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DIAGRAM MAP OF THE WORLD. 
 
 2 
 
OUTLINES 
 
 OP 
 
 G E N M T : 
 
 A TREATISE ON THE 
 
 PHYSICAL LAWS OE THE EARTH 
 
 AND THE 
 
 CREATION OE THE CONTINENTS, 
 
 FOUNDED UPON RECENT DISCOVERIES. 
 
 J. STANLEY GRIMES. 
 
 BOSTON: 
 
 PHILLIPS, SAMPSON & COMPANY, 
 
 1858, 
 
.Gr 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by 
 
 J. STANLEY GRIMES, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 
 
 ELECTBOTYPED AT THE 
 BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In submitting this outline of a novel system of geonomy, 
 and asking that it may be admitted into the confederation of 
 recognized sciences, to occupy, at once, the place of geology 
 and physical geography, I am conscious that I render myself 
 liable to be charged with egotism ; and if it shall be found, 
 upon a proper investigation, that what I deem to be new and 
 important discoveries are merely erroneous fancies, I shall 
 abandon all defence, and throw myself upon the mercy of 
 the public. If, on the contrary, it shall appear that I am 
 not mistaken in regard to the essential principles of the new 
 form of science which I propose to introduce, I shall hope 
 and expect that the faults and eiTors that accompany the 
 truths will be looked upon with a lenient eye, and attiibuted 
 in a great measure to the numerous disadvantages under 
 which the author has labored. 
 
 This little book is designed merely as the forerunner of a 
 larger volume, which will be presented to the public hereafter. 
 In the mean time, I would respectfully solicit from the friends 
 of science the communication of any facts or suorgestiong which 
 may be useful in bringing the geonomic system nearer to per- 
 fection. A wilderness of details is yet unexplored. Even 
 1* , (5) 
 
6 PREFACE. 
 
 in preparing this meagre outline, I have been painfully sen- 
 sible of the want of correct information ; but I am tempted 
 to hide my own deficiencies behind the reflection that no 
 one individual is at present capable of doing full justice to 
 a theme so vast and comprehensive in its general outlines, 
 and at the same time so rich and varied in its minor features. 
 It is worthy of the united labors of all the scientific minds 
 of all countries ; and to them I earnestly commend it. 
 
 The Hon. L. Chandler Ball is the only person whom I 
 have consulted during this investigation ; and it is proper that 
 I should publicly acknowledge the obligations Avhich I am 
 under for his valuable assistance and his friendly criticisms. 
 While travelling a short distance with him among the lower 
 ridges of the northern part of the Alleghanies, he pointed 
 out the necessity of modifying my views in such a way 
 as to account for the peculiar and frequent, but gentle, rocky 
 undulations that abound among the most ancient stratified for- 
 mations. I was thus led to new researches, which resulted 
 in the important conclusion, that when the first mountains 
 were made, the earth's crust was much thinner and more flex- 
 ible, and admitted of being more readily bent into small folds 
 than when it became colder and thicker. This enables us 
 to understand the reason of the fact that mountains have 
 been raised progressively higher, and oceans depressed lower, 
 from the earliest to the latest geologic ages. 
 
 I have purposely avoided all scientific questions which are 
 connected with theological controversies, and confined myself 
 strictly to the subject before me ; but it is proper in this 
 place to remark, that geonomy furnishes additional evidence 
 that the operations of nature are dependent upon universal 
 
PREFACE. 7 
 
 laws which, " in the beginning " of time, were made by Him 
 who " weighs the mountains in the scales and the hills in 
 the balances." 
 
 We have every reason to conclude that, should another 
 world precisely like this be now launched into its orbit, under 
 the same astronomical circumstances as the earth was, the 
 creative laws would reproduce or repeat all the forms of this 
 earth, and in exactly the same order, upon the surface of the 
 new planet ; but it by no means follows that the divine 
 Being has not reserved to himself the power of modifying, or 
 even reversing, his laws, to adapt them to special circum- 
 stances. It ill becomes short-lived and frail beings like us 
 to set bounds to the discretionary power of the supreme 
 Ruler of the universe. Let us rather manifest our gratitude 
 for the faculties which he has bestowed upon us by using 
 them to learn and to obey his laws. 
 
 J. STANLEY GEIMES. 
 
 I4ANSINGBUEGH, N. Y., November, 1857. 
 
EXPLANATION OF THE DIAGRAM MAP. 
 
 The map fs drawn on Mercator^s prtgection, which, though con- 
 venient when we wish to show the whole earth at one view, is not 
 strictly correct, because it represents the diameter of the earth from 
 east to west as if it were as great at the poles as it is at the equator 5 
 whereas, in reality, it grows continually smaller from the equator to 
 the poles, as it is represoated on maps with the globular projection. 
 
 Arrows are drawn on the map, following each other along a dotted 
 line, so as to represent the normal elliptical currents, circulating 
 independently of each other, and covering the surface of the whole 
 earth, except a few angular inter-elliptical spaces, the principal of 
 which are South America, Africa, Australia, Greenland, Kamschatka, 
 Alaska, Mexico, and India. 
 
