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IGNEOUS ACTION IN THE EARTH.

No. III.

We will now put the question, where were these supplies not wanted? A will of the Creator had to be carried out: the earth had brought forth grass, herb, and tree, and as we find in the "Circle of Light," p. 33: "Every rock that grew above the waves was clothed, and from that time forth, each point as it grew upwards contributed its mite to the making of the law." Vegetation had more than one duty to perform, but our history refers chiefly to its burial and its rising again. There was a luxuriant growth, and a plentiful residue: over all, the winds of heaven blew in olden times as they blow to-day-we will not say that they raged with greater violence, for of this we should have no proof: we cannot say that climates varied then from what they are at present, because we should then be wandering into the regions of imagination, and it is our desire not only to avoid so great a temptation on this imaginative. subject, but to adhere to the world, its climates, and its temperatures, as we find them now-to be guided in our little tale by what is before us, around us, and to accept nothing for granted. There are sign-posts in the earth, the ocean, and the air, and we must endeavour to find our way through nature's labyrinths by these simple means. The winds blow now with strength sufficient for our purpose: they destroy our English roofs, our thatches, our trees, and our ships; we hear of the destruction by cyclones in the east, of the hurricane ravages in the west; imagination could scarcely picture to itself a greater force than has been displayed in some of these tempests; we require none greater for the duty they perform to-day, or for the labours they performed of old, when, in their yearly currents, they fell upon the plentiful herbage of the earth, and dashed, as they do now, the weakest members to the ground. We look out of our glazed windows upon our neatly planted woods, our carefully fenced corn fields, and upon our beautiful gardens full of delicate and of charming flowers: in the days we go back to, this was not; all was waste (as we call it now when not applied to man's use) and natural luxuriance-but there is not, and there was not a waste, every place has its use in nature. Of all the tangled mass thrown yearly on the earth by old age, natural decay, or violence, some staid where it fell, and contributed its decaying substances to the soil, for various purposes into which we cannot now inquire. There is, however, a change in nature, which we may touch on here, to enable us to bring before our readers a force of which the inhabitants of these islands are comparatively ignorant. There are on the face of this earth large barren tracts

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upon which no rain falls; there are others upon which it falls in exceptional large quantities. It has been found that, on denuding a district of its timber, its rainfall decreases, while a growth of timber increases the supply of water: thus, then, when our great productive portions of the earth had nothing else to do but to furnish their vegetation, we may imagine that such tracts were thickly clothed, that in consequence the rain fell, not as it does here, scarcely as it does at present times even within the tropics, but in great and regular torrents, washing off the sloping surfaces of the soil, and everything moveable upon it. Great rocks were loosened from the hill-tops, and rolled headlong down great prostrate trees were washed away by the once modest rivulet, now a turbid and a heaving torrent; and even as these torrents rolled along, there were quiet spots behind some great rock, some angle, or some deep hole, where the water-carried materials stopped. In some rivers great natural dams are formed, by the debris and timber, which turn aside the currents of the water never to come back again. In some these stoppages are only temporary. We see in our river-courses, boulders, and great pebbles, fine gravel, and finer sand, and everything finds its own resting-place. Page tells us, at p. 308; "The farther we descend the river towards its mouth, the finer becomes the texture of the sediment." All these things are wanted where we find them, and every atom which is left behind aids in the building, and in the shaping of this earth. There is no builder but nature; the sands lay together, the gravels work with a beautiful method into their beds, the silt forms the Delta, and in its very softness gradually expels the sea; this receives the yearly tribute of floating vegetation in tangled masses from every river, which has at any time run into it, and it then wafts it onward to its destination.

Our geologists have told us that we are very ignorant regarding the currents of the ocean; and this ignorance has hitherto prevented their giving that credit to ocean labours, which we now propose to do. We are not ignorant of its older actions; they are proved all over the earth, in Central Asia, down the entire line of North and South America, in Africa, in Europe, and here at home, in England. There is, as we have before said, a regular formation of earth due to the currents of wind and water, and we will refer to Page (p. 292-3) to explain fully what we mean: "Most of the bills, as in Britain, present a bare, bold, craggy face, to the west and southwest, as if worn and denuded by water, while their slopes to the east and south-east are usually masked with thick accumulations of

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clay, sand, and gravel." This character of country is, he tells us, known by the name of crag and tail." and after a description of the working of these currents, he tells us, "It is evident that in Britain the transporting currents passed from north and west to south and east." Without consenting to this doctrine as bearing upon the whole formation of our islands, we will use the partial fact as a proof, that the present aspect of the earth offers evidence of the forces used in its building, and that whereever we find one side of a mountain almost scarped and broken, while the other extends in a more gradual slope, we may feel assured that the same agencies of wind and water produced and shaped them, as produced or shaped the hills alluded to by Page.

