Part 6

DAILY MOTION.

Nature seems to have just the right adjustment in all its affairs, whether in coloring of flowers, season for growth, flavoring of fruits, supplies for animal and vegetable life, and instincts for everything created, to adapt them to living purposes.

So in the Earth’s diurnal revolution of 24 hours, supposing it was slowed to 25 hours, we should have less wind and tides, less warmth and more land free from the encroachment of the sea.

Increase the speed to 23 hours would give us more warmth by greater friction, increase the flow of our springs, give higher tides, and make most of the present commercial seaports of the world take seats farther back, as millions of acres of land now available would be flooded every tide.

The moon, we are told, has little or no atmosphere. It is pronounced cold and uninhabitable. This all looks reasonable. Being only a little over 2,000 miles in diameter and a revolution about like the Earth through a thin atmosphere, it is easy to see the lack of friction to produce warmth, and therewith the proper constituents to sustain life. This is an easy one and readily disposed of.

VI.

EARTHQUAKES.

It is doubtful if the Earth’s crust exceeds, or equals 1,000 miles in thickness. The outside is held from flying to pieces by the atmosphere, which is a sort of tire to the earth, while the inside is constantly pressing from effect of centrifugal force. These two factors must meet somewhere.

On the outside, near the ice belt, the water pressure gets the best of the inner forces and drives the waters into Symmes’s Hole. In the Earth the centrifugal force has advantage until reaching the surface; but if a big hole could be cut at the Equator through to the center, no doubt a man could jump into it in safety and cease to fall as he cushioned against centrifugal influence in his descent. Earthquakes are only the effects of internal pressure of water to get to the surface, at times bursting large reservoirs, producing tremblings, and at others with great force throwing up hills and mountains from the tops of which the fountains of water burst forth. At other times they are produced by the contact of water with heated elements in volcanoes, creating the commotion leading to the volcanic eruption, the latter of which can only be produced by contact of fire and water.

It is believed that this is the complete and brief explanation of earthquake causes.

VII.

VOLCANOES.

The volcano is nothing more than a local fire, as much in connection with the Earth’s surface as the furnace fire built in a man’s basement to warm his house, or in his stove to cook his breakfast. When the fuel that is used in either one is consumed, the fire goes out, which is a common result in both cases. Of all the volcanoes known to have existed as evidenced by their craters, fully three-fourths have become extinct.

Now what causes the volcano? The Earth is filled with immense supplies of fuel, consisting in stores of coal, sulphur, oil, gas, limestone, etc. While it is claimed that at the imaginary axis of the Earth there can be no friction, yet when the surface is approached with all its weight of mountains and continents, here friction begins to put in its work. It is very doubtful if any volcano exists, or ever has existed whose fires go to the depth of 500 miles, and more likely not half that distance.

On the outside of this circle, of 25,000 miles it is only reasonable to expect an enormous strain. The abrasion of limestone found in huge masses will, by process of heat, convert them into lime. The contact with water, universal throughout the Earth, will start the volcano, which by slaking, this small amount of rock converted into lime will generate a heat that may ignite and produce more lime, or reach other combustibles, which may be set on fire by this; or when in contact with other substances, this would lead to reservoirs of oil and gas, and deposits of coal and sulphur. These when ignited may remain in a slight slumbering condition and burn for ages, but water will be the constant aggressor and from time to time will manifest itself by coming in contact with these burning forces thus producing the volcanic eruptions and in time will be the conqueror, and the crater of the volcano will become a lake, of which evidences exist all over the Earth. That volcanoes are only local, the same as fires in our houses, is fully evident from the fact that they burn, and go out. This theory of producing volcanic eruptions can be easily demonstrated in every kitchen or casting shop in the country. Kettles of hot fat or melted metals when brought in contact with water will cause a miniature eruption at short notice. It is common to speak of volcanoes emitting smoke, but it is rare that such cases are ever a fact, but instead of smoke, we should say steam. The result of friction to produce effects, we claim, is well illustrated in shipments of cotton. Cotton shipped from India in the vessel’s hold, rarely, if ever, takes fire. From this country it is no unusual thing, and why? In India they bind the bales with jute or hemp, while in this country with straps of iron. In the ship’s hold, there is, of course, a constant motion and rubbing together of great weight of bales which ofttimes generates the fire in the cargo. This is the way the volcano is started, but sooner or later, water will put it out. All volcanic eruptions are credited with throwing out great volumes of water, steam, mud, ashes, stones, lava and sulphur. During earthquake convulsions which generally precede volcanic eruptions, the world over there is a bursting out of fresh springs as well as an increase in the present existing flows.

