File:The waters above the firmament, or The earth's annular system (1902) (14586971949).jpg

Identifier: watersabovefirma00vail (find matches)
Title: The waters above the firmament, or The earth's annular system
Year: 1902 (1900s)
Authors: Vail, Isaac Newton, 1840-1912
Subjects:
Publisher: Philadelphia, Ferris and Leach
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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uring intervals of immeasurabletime, receives here an emphatic avowal. Thus by following the path pointed out, by the unerr-ing voice of law, we may look upon those giant worlds,and read a history of the mighty changes that made ourworld what it is to-day. For unknown ages rings andbelts attended the earth. One by one they declinedand reached its surface around the poles. Grand stu-pendous arches spread over the face of the firmamentwhea no man was here to see; when the wild denizenof a wild world alone roamed its boundless wastes,thoughtless of impending calamity. When we gazeupon the fearful and terrifying elements, when cloudmeets cloud, and deep frowns on deep in the battlefieldsof nature, what puny things we are in the wondrousarena! But suppose we dwelt to-day on a ringedworld, and could see all these features and conditions athousand times intensified! We would stand appalledat the fearful grandeur and majesty of world-making. We must look at our earth in its spasms and eternal
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Fig. 2. EARTH COOLED FROM A MOLTEX STATE. (its KIXG system rOEMED.) After the lapse of immeasurable time, the earth had cooleddoAvn, forming a firm foundation for subsequent deposits. Thegreat mass of expelled vapors had condensed. Some of thesehad returned to the earths surface, forming the first ocean,—a world expanse of waters,— and a world casement of sediment-ary beds. In that ocean the first forms of life appeared. Highover the equator, as if anchored to the skies, a vast ring systemliad formed from the higher and lighter elements, which gravi-tated each to its proper place in the system, according to its spe-cific gravity. Fig. 2 represents this ringed world, Avith its ringsturned edgewise to the observer, and the planet covered with auniversal ocean, that ocean teeming with rudimental life, and thesun shining on the earth much as it does to-day. Some General Considerations, 45 revolutions if we would embrace half the meaning ofannular work in by-gone ages. While rivers flo

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