There are other proofs of the directions of currents, perhaps more conspicuous than these, and leading more direct to the point we are considering. We cannot exemplify this agency better than by referring to the maps of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean sea. Taking the Isthmus of Panama as a land formed from the wash of the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans, we find that the great rivers Mississippi and Oronoco empty themselves into the space between them. The promontory of Yucatan, Cuba, and other islands, represent the meetings of the northern with the southern currents on the west. The Balama islands tell us where the Mississippi waters met the tides and currents of the Atlantic. While from Jamaica to Trinidad we can trace the effects of eddies and whirls between the currents from south and north. Accepting these agencies as the constructors of these islands-not as We now see them, clothed in beautiful herbage, and rich in cultivation, but as burying beneath their eddying water their yearly burdens, we come at once to the great cause of the deposition of igneous or gaseous matter within the earth, as shown in the island of Jamaica.

We have had a picture of the extent of these supplies, our own coal-fields have exhibited their continuous nature, there is nothing beyond our most common ideas in the transaction, there were constant growths, constant deaths, and constant burials; and now we have, and have had from undated time, a frequent resurrection. No place upon earth that we know of has been more notorious for its igneous phenomena than Jamaica; it has no volcano, but there are many evidences of igneous action, and Page tells us (p. 56): "its harbours have been sunk, towns destroyed, and rivers changed from their former courses." These visitations have come at intervals, each testifying to the fact of an outburst of a powerful force through the envelope of some particular stratum, or deposit of vegetable matter. This is the point at issue is an earthquake, or is any other phenomenon of like nature caused by the escape of gaseous matter from the buried productions of the earth, or from the causes assigned by our great geologists? At the risk of some repetition, we will endeavour to place before our

readers the very latest and the best authorities on the subject, and will then continue our history, leaving the reader to judge the case. We refer first to Page, as embracing the opinions of the most eminent men up to 1859, and as the authority now placed in the hands of the students of geology at our royal military college. He tells us that the surface temperature of the earth "is mainly derived from the sun;" that "the temperature of the crust, as depending on extreme heat, is also variable to the depth of from 60 to 90 feet;" that downwards "the temperature increases at the ratio of one degree for every 50 or 55 feet, and that at this rate" "a temperature of 2,400 Farenheit would be reached at a depth of 25 miles or thereby, sufficient to keep in fusion such rocks as basalt," &c.; p. 29 he tells us that "this high internal temperature is apparently the cause of hot springs, volcanoes, earthquakes, and other igneous phenomena which make themselves known at the surface." Going on to page 117, "Theories of volcanic action," we find that lava is ejected from the volcano by the contraction of the rock crust within the earth as it cools, as shown by Page in our first paper.

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The next authority that bears upon the subject may be found in the Chemical News, of 23rd October, 1868, where we are told that the direct evidence of the "molten liquidity" of the interior is "afforded by the frequent and great outbursts of molten lava, which, in every quarter of our globe, are met with, breaking through the surface of the land and disturbing the bottom of the sea"-leading to "the very natural inference that these eruptions must proceed from some vast accumulation of molten matter, situated at comparatively no very great distance below the surface." And then the author (Mr. David Forbes), after many careful and well-reasoned arguments, concludes that "the hypothesis of the internal fluidity of the earth" may be regarded as posted up to date.” In the Athenæum of the 3rd of April, 1869, the same author tells Mr. Malet that he is "not prepared to attribute the issuing of molten matter from volcanoes solely to this cause," (viz., contraction of the crust), and as he refers Mr. M. to Vesuvius," we may suppose that he (Mr. Forbes) endorses the conclusions arrived at by Professor J. Phillips in that book. This is the latest and the most authoritative work that we have it gives a careful and a well-digested history of the Italian volcano, and the 12th chapter places before us in elaborate reasoning his "general views leading to a theory of volcanic excitement." We all know that there are many conditions of this, that the conditions of no two localities are similar, and, further than this, we know that the conditions of the same locality vary in the character of their excitements. The author puts the question: "What are the general conditions? What are the causes of particular diversity?" In these questions he includes the past and present phenomena of "any particular volcano," and "the general terrestrial or cosmical conditions of such phenomena." He then

