (A. and B.,) which the elder Herschell announced that he saw through his telescope ; and although he recorded their elements, no other astronomer has since been able to find them : it is con- sequently supposed that Herschell was mistaken. He puts down the velocities of these doubtful satellites, (See Lard- ner's Hand Book of Astronomy,) one as 3,816 miles per hour, and the other as 5,398 miles per hour. If the law of common difference may be relied upon, Herschell was cer- tainly mistaken, either in his record or in his calculations. But it is possible that he was not mistaken in his ohserva- tions. He may actually have seen both of them, but com- mitted an error in regard to their positions. Apply- ing the law of common difference, we find that these two satellites, if they exist, have, one a velocity of 4,036, (in- stead of 3,816,) and the other 5,236, (instead of 5,392), miles per hour. 184 be rial relations Table 14. satellites of traints. Theoretical velocities. Actual velocitie*. Miles per hour. Miles per hour. Velocity of A, a doubtful satellite 4,036 3,816(?) Add 600x2 = 1,200 Velocity of B, a doubtful sateUite. 5,2.S6 5,398(?) Add 600x4= 2,400 Velocity of C, a known satellite . . . 7,636 7,636 Add 600 600 Velocity of J), a known satellite . . . 8,236 8,178 Add 600 600 Velocity of E, a known satellite. . 8,836 8,828 Add 600x2= 1,200 Velocity of F, a known satellite. . 10,036 10,056 Add 600x2= 1,200 Velocity of G, a known satellite. . 11,236 11,200 Add 600x2= 1,200 Velocity of H, a known sateUite. . 12,436 12,500 Note.— I have, in the above table, put down the actual velocity of A as 3,816, and of B, 5,398, but I only mean that these are their actual ve- locities according to the calculations of Sir William Herschell, which are probably erroneous. SECTION V. COMPARATIVE ASTEOaENEA. IF we compare the solar and the several satellitic systems with each other, we find that there are not only many points of resemblance, but also some particulars in which they are very different. It would seem that the system of Jupiter, of Saturn, of Uranus, and even of the Earth and her moon, were formed by the operation of the same general laws of nature which presided over the for- mation of the solar system. But the conditions and circumstances under which those laws acted, were different and peculiar in each system. After reflecting much upon the subject, I find that all the essential differences among the systems can be ac- counted for by supposing that the primitive nebulae, from which they were formed, differed fi'om each other in density, or in magnitude, or both. Suppose two nebulae were at first exactly alike in every essential particular, except that one was twice as dense as the other. The rino-s formed in the more dense system would, according to theory, be just as numerous, as wide, and as near to the primary as in the less dense; but being twice as dense, they would possess twice as much attractive power. They would, therefore, purturb 16* 186 COMPARATIVE each other more, and cause a greater number of rings to become asteroidal ; consequently, the in- tervals between the normal secondaries would be greater than in a less dense system. Let us now compare Jupiter's satellites with those of Saturn. We may fairly presume that the present relative densities of the planets are a proper criterion of the relative densities of the primitive nebulae from which they were formed. According; to this rule the Saturnian nebula was the least dense. We can therefore understand why the satellites of Saturn are smaller, more nu- merous, and nearer to the sun and each other than those of Jupiter. The bright rings of Saturn have generally been regarded as anomalous and exceptional. I suspect, however, that there are similar rings in every system ; but that in Saturn's system the matter of which the rings are com- posed has so little density, and therefore presents so large a surface for the reflection of light, that we can see them: whereas, in all other cases the meteoric or asteroidal masses, though really ar- ranged in rings, are invisible, because, instead of being aggregated as in Saturn's rings, they are formed into more widely separated bodies, so small and dense that they have not yet been discovered. What we call the zodiacal lights undoubtedly pro- ceed from several rings of asteroids, which differ from those between Jupiter and Mars, principally, in being smaller and denser, so that they cannot be as easily seen. Some of the asteroids which ASTROGEXEA. 187 theory indicates, between Saturn and Jupiter, are jH'obably quite as large as Juno, and may yet be discovered. We can now perceive why Satui'n's system, (included within the orbit of Japetus,) is five millions of miles in diameter; while that of Jupiter, (included within the orbit of Callisto,) is only three millions. If the Saturnian system had shrunk so as to be twice its present density, it would doubtless have occuj)ied less space than Jupiter's system does. The rings of the Jovian nebula were more dense and attractive than those of the Saturnian; and therefore purturbed one another to such a degree that a large number were prevented from becoming satellites, consequently the intervals between those that were formed are very wide. One of the consequences of our theory is that the greater the mass of a primary, the narrower the secondary ring^s were at a griven distance from the primary ; for the larger the primary the greater must be the orbital velocities of the secondaries at given distances ; and of course the narrower must have been the rings. At the distance of one million of miles from Jupiter, the primitive satel- litic rings were much vrider than those formed in the solar system one million of miles from the sun. Saturn's rings, at the same distance, were still wider ; and the rings of our own terrestial system, from the principal of which our moon was formed, was the widest of all, when the distance from the primary is considered. 