Part 10

Through the channels that eternally pour from never ending supplies, and in which storehouse are mingled the seeds from every valley, plain and mountain top of our Earth; from this source they can be scattered and mixed in every inch of the soil which composes our Earth from center to surface, and when brought into contact with our atmosphere start into new and varied existences.

The question may be reasonably asked if many of the reptilian specimens attributed to remote antiquity as belonging to our Earth’s surface, may not be specimens from an interior world, and even now have representatives of their existence there?

Certain plants and growths require specific treatment and conditions. Wherever pond lilies, peppermint, cattails, flag-root, cresses, and moss in wells are found is unfailing proof of living fountains of water.

The ocean furnishes every facility of transportation through the co-operative system without and within. The millions of seed that mature in different climes on the surface are dropped and carried by floods and currents into the main ocean. Some sink and lie buried for ages, retaining their germs of life, for the outer ocean has its regular currents and motions to such an extent, it would not make a general distribution of seed in countless years.

Through this avenue passing under the ice belt, every variety is more or less drawn into this general receptacle which, in turn carries them inward and outward, and in course of time filters them in their course into every inch of the earth through which the water passes; which is in this way the medium of transportation.

By this means every spoonful of earth is in time prepared to give growth of new life to any plant or tree that has ever existed when exposed to the influence of air and heat or even cold, to revive its species.

In passing to the surface, like the spawn of fish, they may pass through localities of such excessive heat as to destroy their life germs, as is undoubtedly the case with the spawn that should travel through waters like geysers of Iceland or the Yellowstone Park or waters similar to these, whose streams that flow away always show a dearth of fish.

With the Earth formed like this, the writer claims it to be on the principle of a globe for a gas jet, open on both sides and presenting as it turns inward a funnel shaped entrance, which is without doubt over 1,500 miles across; this passage would be just as vast to the eye as the size of, or distance to, the fixed stars, the eye losing all conception of measure, and a thousand miles is just as much beyond our scope of vision as a million.

In almost any position you can imagine the Earth to revolve around the Sun, one of these sides or ends must be partially and at times wholly exposed to the Sun’s rays, and the effect, it seems natural to suppose, would make the interior horizons light as the exterior. The water, it is believed, on any body acts as a reflector and is a giver of light from every planetary body in some degree.

It is all gas, to talk about the gaseous condition and nature of the Sun, and “other worlds than ours.” They would at best be a very poor investment and not worth the labor and genius of a power able to create; 160 acres of good land in any productive locality would be worth more than 1,000 such whirling pyrotechnics of space.

It is altogether too presumptive to suppose that our little Earth with all its boasted cities, and boroughs thrown in, can be the only habitation for poor, vain and sinful man.

XV.

METEORS.

These are nothing more or less than dust particles thrown from volcanic eruptions on some planet, and in countless numbers drifting through time and space till sucked into the atmosphere of some other orb.

Whoever doubts the influence of friction ought to be convinced by watching these meteoric specks falling through our atmosphere of a clear evening, although the process goes on as much in day as night time.

While falling in space this dust must gain an inconceivable speed, as a feather without resistance falls as rapidly as a ball of lead.

The contact with our atmosphere ignites and evidently consumes them into gas before reaching the Earth. They used to be called falling stars, but if they were of inferior magnitude it is quite probable there would have been many a badly bumped head before this time, from the numbers that have fallen.

XVI.

ATTRACTION OF GRAVITATION.

This seems to be a question not fully settled by sufficient authority. It seems as if this term were incorrectly applied and that suction would be a better name for the agency.

That bodies fall to the ground when dropped, or return when thrown or shot into the air is nothing more than a stick of wood thrown into a stream floats with the current and drifts to the bank.

Most people when asked which side of a fan you feel the air from, when fanning yourself, naturally reply from the side toward you, but by trying the experiment you will soon discover that the air comes after the passage of the fan, only filling the space or vacuum the fan has made.

It has often been asked why people trying to board a train in motion are so apt to be drawn under the wheels, and legs and arms crushed. It is the same reason as with the fan, a large vacuum is being produced and proportionate suction occurs to fill it.

A man can stand alongside a train when motionless and lean against it, or put his hand on it, as safely as on the depot, but when in motion of thirty or forty miles an hour, it would be almost sure to cost him his life. Attraction can hardly be possible except by affinity; iron can be attracted by a magnet no more than wood, unless possessed of that peculiar quality of being magnetic. Mr. Edison’s experiments have to be confined entirely to such bodies of ore.

That attraction of affinity exists there can be no doubt, as exhibited in plants, insects, birds and animals, both quadruped and biped, otherwise courtship and marriage and all means of propagating species would be for naught and neglected.

It is a general supposition that we derive our heat from the Sun by direct rays, but it is doubtful if it comes only through its innumerable rays of light through which the Earth and the planets revolve, and here friction puts in one of its special works. The common idea that noon-day is the time for the greatest heat is not always justified, for other influences, such as friction in the atmosphere, can make midnight warmer than noon.

The concentrated rays of the Sun at midday of course bring them so closely together, and direct, that the Earth’s revolution comes squarely across them, as can be demonstrated across the teeth of a comb, thus showing a greater pressure than drawn obliquely.

That heat can come directly from the Sun seems an impossibility without some medium of contact, which through the coldness and a barrenness of space does not seem to exist.