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evinces his anxiety to fall into the natural course
of things, and to observe the laws of nature, by
saying, a complete theory of volcanoes should
contain a real account of the consolidation of
matter, and be in harmony with the general his-
tory of the cosmos." This point of harmony
is one which we are endeavouring to reach, and
though we could at once give answers full and
explicit to the above questions, we must first
examine if the desired harmony is to be found
in the theory of Mr. Phillips. The first sen-
tence which we shall quote confirms a previous
one from Page. At p. 329, we are told," at this
depth (20 miles) we should have a temperature
of about 2,000," in which heat "a great portion
of our rocks and metals, taken singly, would be
in fusion." And then he admits that "the re-
ality of an interior fluid is the natural result of
correct reasoning on the distribution of heat in
the exterior solid coating of our planet." With-
out stopping to inquire whether this reasoning
is correct, or whether the doubts which have
been cast upon it are supported by trustworthy
evidence, we will come to a very serious point
as connected with the harmony of the system.
If the heat is sufficient at 20 miles (Phillips), or
25 miles (Page) to fuse a portion of our rocks,
and supposing that there are within, as we see
there are on the surface of the earth a great va-out fear of the mathematician."
riety of rocks, then we find that, if some are and
some are not melted, that there must necessarily
be many inequalities in the interior, in which
places the molten liquid would move about ac-
cording to its melting, instead of obeying the
supposed harmonious arrangement of Mr.
Forbes, in the Chemical News above quated (viz.,)
"The liquid interior of the globe would be car-
ried round along with the solid shell which en-

closed it, the whole revolving together just as if
the liquid had been congealed, and, along with
its retaining envelope, actually forming one en-
tirely solid body." This was a universal sys-
tem, while the system of Mr. Phillips would
only produce liquid deposits in such spots as
the melting condition of the rocks allowed. But
the harmony of the theory is utterly destroyed
by what follows. The Chemical News tells us,
that "the late Professor Hopkins, of Cam-
bridge, was the first who brought forward any
serious objection against" the doctrine of a
molten liquidity in the interior of the earth, and
his mathematical genius showed "that the ex-
ternal crust of the earth should possess a thick-
ness of not less than 800 to 1,000 miles." Then
says Mr. Phillips, p. 331, “Can anyone believe
that lava is pressed up through channels of that
length?" The question is immediately replied
to-"It is not in the least degree necessary that
it should:" but the condition "may be secured,
as Mr. Hopkins himself thought, by the exist-
ence of separate liquid basins (as under separate
volcanoes), so confined within solids as to com-
pel them to yield as a mass in sympathy with
the solid crust. Such a state of things is in no
degree unlikely, and it leaves the geologist quite
free to adopt any suitable depth for lava, with-

Here, then, we stop for the present, having fully proved that the first quotation used in these papers is still as true as it was in 1859, viz., that geologists are as yet by no means agreed as to the phenomena of volcanoes, earthquakes, and other subterranean movements.

(To be continued.)

LEAVES FROM MY MEDITERRANEAN JOURNAL.

CHAP. XII.

BY A NAVAL CHAPLAIN.

be joinings of stones into lines or marks in the general mass. Our Arab guides were utterly

THE SPHINX, THE CAVES, POMPEY'S PIL- ignorant of the history of this wonderful figure, LAR, CLEOPATRA'S NEEDle.

After we had completed the inspection of the greater and more important Pyramid, we next turned our attention to the colossal figure of the Sphinx. Abdallah duly directed our wanderings in the proper direction, by pointing and repeating the word "Spinkis;" so that we had but to follow his guidance to reach the locale of this, no smaller wonder in its own way than its more gigantic neighbours the Pyramids. A distant view of the Sphinx gives the impression that the figure is composed of five masses of stone; nearer inspection, however, corrects this, and dissolves what appeared to

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and the mere repetition of the word "Spinkis,' and readiness to assist those who were most adventurous in mounting on to the back of it, were but poor substitutes for any item of information as to the construction, &c. of the figure. Subsequent research on this subject was to me most disappointing. In vain I searched in public libraries, encyclopædias, &c., for some particulars as to this statue, and could only find accounts of the sphinx of classical fable. I turned to the word "Sphinx" in more than one encyclopædia, and found only "A monster with the head and breasts of a woman, the body of a lion or dog, paws of a lion, tail of a serpent, wings of a

much of the history of this wonderful figure, little as the information be, it may yet be not universally known. To return, however, to the thread of my personal narrative: we duly inspected as much of the Sphinx as is visible above ground, and, although a great part is still hidden by sand, a much greater portion of the body is now visible than was the case at the time described in the rare and curious work of Mr. Greenhill, from which I have quoted. The features, which are of course colossal in size, have been much injured by time and the action of the weather, if not by some more insensate and mischievous action. The face, however, still retains enough of its original expression to vouch for its having been a pleasant one. Besides the Pyramids and the Sphinx, there is in their locality a further object of interest presented by the famous rock-cut caves. These caves, or as Abdallah called them, "Colonel Campbell's Tombs," were evidently intended for the purposes of sepulture, and in some cases were ornamented with hieroglyphics. Our first impression on hearing Abdallah's invitation, "Come see Colonel Cambell tombs," was that we were about to visit the last resting-place of some distinguished compatriot who had perhaps met his death in the vicinity. A moment's inspection, however, served to remove our first impression, and to substitute for it the conclusion that this Colonel Campbell must have been the most recent excavator.