188 . COMPAEATIYE Now let us compare two systems- that are alike in every thing, except that in one the primary is many times the more massive. What difference would that make in the secondaries ? The larger the primary the greater, all else equal, must be the orbital velocities of the secondaries, and, conse- quently, the narrower the rings formed within a given distance of the centre. The narrower the rings the more they must have pm'turbed each other, and tended to produce asteroids. This is the reason why the interval between the primary and the first secondary is greater the larger the primary is, provided the densities are equal. Jupiter is both denser and larger than Saturn ; so that there are, in this case, two reasons why the the interval should be greater between Jupiter and lo than between Saturn and Mimas. SECTIO:^' VI. PHYSICAL CAUSE OF GRAVITATION. SIR Isaac N'ewton discovered that the force of gravitation is directly as the mass, and inverse- ly as the square of the distance from the attracting body ; but neither Newton nor any other philos- opher has given us even a plausible conjecture con- cerning the generation, origin, or physical cause of this wonderful force. Descartes, without being acquainted with the law of gravitation, attempted to account for the fact by supposing that there is an imperceptible and universal fluid or ether ^ almost infinitely attenuated and subtle,- the vortical mo- tions of which caused bodies to gravitate toward each other. Newton himself, at one time, partially adopted this idea. In one of his letters to a friend he says, " I seek in the ether for the cause of gravi- tation." He conjectured that the ether is less dense in the interiors of bodies than at their surfaces, and less dense there than at some distance beyond, and thus the density increased with distance. This being admitted, he thought that small bodies would move toward larger ones because they would, on mechanical principles, be forced to advance from a denser medium to one less dense. After about eight years of hesitation, he expressed his convic- 190 PHYSICAL CAUSE tion that this hypothesis was untenable. There is, however, no evidence that he abandoned the idea that gravitation depends upon the ether or etheri- um, with which the regions of space, and the in- terstices of all gross matter, are filled. Euler, the celebrated mathematician, entertained the opinion that gravitation is caused by a progressive move- ment of the etherial fluid toward the centres of bodies ; but he frankly confessed that he could not conjecture what would cause such a movement. I concur with Euler in his opinion that gravitation is caused by a movement of the ether, or etherium, (as I prefer to call it,) and I take the liberty to offer the following hypothesis to account for it. The particles of etherium, in common with those of all other fluids, possess a wonderful degree of motion among each other. It is this motion or force that keeps the etherium in an expanded state, and enables a very small quantity of matter to fill a large space. "When the particles of etherial mat- ter come into contact with gross planetary matter, the etherial particles become condensed and as- similated to the gross matter : they loose their etherial character and become a part of the planet. The force which kept the etherial matter in an ex- panded state, is set free, converted into heat and light, and most of it radiated away. This conden- sation of etherium, and the conversion and radia- tion of its expansive force, cannot happen without producing a vacuum at each point where the con- densation takes place ; and a converging or gravi- OP GHAYTTATIOlSr. 191 tating movement of the surrounding etherial fluid will necessarily follow to fill the vacuum. This movement thus produced is the immediate cause of gravitation. The force of gravitation must be generated in the attracting body itself, and not outside of it. This is evident from the fact that the force is great- est near the body, and rapidly decreases with dis- tance. If the etherium moves toward bodies to produce gravitation, it must remain with them, and it must be continually condensed to make room for the particles that are following, or else the stream would stop. The force of gravitation is analogous to light and heat and other radiant forces in only one par- ticular, and that is, that it decreases with distance in the same ratio. We know that the reason why radiant force decreases with distance is because it is removed further from its source, is divided among a larger number of the particles of the medium through which it is moving, and difiused over a larger area. The same must be true of gravitation. Radiant force proceeds froin% celestial bodies, while gravitation acts in the contrary direction. Gravitation cannot be a force in the same sense that light and heat and sound are forces. It is not analoo-ous to them in beino; liable to be modified by the medium through which it passes; it cannot be refracted, nor reflected, nor, by any known means, can it be turned out of its course in the 192 PHYSICAL CAUSE slightest degree. It seems to operate through all bodies and substances with equal impunity and ease, undiminished in quantity by anything except distance. If any substance is the agent or medium of the force of gravitation, it must be that which is the most universal, pervading, subtle and per- meating in existence; in a word, it must be etherium. If we examine the phenomena of nature with which we are well acquainted, we find nothing anal- ogous to