WHAT ARE VOLCANOES FOR?

If they are, as is claimed by some, for vents to the interior molten condition, why do they become extinct, so many of them, and almost invariably become lakes inside their craters?

With the whole center of the Earth a molten mass, there ought to be fire enough to keep them going incessantly. Where does the water come from to keep up a constant outpour of steam and vapor in locations where it seldom rains?

It would seem as if the small amount of rain or snow that fell would get pretty well dried out before it arrived at a point to create an eruption by contact with melted rock, or that such a quantity could keep up steam in such an immense cauldron. There is no reason to presume that a drop of rain water ever enters a volcanic crater, except what may fall into its open mouth, which will be impossible.

Have Volcanoes any specific use in Earth economics? Do they tend to open up water courses from the interior and by their upheavals on the continents and islands of the Earth create natural elevated reservoirs from which the lower regions of Earth can be irrigated? Do they not send out certain gases to mingle in the atmosphere, producing favorable results in vegetation and animal life? Are not the vicinities of volcanoes noted for the fine fruits and wines in latitudes in which they grow?

VIII.

RAINFALLS.

This chapter being devoted to rainfalls, a few introductory observations may be in order. The essential need on Earth’s surface for growth of vegetation, and the sustenance of life, depending thereon in some form, is in universal irrigation, which Nature failed to furnish by its internal provision of water with its outflow of springs and lakes, except by artificial use. The rainfall on the Earth is no more intended for filling of springs, lakes and seas than it is for supplying us with fuel. It is simply a provision for surface watering of vegetation, and has no more effect on the existence of living springs and subterranean outflow of water than the eclipse of the moon. There never was a rainfall, except, perhaps, in Noah’s time, that wet the general surface of the country to the depth of three feet, and rarely one-half of that. It is generally called a good, soaking rain that moistens the bottom of the potato hills, and to wet what the soil will hold one to two feet requires a prodigious amount of water. It is claimed by proprietors of orange groves that a volume of water of six inches in depth is requisite to thoroughly irrigate the grove. If the claim that rain has no effect on the supplies of springs and lakes be true, you will ask why it is that after a long drouth and a heavy rainfall, the springs resume running, and water returns into wells that have for a time been dry? The effect on those sources of supply is simply the same as results from wetting a sponge to take up water which will not absorb and be taken up in a dry one. You can easily be convinced of this effect. To show that water will run uphill or away from the Earth: The surface of the Earth becoming saturated, and in some places penetrating into the seams and crevices of rock and soil, at once forms a medium of attraction for the waters below to follow. Another valid reason is the general condition of the atmosphere from the time of drouth to a condition of moisture when it becomes really a mammoth sponge after being dampened. Against the claim that rainfall has little or no influence in raising or producing springs or lakes, or living wells, this question naturally arises regarding springs, which has in a measure been answered. It is, however, a pertinent question, and a pleasant one to answer fully.

In the summer season, most commonly of any, the air becomes hot and dry. The surface of the Earth loses the moisture of the air’s influence, together with the Sun’s heat evaporating the dampness, becomes generally arid, and fails thereby to be a conductor of the moisture from below.

As a season of very dry atmosphere occurs for months at times, the soil becomes correspondingly dry and dusty to quite a depth. From this cause the springs and water in wells recede and sink away. It is an easy matter to find people who have witnessed the following seeming phenomena in times of drouth: After a period of weeks or months of drouth before any rainfall has occurred at all, the fountains, long dry, often commence to run, and wells begin to fill with water, and this without a drop of rain.

Just here comes the pleasant task of answering the question fully: How can this occur without a soaking rain?

At such times, when the Earth and all nature is thirsting for water, and every fountain seems to have dried up forever, the day will come which will bring these evidences.

The aged will complain of their rheumatism; men’s bones will ache; geese will wash in the dust; the peacock will scream; birds, beasts and vegetation will feel a humidity in the air and intuitions that rain is near. As the atmosphere has felt the approach and preparation for rain some time in advance, so all Nature feels its effects. To illustrate the burned or dry condition of the air, you may consider this test: Take a pail of water, and a dry sponge, big as your head, and lay the sponge on the surface, and it will take a long time for the sponge to absorb the water and become fully saturated. Wet the sponge before the test and squeeze it dry as you can, and lay it on, and it will fill rapidly and quickly. Pour a pail of water on the floor and try the same experiment. Your sponge will not fill at all if dry, only a little as it comes in contact with the water; but moisten it as before, and press it nearly dry, and throw on the puddle of water, and it will drink itself full at once, drawing up the water like a pump. You cannot wipe up a floor with a dry sponge.