bird, and with human voice." Then followed a pedigree: "It sprang from the union of Orthos with the Chimæra, or of Typhon with Echidna, or of Typhon with Chinæra; that it was sent by Juno into the neighbourhood of Thebes to punish the family of Cadmus, which she persecuted with great hatred;" that the Sphinx proposed riddles, devouring the inhabitants in default of guessing them; that the most famous riddle was, "What animal is it that first walks on four feet, then on two, and finally on three?" That Creon, King of Thebes, was so distressed at the wholesale devouring of his people consequent on the non-discovery of these riddles, that he promised his crown, and his sister Jocasta in marriage, to anyone who could answer the enigma. The people of Thebes meanwhile had in their dire need consulted the oracle, and learned, not the answer to the riddle, but the very comforting information that, "should the answer be discovered, the Sphinx would destroy herself." Here, then, was a most favourable chance for adventurers! a crown and a wife prizes for the victor, and certain destruction to the Sphinx as a consequence of success. Edipus was equal to the emergency, and solved the riddle by declaring that it was man who walked first on all fours in childhood, then on two feet in full age, and finally on three feet, two being supplemented by a staff in old age. No doubt Edipus gained his crown and wife, and history further adds that the Sphinx at once dashed out her brains against a rock. Another authority in- Having at length completed our examination formed me that there were several statues of the of the wonders in this locality, it was resolved Sphinx in Egypt; and that "the Sphinx was a to begin our homeward journey. Little symbol of religion." Research, however, as to occurred in the way of incident such as to the history of the particular Sphinx situate in distinguish our return journey to Cairo from close proximity to the Pyramids, utterly failed that of the early morning's ride. The day was me till I alighted on an old work on "The Pro- still young when we reached Shepherd's Hotel, cess of Embalming," by Thomas Greenhill, and, as the sun was at its greatest heat, we chirurgus, proposing a better method of embalm-resolved to have luncheon and remain withining, and published in 1705, A.D. From this learned work I beg leave to extract the following before resuming the thread of my personal narrative: "At some distance south-east of the biggest Pyramid stands the Sphinx, so famous among the ancients. 'Tis a statue or image cut out of the main rock, representing the head of a woman with half her breast, but is at present sunk or buried in the sand to the very neck. It is an extraordinary great mass, but withal proportionable, although the head of itself be 26 foot high, and from the ear to the chin 15 foot, according to the measure the Sieur Thevenot took of it. At a distance it seems five stones joined together, but coming nearer one may discover what was taken for the joinings of the stones was properly nothing but the veins in the rock. Pliny says that this served for a tomb to King Amasis* ** Some will have it a certain Egyptian king caused this Sphinx to be made in memory of Rhodope of Corinth, with whom he was passionately in love." My only apology for inserting the above lies in the probability that, from the difficulty I experienced in learning even so

doors for a couple of hours. Our dragoman, meanwhile, applied at the office of the Consul for the permission in writing required for admission to the country palace of the Pacha. The "Pacha's Gardens," as this luxurious retreat is called, lie but a short way from the city, and furnish an object for a pleasant carriagedrive. As soon as the fierce heat of the sun had abated, we found the dragoman in waiting, and were soon seated in comfortable open carriages, and enroute to the country palace. We had scarcely got over the first half-mile or so of our drive ere the cavalcade was broken, by the refusal of one pair of horses to draw their carriage any further. Now, as the road was level, and a good one, this interruption was most unexpected and annoying. We had no time to waste in prolonging the fruitless endeavours of *the driver to coax his horses into obedience; so, unharnessing them, we caused him to ride back "post haste" for another pair. These latter at length arrived, heralded by the usual cloud of dust, and were soon hurrying us after our more fortunate companions in advance. Finally, after a very dusty drive, we reached

the beautiful gardens, the extent and magnificence of which might well cause the visitor to envy the lucky possessor. Subsequent history, however, could we have had a knowledge by anticipation of its plots, &c., might have tempered that feeling.