gravitation, except condensation. Here the analogy, so far as it extends, is perfect. When a body collapses, condenses, or shrinks, the sur- rounding fluid concentrates, or gravitates, and presses from all directions, toward the centre of the condensing body, to fill the vacuum. The force of gravitation is commonly said to de- crease with distance, but in fact it is merely divided or diffused through a larger space. I have used the word assimilation in connection with gravitation, because I really believe that there is a perfect analogy, if not an identity, in the man- ner in Avhich gross matter appropriates etherial matter to itself, and that in which organic beings appropriate their food and assimilate it. Indeed, it appears to me highly probable, that etherial as- similation is the first step in that wonderful march of organic creation, from the lowest to the highest types of beings, which is now exciting so much interest among comparative physiologists. Vege- table and animal organisms result from more ad- OF GRAYITATIOX. 193 vanced and comi^licated specializations, of tlie same general process, as that by which etherial matter is organized into planetary matter. At the first thought it would seem that if this theory is true, the planets, and all visible bodies, must have increased to such a degree that their growth would have been demonstrable. But this objection becomes less formidable the more we consider the wonderful minuteness of the etherial atoms, and also the short period during which philosophical observations have been recorded. If a man of ever so much natural sagacity never had seen a tree, except for a single day, it would be impossible for him, by mere observation, to learn that it was gradually growing larger. And we must consider that a day in the life time of a tree is relatively a much longer period than three thousand years in the age of the earth. In a company in which this theory was under discussion, a few days ago, a gentleman made the following objection: if the weight of a body, a piece of gold for instance, is caused by a stream of etherial particles, acting with a certain degree of force on one side of the gold, it w^ould be ana- lagous in its effects to a wind ; and if the piece of gold were beaten out into a thin sheet, and its broadest side presented to the current, it shoula weigh many times more than if its thin edge were presented to the current. But the fact is that the piece of gold will weigh just as much in one posi- tion as another ; therefore this theory cannot be 17 194 PHYSICAL CAUSE true. This objection would seem to be well found- ed, if we were at liberty to assume that the consti- tuent atoms of the gold were in perfect contact- with each other, so that the atoms of etherium could not get between them ; but the probability is that none of the atoms of gold or of any thing else are in actual contact ; on the contrary, the spaces between them are filled with etherial par- ticles. This being the case, a movement of the etherium must act upon each atom of gold separ- ately, and the effect, therefore, will be the same whether the sheet of metal is presented in one posi- tion or another. Since every known substance may be reduced in bulk by pressure, it follows that the particles of matter are not in actual contact, but are separated by interstices. *■?«•* It is evident tbat the smaller the interstitial spaces the greater the density. As it is inconceivable that the particles of matter should act upon one another without some means of communication, there is every reason to presume that the interstices of material substances contain a portion of that subtle, etherial, and elastic fluid with which the regions of space are replete. * ^ * As the particles are not in contact. Prof. Mossoti supposes that each is encompassed by an atmosphere of the etherial fluid. The celebrated Frank- lin was the first who explained the phenomena of electricity in repose, by supposing the molecules of bodies to be sur- rounded by an atmosphere of electric (etherial) fluid. — Mks. Somerville's Connection of Physical Sciences. In order to form a correct idea of the process of etherial condensation, we must first consider the relation of matter to force and space. It may be OF GRAYITATIOX. 195 laid down as an axiom that, all else equal, the qitaiitity of matter and the quantity of force in any given space are in inverse ratio to each other. The greater the ' quantity of force or motion there is among the constituents of any mass, the greater space it must occupy. Physically speaking, there is nothing in existence but matter, space, and force; and neither of these can be destroyed, or its quan- tity in any degree diminished. We may change the form of matter, but it must, every atom of it, continue in existence. So it is with force ; it may appear as heat and change to magnetism, galvan- ism, electricity, engine motion, or animal force, but it is the same identical force under all these differ- ent names and modes of manifestation. A mass of matter always occupies a certain quantity of space Vv^hich is invariable. It may change from one space to another, but it cannot fill more or less space. What is called expansion is the effect of additional force causing the constitu- ent particles to become farther separated from each other; and what is called condensation is the effect of the loss of force, causing the constituents to ap- proach nearer to each other. It is atomic or mole- cular force which keeps the j^articles of etherial matter from all condensing together into perfectly solid masses. According to the hypothesis of Laplace, the ne- bula from which the solar system was foimed was expanded and attenuated by free heat, which was constantly radiated away to the