 The ai-rows on the land are designed to represent the courses of 
 the ancient currents of water which circulated over the land before it 
 was elevated from the bottom of the sea to its present situation. 
 The principal mountain- ranges of the earth are parallel to these 
 ellipses, as any one can perceive by comparing a good atlas with 
 the diagram. 
 
 The arrows on the water represent, though in a general manner 
 only, the courses which the present ocean currents originally and 
 normally pursued. I have not attempted, in this diagram, to give 
 all the subordinate currents as they now circulate, in gulfs, and bays, 
 
 (8) 
 
EXPLANATION OF THE DIAGRAM MAP. 9 
 
 and among islands, nor in all places where the partial drainage of 
 the continents has caused counter currents to overiBiow from inland 
 seas, and disturb the normal directions of the main currents. 
 
 In the North Atlantic, I have represented the course of the Gulf 
 Stream as if it were directly north-east from Florida to Spitzbergen ; 
 and analogy, as well as the general forms of the land, indicates that 
 this was the direction in which it did run before the upheaval of the 
 more southern parts of the North American continent. That event 
 forced the remaining inland seas to find an outlet to the east through 
 ii Davis's Strait, elevated the Grand Banks, and deflected the Gulf 
 ij Stream more to the east, across the ocean, to the European side. 
 I There the main cmTent of the stream is divided into several abnor- 
 mal branches. 
 
 The arrows in the North Atlantic and Baffin's Bay that are not in 
 a range ^iih the dotted lines are intended to represent the irregular 
 branches, and also the course, of the main current from Newfoundland 
 to Europe. 
 
 The arrows represent all currents as nmning westerly in the tropi- 
 cal, and easterly in the polar, regions, and north and south between ; 
 and any good atlas will show that the mountains curve in accordance 
 with the curves of the cmTents. 
 
 The object of this diagram is to illustrate the principle of oceanic 
 ellipses and their relations to mountain ranges, and not to instruct in 
 the details ; this may be done, hereafter, in a larger' work, with proper 
 illustrations. 
 
 If ellipses are to be introduced into geographical science, it will be 
 convenient for reference to divide each ellipse into eight segments, 
 commencing at the equator, and following the courses of the currents 
 as indicated by the arrows. The eight segments would be named 
 and numbered as follows : 1. The mid-Hne, or equatorial segment ; 
 2. The west raid-Hne segment, bemg that eighth which is between the 
 mid-line segment and the western segment ; 3. The western segment; 
 4. The west polar segment, being that eighth which is between the 
 
10 EXPLANATION OP THE DIAGRAM MAP. 
 
 western and the polar segments j 5. The polar segment ; 6. The east 
 polar segment ; 7. The eastern segment ; 8. The east mid-line segment. 
 
 If the above arrangement were adopted, it would, in practice, only 
 be necessary to refer to the number of the segment in order to be 
 miderstood. This plan would be found ver^seful when comparing the 
 fects and details of one ellipse with those of another. Thus, in com- 
 paring the Asiatic ellipse with the North American, we could say that 
 the eighth segment of one is occupied by the Anglo-Americans, and 
 of the other by the Chinese. It would also be convenient in describ- 
 ing or in referring to a place. Thus we could say that the Aral Sea 
 is near the second segment of Asia. 
 
 Two of the ellipses on the map — one in each hemisphere — are 
 numbered, to show the manner in which they may all be numbered 
 in accordance with the above plan. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 Smnmary of Principles of Geonomy. — Comparison of the two Series 
 
 of Continents in the Northern Hemisphere 15 
 
 SECTION n. 
 
 Equilibrium of the Earth 38 
 
 Primitive Melted Condition of the Earth. — No Mountains at first. — 
 
 Inequality of the two Hemispheres. — Precession of Equinoxes. . 41 
 
 Symmetry of Ocean Currents 47 
 
 SECTION m. 
 
 Elliptical Paths of the Currents 49 
 
 Effects of the Earth's Rotation 52 
 
 Equatorial Currents west, and Polar Currents east. . . . . . . 54-57 
 
 Gulf Stream 58 
 
 Maury's Current 63 
 
 Overflowing of the Indian Ocean and Baffin's Bay producing Abnor- 
 mal Currents 65 
 
 Rising of the Land in the North Atlantic 69 
 
 Elliptic Area of Earthquakes 71 
 
 Relation of Mathematics to Geonomy 71 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 Geology 73 
 
 Lyell on the Elevation of Mountains during the Tertiary Period. . . 79 
 
 Relation of Elevation to Organic Progress 83 
 
 Relation of Mountains to Geological Formations 91 
 
 (11) 
 
I£ CONTENTS. 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 Parallelism of Currents, Strata, and Mountains . 92 
 
 Mitchell's and Humboldt's Views. — Beaumont on Mouiijains. — Ro- 
 gers on "Waves 95 
 
 Professor Traill on Abrupt Slopes 97 
 
 Earthquake at Cutch, in India. — Steam and Explosive Theory. 100, 101 
 
 Fourier on Central Heat 104 
 
 Herschel on Causes of Volcanoes 105 
 
 Thickness of Crust 109 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 
 Lowlands and Plateaus . 109 
 
 Remarkable Earthquakes 115 
 
 SECTION vn. 
 