After traversing the tastefully-laid-out grounds we were conducted into the palace itself. This consists of a quadrangular range of buildings, enclosing in the centre an extensive marble fish-pond. We passed through several magnificently-furnished saloons and chambers, and spent considerable time in examining the rich and costly Parisian meubles they contained.

of the first water had, undoubtedly, by thus adscribing bisillustrious name, sought to achieve imperishable fame. The unavoidable feeling, however, produced by sight of this signature of a Goth, is one of unmixed disgust. G. Bulton, however, would not, I am certain, either understand why this should be or appreciate the feeling, so I gladly leave him to his notoriety, such as it is, without inquiring further as to who he may have been. The only remaining lion now to be described, is the far-famed obelisk known as Cleopatra's Needle. This really wonderful shaft is covered with hieroglyphics, and stands in the middle of a slate and timber yard. Its shape is quadrangular, and slightly larger at the base than at top. It seems merely to rest upon the earth, without any counter-sinking, or foundation. Near to the site of the needle lies another similar but recumbent pillar, said to be the property of the Crystal Palace Company. The juxta-position of slates and rubbish exercises, it must be admitted, depreciating influence upon these stone-book vouchers of a by-gone age. The neglected state in which the fallen pillar is left, being, as we were told, the gift of the Pacha to the British people, contrasts unfavourably with the care taken of its sister, the third of this trio, now set up in the Place de la Concorde in Paris,

The Needle was the last of our sights, so without making any bad puns on the eye, I may go on to say that we now at once returned to our carriages and drove to the transit wharf. Boats were here easily obtained, and our party was soon duly embarked. An hour's pull, however, was rather damping to our enthusiasm, and we were not sorry to perceive signs of approachofing the ship. Our boatmen pulled lustily to their own songs' time. Of the song I cannot say much in commendation, seeing that it was a mere repetition of the words "Allah Anabin." The translation of these words I am not, I regret to say, able to subjoin; and the reiteration of them lasted till we got alongside. Thus ends the account of an excursion, pleasant at the time, and living still greenly in the minds of all who took part in it.

On returning to our hotel, we found that one carriage-load of our companions had failed altogether in reaching the palace; and had, through the obstinacy of their horses, to return ingloriously to Cairo. Next morning we began our return journey to Alexandria; as the scenes however, through which we steamed along, were similar even in the chance groupings of the wandering Arabs to those I have already described, I shall not weary the reader by any reiterating description of them. Instead of any such course, I shall take the liberty of transporting him at once to the sites of Pompey's Pillar and Cleopatra's Needle in succession. The pillar, so much associated with the name of Pompey, is said by modern savans to have been dedicated, if not originally at all events eventually, to the Emperor Dioclesian. In proof of this, an inscription interpreted in modern days is adduced. Be the origin or first purpose what it may, the existence of a pillar of upwards of one hundred feet in height is in itself an object of great interest, and presents perhaps the most ornamental record antiquity. The base of Pompey's Pillar measures 12 feet; the shaft, which is of one unbroken stone, measures 90 feet in length,and is 9 feet in diameter. The stone of which the shaft is composed is porphyry, and not granite, as is sometimes stated. The capital adds 10 feet to the general height. This latter is said to be of sufficient area to have once accommodated a dinner-party of twelve persons. Without pausing to remark upon the trite saying "there is no accounting for taste," one can scarcely believe in any dozen diners being so hardy as to venture on a banquet there. We were told that a British sailor did on one occasion ascend this pillar to hoist a Union Jack upon it; but the feat, however flattering to the national hardihood of the "tar," led to an interdict upon any subsequent feat of the same sort. Some writers have suggested that Pompey's Pillar was originally one of four, constituting part of a temple. For this opinion, however, so far as corroborative evidence is concerned, there is little ground, inasmuch as there are no remains of any of the pillars, and history is silent as to the existence of any such temple. On the base of the pillar were, at the time of my visit, and perchance yet remain, painted the characters" G. Bulton," in black. Some snob

AN IDEA TRUE AND BEAUTIFUL.-"I cannot believe that the earth is man's abiding place. It cannot be that our life is cast up by the ocean of eternity to float a moment upon its waves and sink into nothingness! Else why is it that the aspirations which heap like angels from the temple of our hearts that the rainbow and the cloud come over us with a are forever wandering about unsatisfied? Why is it beauty that is not of earth, then pass off and leave us to muse upon their faded loveliness? Why is it that the stars who hold their festival around the midnight throne are set above the grasp of our limited faculties, forever mocking us with their unapproachable glory? And, finally, why is it that bright forms of human beauty are presented to our view, and then taken from us? We are born for a higher destiny than that of earth."

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