colder etherial 196 PHYSICAL CAUSE space by which it was siirroimded; and in this man- ner the nebula became contracted and condensed. I suppose, on the contrary, that the heat which the nebula contained was not free but latent. It was like the heat that exists m oxygen gas ; and which is not set free until the oxygen has come in contact with fuel, under the proper conditions to produce combustion. I admit that the nebula was expanded by/brc6, which was susceptible of being made to assume the form of free radiant heat, when the nebulous matter became condensed, in con- sequence of the mutual collision of its constituents. Most of the writers on astronomy and geology adopt the idea that the heat of the sun, and the internal heat of the earth, are merely the residue of the primitive heat, which the solar system pos- sessed when in its embryotic state ; that the earth and all the planets were once small suns, which have gradually cooled down to theu' present con- dition. This, however, is a mere conjecture. The only facts which lend it any support are derived from geology ; and these so imj)erfectly sustain the hypothesis that Sir Charles Lyell, the most philo- sophical of geologists, rejects it altogether. The organic remains found in northern and even in polar climates, prove beyond all question that a temperate and equable climate once prevailed there. But Mr. Lyell thinks that a similar climate would prevail th-ere agam if the northern conti- nents were reduced to a few islands, and the warm tropical currents could have free course through OF GEAYITATIOX. 197 the polar regions, ^vhile the cold Arctic waters in return could be freelv and continually discharo-ed toward the tropics. Just as the elevation of the mountains in the tropical Andes and Alps can produce the climate of winter there, so the sinking of the polar lands would, by preventing them from accumulating cold, and at the same time by allowing: the warm currents to flow freely among the few low islands that remained, produce a climate similar to that in- dicated by the geological remains in the secondary period. According to the theory of gravitation which I am proposing, the earth, instead of grow- ing coolor by radiation, has always been quite as cool as it is now. If it ha^ changed in this respect — if its mternal heat has varied in quantity — it is more probable that instead of decreasing, it has increased in the same ratio as the mass of the earth has increased by the frequent additions of meteoric stones, and by etherial assimulation ; for, according to our theory, the quantity of internal heat possessed by any celestial body is, all else equal, in the ratio of its mass. The reason why the planets no not radiate light while the sun does, is because the radiating sur- faces are larger in proportion to their masses the smaller the bodies are. If the sun could be broken up into a thousand distinct bodies, the extent of the radiating surfaces would be so much increased that all the bodies would become opaque, and their luminosity would cease. The reason why 198 PHYSICAL CAUSE suns give light and heat is because they are so massive. The quantity of heat generated is in the direct ratio of their masses, while their surfaces are inversely as their masses. I do not doubt that the interior of the earth is filled, and always has been, with fluid matter, and that it is now inconceivably hot ; but it does not follow that it was once still hotter, and has been gradually cooling. The comets are all composed of fluid, but no one pretends that they are hot. There is no evidence that they radiate either heat or light to a perceptible degree. I suppose that our globe was once in an analogous condition. If a comet exists any where in the regions of space which contains as much matter as our sun, I have no doubt that it is self-luminous and extremely hot. Some philosophers have lately attempted to ac- count for the sun's heat and light, by supposing that the comets and meteors which fall upon his surface convert their velocities into heat, and thus compensate the sun for that which is lost by radia- tion. In proof of this, they declare that the most careful mathematical estimates have established the fact, that, unless reiDlenished, the sun's radia- tions would be exhausted in four or five thousand years. The objection to this hypothesis is, that though it may be a true cause, it is an insufficient one : and besides, it gives no explanation of the internal heat of the earth. I would propose, there- fore, to add the force of the etherial particles to that of the comets. They may not strike with as OF GRAVITATION. 199 powerful a momentiun as the comets, but they surely compensate by their numbers what they lack in magnitude ; they also penetrate into the utmost recesses, and enter the smallest pores and interstices of planetary matter. Every mechanical 23hilosopher understands that if a body, possessing great mass and momentum, is overtaken by a vast number of small, inelastic bodies, moving with great velocity, the small ones will lose a portion of their velocites by communi- cating them to the large body ; and after collision they will assimilate their motions to those of the large body. This, I conceive, to be a perfect illus- tration of the effect of the contact or collision of etherial with planetary matter. The etherial par- ticles are the smallest in nature, and move with greater velocity than any other. When they come in contact with planetary matter, they become assimilated to it in motion and in condensation. Nebulous matter was doubtless the second form which primitive matter assumed, in the progress of creation ; it was intermediate between etherial and planetary matter. I have spoken of nebulous matter and of the planets as if the day of creation were over; but in reality creation is proceeding now as rapidly as ever. I can form no idea of a time when there were less worlds in existence than there are now. When the solar svstem be2:an its career there were probably an infinite number of systems quite as much advanced in age as ours is now. 200 PHYSICAL CArSE The force that is radiated away when condensa- tion takes place is not lost, but proceeds to other masses and worlds, and enters them, causing their expansion ; thus the balance of creation is main- tained. Condensation and expansion, the two great antagonistic forces of nature, are kept con- stantly equal to each other ; if one mass is con- tracting in consequence of radiation, another is expanding in consequence of the absorption of the rays of force. The precise manner in which force produces ex- pansion can only be conjectured. It may be sup- posed that each of the constituent atoms of a body^ air for instance, has a motion in a circle or ellipse, and that the addition of more force causes the ellipse to enlarge, and thus each atom occupies, or moves through, more space in a given time. When a mass loses a portion of its force, the diameter of the atomic orbits is diminished, and, of course, the whole mass becomes smaller. Chemists and electricians have long disj^uted concerning the manner in which electricity is evolved when bodies in different conditions are brought together, especially in galvanic batteries. Some contend that mere contact is sufficient to evolve electricity ; others, that the electricity is the result of chemical action. The most reasonable theory, to my mind, is, that the comjDonent parti- cles of all masses, even the most solid, are con- stantly moving in orbits, and that the particles of each mass have their own particular velocity. OP GKAYITATIOX. 201 When two masses come into contact, there is in- stantly a strii2:2rle amono^ the constituents ; those which move with the greater velocity are said to possess positive electricity, and those that have less velocity possess negative electricity. After the struggle is over, the two electricities are said to be alike, while, in fact, the velocities of all the constituents are alike. The difference between velocity and momentum is well known in regi:ard to the visible motions of bodies. I suspect that what are called positive and negative electricities and polarities depend upon the same law. If the etherial particles in one body have greater veloci- ty, and in another body greater momentum, they arc said to possess opj^osite electricities ; one being called positive and the other negative. If two metals are brought into contact, which differ in temperature or density, they differ in electricity ; that is to sav, their etherial atoms differ in veloci- ty. What is chemical action? It is a name for a process which no one understands. All the pro- cesses of nature which we do really understand are purely mechanical, and must be explained by mechanical laws. Combustion, or the burning of substances, is a process which I conceive to be analogous to etheri- al assimilation and gravitation. The heat, or heat force, that is evolved when fuel is burned, pro- ceeds not from the fuel itself, but from the oxygen. Where was the heat before it was radiated from the fuel ? Did it reside in the fuel ? By no means, 18 202 PHYSICAL CArSE It existed in the oxygen. It Avas the force that kept the particles of oxygen separated from each other. When the oxyo-en came into contact with the fuel it lost its expansiye force and became con- densed, Avhile the force was set free and was radi- ated away, producing effects which we call heat. The oxygen which previously occupied a thousand cubic yards is now condensed so as to occupy less than one cubic inch. The condensation takes place at the point where the oxygen comes into contact with the fuel. It is f/'0772 this point that radiation proceeds. It is here that a yacuum is produced by condensation and radiation, and it is toward this point that the surrounding air must converge or gravitate to fill the vacuum. This is a beautiful illustration of the process which, according to our theory, is going on in the sun and all other planets continually ; that is to say, radiation, condensation, assimilation and gravitation are constantly pro- ceeding together, and mutually producing each other. The growing of a plant is produced by the con- densation of the carbon which is in the atmosphere. A plant is itself, principally, a condensed mass of carbon drawn from the atmosphere, where it exist- ed with oxygen in the form of carbonic acid. The expansive force which it possessed is set free be- fore it is condensed, and is radiated away. Thus we see that the plant assimilates carbon, the fuel assimilates oxygen, and the planets assimilate etherium. These three processes are analogous in OF GPvAYITATIOX. 203 all essential respects. If we could see the particles of carbonic acid moving toward a plant, of oxy- gen moving toward fuel, and of etlierium toward planets, we should no longer enquire concerning the physical cause of gravitation. RECAPITULATION OF ASTROGENEA, 1. The hypothesis of Laplace, that increasing centrifuo'al force threw the exterior rim of the neb- ula off, is inconsistent with the fact that 667 parts out of 668 are now in the sun; and 439 out of 475 parts of the remainder are now in the interior third of the radius of the system, while only 36 parts are in the outer two thirds. 2. The nebulous mass in rotation would tend to become an oblate spheroid; and the most of its matter would be located between the sun and Ju- piter, where there actually is the least matter. 3. The effect of a resisting^ etherial medium would be to cause the lightest portion of the neb- ulous matter to move in spiral paths to the sun. The matter nearest to the sun, the orbital motion of which was greatest, would be most affected by the medium. The densities of the planets, and the actual distribution of matter in the solar system, and in each system of satellites, is such as this theory requires. In each system there is, first, an immense primary; second, several small seconda- NoTE. — Astrogenea is from the Latin aster ^ a star, and genesis ; and literally signifies — the birth of the stars. 204 EECAPITULATIOX. ries with narrow intervals, the first interval, how- ever, being greater than the next succeeding one ; third, there is one giant secondary, containing more matter than all the others; fourth, beyond the ^iant are one or more secondaries of intermediate size, with very wide intervals. 4. It was long:"a2:o noticed that the intervals be- tween the planets and satellites become greater the further they are from the centre, and this fact is represented by what is called Bode's Law ; but no reason for the fact has, until now, been discover- ed. I have found that the diflerences between the orbital velocities of the secondaries, in each sys- tem, can be divided by a common divisor, without anv essential remainder. The divisor in the case of the planets is 1,582; of Jupiter's satellites, 808 ; of Saturn's satellites, 714; of the satellites of Uranus, 600. I account for this fact on the theory that the parts of the nebula were held together by an at- tractive force, which, in the solar system, it requir- ed a difference of orbital velocities equal to 1,582 miles per hour to overcome. On account of the increasing velocities, this difference was obtained with less difference of distance (a narrower interval) the nearer the matter was to the centre ; conse- quently the rings decreased in width in the same ratio as the velocities increased ; and the primitive rings had a common difference of velocities equal to 1,582 miles per hour. 5. The movement of the nebulous matter in spiral paths toward the centre, caused a large por- EECAPITULATIOX. 205 tion to accumulate at the inner edore of each rino- in a globular mass; and thus the rings became transformed to j^lanets. 6. In the interior parts of each system the rings were extremely narrow, and the attraction of the exterior rings prevented the inward spiral move- ment requisite to form normal planets : consequent- ly, rings of asteroids or planetettes were produced between all the interior secondaries. 7. In the outer parts of the system, where the rings were very wide, and the planets not very large, no asteroids were formed : therefore I infer the ex- istence of a planet (Pluto) between Keptune and TJranus, and several others between Uranus and Saturn. I also infer the existence of several undis- covered satellites in Saturn's system. 8. The orbital velocities of unseen planets being ascertained by the theory of common difference, their distances can also be determined, by the rule that the orbital velocities, one to another, are in- versely f)roportional to the square roots of the mean distances. 9. In carrying this new theory out to its con- sequences, an interesting relation has been discov- ered between the square roots of the distances, which has never before been known, and which is illustrated by several tables. 10. The more massive a primary, the narrower at a given distance, must have been the primitive rings or intervals, and therefore more likely to pur- turb each other, and produce asteroids. 206 RECAPITULATION. 11. The less dense the nebula from which rings were formed, the less massive the rings must have been, and therefore less likely to produce asteroids by their mutual purturbations. 12. The reason why Saturn's satellites are, some of them, so near the primary, is because the primi- tive Saturnian nebula had so little density. The same fact accounts for the narrow intervals between Saturn's interior satellites. 13. Gravitation is caused by the planetary mat- ter constantly assimilating and condensing ethe- rium, and setting its expansive force free. The ra- diation of this force accounts for the exhaustless heat and light of the sun. The movements of sur- rounding etherium to fill the vacua produced by radiation, is the physical cause of gravitation. 14. The internal heat of the earth, and of all other planets, may be accounted for on the same principle. CIRCULAR or THB llimi fi50iiiiiiwriil i0lli|f, .A.iL.Bionsr, ns/i:iomc3--A.isr. Ever since it was said to Adam, " In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread,'' there has been a necessity laid upon man not only to labor, but to EXCHANGE With othevs the products of his industry, in order to obtain a comfortable supporr. •"Deliver all things in number and weight, and put all in writing that thou givest out or receivest in," is a precept of universal application: and there is a special necessity for its observance in all business transactions between debtor and creditor. — Preface to Mayheiu's Book-keeping. IRA MAYHEW, A. M, Peesidekt, AUTHOR OF ''MAYHEW's PRACTICAL BOOK-KEEPDsG," "MEANS AND ENDS OF UNIVERSAL EDUCATION," ETC., AND EIGHT YEARS SUPERIN- TENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION IN MICHIGAN. DETROIT : THE DAILY POST STEA31 PRINT. ALBION COMMEECIAL COLLEGE. INTRODUCTORY. The founder and proprietor of the Albion Commercial Col- lege, has long been an advocate for practical education. He believes with a former King of SjDarta, that '' boys should learn those things which they will have occasion to prac- tice when they become men." Certain it is, that while edu- cation should be disciplinary, and be conducted with wise reference to harmoniously developing all the human capabi- lities, it should likewise have due regard to the training of youth for the particular callings in which they expect to engage. Young men expecting to become lawyers or phy- sicians, hence appropriately attend the Law School or the Medical College, in order to receive that necessary prelimi- nary training without which they cannot reasonably hope to attain success. So persons intending to become book- keepers, or to engage in merchandise, or in any of the numerous commercial pursuits of the country, should at- tend a well regulated Commercial College, and for a like reason. And in their training here, students should not be taught a few forms and methods merely, as is too commonly practiced, but they should be thoroughly instructed in the principles that underlie all forms and methods, that they may be prepared to develop new forms, and to modify old ones, as varying circumstances arise ; for they can in no other way become adequate to the emergencies that are incident to this world of change. LOCATION OF THE COLLEGE. The Albion Commercial College is pleasantly located in the well regulated village of Albion, ninety-five miles west APPE^T)ix. iii from Detroit, on the M. C. R. R. While thns easy of access, it affords a home for the student, while pursuing his com- mercial studies, at much less cost than is»attendant upon a residence in large cities. Commercial Colleges have generally been located in cities, thus subjecting students from abroad to large expense for board, and exposing them unnecessarily to the corrupting influences incident to such situations. It has become an established fact, that locations which are favorable for Semi- naries of Learning are, for like reasons, desirable for Com- mercial Colleges. A quiet and healthy location, commodious buildings, competent instructors, and a thorough course of study, are essential to success, — all of which, it is believed, are here combined. COURSE OF STUDY. The course of instruction in the Albion Commercial Col. lege embraces Book-keeping by Single and Double Entry, in all their numerous forms, and everything that is necessary to the attainment of skill therein. It include*! Penmanship, Business Correspondence, and Commercial Calculations; Fire, Marine and Life Insurance ; Commercial Law and Con- veyancing ; the Philosophy and Morals of Business and Political Economy, in their applications. Students, in tak- ing this course, pass through a '' Theory Department," in which the principles of accounts are clearly explained and practically applied, when they are advanced to the " Actual Business Department," where they engage in actual busi- ness. THEORY DEPARTMENT. Mayhew's Practical Book-keeping is used as a text book. This work commences with the very alphabet of accoimts, and gradually advances from the simplest principles of Book- keeping to the clear unfolding of Double Entry in its appli- cations to the various business pursuits of the coimtry. The President of the College, who is the author of this popular IV APPENDIX. work, daily meets students in the Lecture Room, wliere tliey listen to exhaustive Lectures, Tvith demonstrations upon the Blackboard. A good foundation is thus laid for the student's future success. The text book completed, the student in the Theory De- partment advances to the study of carefully prepared Manuscript Work, embracing Consignments, Shipments, Merchandise Companies, Shipment in Companies, Jobbing and Importing, Forwarding and Commission, Steamboating, Banking, etc. The course includes two Original Sets, pre- pared by the students themselves, and embracing the lead- ing principles in which they have been instructed, including the changing of Single to Double Entry, This work com- pleted, the student passes to the ACTUAL BUSINESS DEPARTMENT. In the Actual Business Department there are a Union Store, two Banks, and several offices, in connection with which students, before graduating, engage in actual busi- ness, and thus become familiar with approved business usages. They deposit their cash receipts from time to time, in one of the Banks, and check out money as they have oc- casion to use it. They give and take Notes, and deal in Exchange, as their business requires. They engage as Mer^ chants, and buy and sell and '* get gain," using cards for merchandise. They purchase Real Estate, and execute Deeds and Mortgages, and draw Contracts. They buy Wheat, Wool, Fruits, and the surplus products generally of the country, and ship and sell them through Commission Houses, and otherwise. They likewise engage, in turn, as Commission Merchants, recei^i.ng and selling merchandise for others, rendering an Account Sales, and remitting pro- ceeds, pursuant to instructions. The freshness of novelty is in this way maintained throughout the course. And while the student's work thus becomes highly attractive, all its details are conducted with great care, and with scientific APPEXDIX. V accuracy, so that the slightest mistake is readily detected, should one at any time occur. In this way, and as an aid to the inexperienced in comprehending their business rela- tions, the Actual Business Department becomes of great practical value to the learner. LADIES' DEPARTMENT. Ladies are admitted to this Institution at reduced rates, and enjoy the benefit of the full course of instruction, with ample facilities for acquiring a thorough knowledge of ac- counts. They attend upon the Lectui-es of the President, and the instructions of the Principals of Departments, as do gentlemen, and enjoy in common with them all the privi- leges of the Lecture Room and Library of the Institution. Becoming accomplished Book-keepers, the quiet duties of the Counting-room are befittingly open to them. BOOK-KEEPING IN SCHOOLS AND SEMINARIES. Book-keeping by Double Entry, when properly taught, is at once attroxtue as a study, unsurpassed as a means of dis- cipline, and of great practi-cal xalue. It must, hence, soon become a common branch of study in Schools generally, and a thorough knowledge of it will, of course, be essential to the Teacher. The Albion Commercial College affords every desirable facility to persons wishing to prepare themselves for giving instruction in this important Science. TEACHERS AND SCHOOL OFFICERS. Teachers competent to give instruction in Book-keeping are now sought in all our principal Schools, whose Officers duly appreciate the importance of a thorough and practical education. But teachers must learn Book-keeping as other things, before they are prepared to instruct. While the Albion Commercial College offers special facilities to Teach- ers who wish to prepare themselves for gi^^.ng instruction VI APPENDIX. in Book-keeping, it will generally be prepared to refer School Officers desirous of employing such Teachers, to those well qualified for giving instruction in this Science, and who may hence be advantageously employed for that purpose. The Board of Instruction of this Institution will always take pleasure in thus serving both Teachers and School Officers. STUDENTS FROM OTHER STATES. The management of the Albion Commercial College con- templates the perfect development of one Institution, which shall be worthy of being sought by persons desirous of en- joying first class facilities for becoming accomplished ac- countants. As a consequence, our patronage is not merely local, but is largely derived from the Canadas, and from New England, New York and Pennsylvania, on the East ; from Illinois, Wisconsin and Missouri, and from Iowa, Min- nesota and California, on the West ; and from Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky, on the South. We have preferred thus to concentrate our energies upon one good School, to distribut- ing them among several widely scattered and necessarily enfeebled institutions. COLLEGE LIBRARY. Connected with this Institution is a well appointed Library of about 700 volumes, embracing a TVT.de range of reading in Biography, History and Travels ; numerous w^orks on Science, Literature and the Arts ; valuable treati- ses on Agriculture, Horticulture and Landscape Gardening ; Standard Works on Government, Education, Political and Moral Science, etc., which is free to students, and open to the public at reasonable rates. WHEN TERMS COMMENCE. Ours is a Business College, and, like other business insti- tutions, we keep open the entire year on all week days^ with the exception of national holidays. Students can APPENDIX. Vll therefore enter at sucli times as shall best suit their conven- ience. Teachers wishing to learn Book-keeping with a view of introducing the study into their Schools, may do so dur- ing their vacations. HOW WE TEACH. Students are instructed singly, and receive the attention of a Teacher from time to time during the day, as circum- stances require, and as difficulties arise. Mayhew's Book- keeping, is employed as a text book in the early part of the course. After this is completed, full sets of carefully pre- pared Manuscript Work are employed, both in the " Theory Department," and in the Department of "Actual Business." LECTURES TO CLASSES. WTiile students receive individual instruction from the Principals of Departments, who are accomplished teachers, they have likemse the privilege of attending upon full courses of Lectures by the President, and of being thoroughly drilled in classes in the Lecture Room of the College, while they listen to demonstrations from the black- board. Our course thus combines the advantages of indi- vidual instruction and class drill. QUALIFICATIONS FOR ADMISSION. A common English education is all that is necessary pre- paratory to admission, though the more one is accustomed to study, and the farther he is advanced, particularly in mathematical studies, the more rapid and satisfactory will be his progress. Many students, however, do Avell whose preliminary education has hardly embraced more than the fundamental rules of arithmetic, this being the most im- portant of the preparatory studies, and, in addition to reading and writing, the only one absolutely essential. VIU APPENDIX. BOOKS AND STATIONERY. All the Books and Stationery required in the Commercial Course, may be obtained at the College Rooms at cheap rates. The stationery used, and gold pens of an excellent quality, are manufactured expressly for our use. PHONOGRAPHY, OR SHORT HAND. This Science enables those acquainted with it to perma- nently possess much valuable information which they would otherwise be unable to record and preserve, six- sevenths of the time and labor required in the common mode of writing being saved by its use. An opportunity is here offered, at moderate cost, for learning the Correspond- ing Style — an acquisition of great value to both literary and business men. TUITION AND EXPENSES. Scholarshii)s for the full course, time unlimited, with the privilege of review at any time, - - $30 Scholarships to disabled Soldiers, ------ 25 Scholarships to minor children of Clerg\Tiien, - - - 25 Scholarships to Ladies, --------- 20 Stationery for the course, about ------- 12 Board per week, --------- |i3.50 to 4 Graduating fee, including Diploma, ------ 2 Penmanship alone, 30 Lessons, - ------ 5 Phonography, Corresi^onding Style, ----- 10 Should the time not exceed fourteen weeks, the entire cost to the student need be only about $100 for the full course. For pamphlet circulars, gi^dng full information in regard to this Institution, and containing notices of Mayhe^vV Book-keeping, and his work on Education, apply at the Col- lege Office, or address, IRA MAYHEW, President, AIjBION, Mich.