 Relation of Currents to Geography 121 
 
 Bottom of Atlantic 123 
 
 Asiatic Basin . 127 
 
 European Basin 129 
 
 Caspian and Aral Seas. — Their Surfaces below the Level of the Sea. 
 — Analogies of different Lands. — Cape Cod and Gulf of Mexico. — 
 
 Peninsulas 137 
 
 Volcanic Band in the Indian Archipelago 138 
 
 Relative Elevation of the Continents according to Humboldt. — The 
 
 Thermal Equator. — Thermal Tropics 149 
 
 Magnetic Needle and its Variations related to Ocean Currents. . . 149 
 
 Dip of the Needle 151 
 
 SECTION VIII. 
 
 Constituents of the Globe. . , 152 
 
 Water in the Moon, Mars, and Venus. — Action of Metals on Water 
 
 and Atmosphere 158 
 
 Metallic Veins 160 
 
 SECTION IX. 
 
 Comparative Geonomy. — Analogy of the Earth's Oceans and Moun- 
 tains to those of the Moon and Mars 161 
 
 Mountains in the Moon. — Causes of their Peculiarities. — Their 
 Directions liorth and south 164 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 Facts independent of Theory 167 
 
OUTLINES OF GE0?s^03IY. 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Geonomy is a science which relates to the physical 
 laws of the earth, and includes all the essential facts of 
 geology and physical geography. 
 
 In this treatise those facts are mostly accounted for 
 upon the theory that the weight of the atmosphere, the 
 ocean, and the stratified deposits, pressing unequally 
 upon the granite crust of the earth, causes it to sink une- 
 qually, and by reaction produces upward movements 
 of the lava and of the land, and gives birth to earth- 
 quakes, volcanoes, mountains, and continents. 
 
 The term geonoray is derived from two Greek words, 
 — ge, the earth, and nomos. a law, — and is analogous to 
 the term astronomy^ which is from astron, a star, and 
 nomos. 
 
 Geography literally signifies a description of the 
 earth j but it is commonly applied to the surface only. 
 2 (IS) 
 
14 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 Geology signifies a discourse concerning the earth ; it 
 is, however, limited by usage to an explanation of the 
 structure and origin of rocks and fossils, and cannot 
 conveniently be made to include physical geography. 
 
 I have adopted the term geonomy, because there is 
 no other word, of equivalent meaning, now in use in 
 this country, and because it appears to be perfectly 
 appropriate. It implies that we are not only acquainted 
 with many facts concerning the structure and natural 
 history of the earth, but, also, that we have at length 
 arrived at a knowledge of the great principles and 
 laws of nature, which, under the same circumstances, 
 must always produce similar terrestrial phenomena and 
 forms. Nearly all the natural sciences may be regarded 
 as subordinate to geonomy, and as each furnishing 
 contributions to enable us to understand the compli- 
 cated nature of the planet on the surface of which 
 we live. 
 
 In order to render the subject more clear and intel- 
 ligible, I have introduced a brief preliminary section, 
 containing a summary view of the most essential points, 
 expressed in concise terms, and arranged in a natural 
 order. 
 
OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 15 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 SUMMAEY OF THE PRINCIPLES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 The following is a summary of the distinct principles 
 of geonomy, which, when properly applied, enable us to 
 solve most of the difficult problems of physical geog- 
 raphy and geology. 
 
 1. The effect of centrifugal force is to flatten the 
 earth at the poles and enlarge it at the equator, so as 
 to make the equatorial diameter about twenty-six miles 
 greater than the polar diameter. 
 
 2. The combined effects of centrifugal force and of 
 gravitation, are to continually maintain the spheroidal 
 form of the earth, and to resist all forces that tend to 
 disturb the equilibrium thus established. 
 
 3. As far as we know, the heaviest substances and 
 strata are nearest to the centre of the earth, and the 
 lightest occupy the circumference ; and all substances 
 have a constant tendency to move towards or from the 
 centre of the earth, until they reach the places assigned 
 them by gravity. The result is, that all substances of 
 equal specific gravity tend to occupy equal distances 
 from the centre, and to each constitute a special sphe- 
 roidal layer or shell around the earth. 
 
 4. If centrifugal force and gravity had been left to 
 arrange the substances that compose the earth without 
 
16 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 the interference of an}' other agent, the surface of the 
 earth would have presented a uniform appearance, and 
 the atmosphere and ocean would have been of equal 
 depth over the surface of all parts of the earth ; there 
 would have been do winds, nor waves,- nor currents; 
 no mountains nor valle\-s j no vegetable nor animal life ; 
 nor any motion whatever, except that produced daily 
 by the tidal influences of the sun and moon. 
 
 5. All the phenomena of geology and physical geog- 
 rapliy, all the innumerable forms of earth, — mountains, 
 valleys, rivers, oceans, — and all the varied manifesta- 
 tions of life, beauty, and intelligence upon our planet, 
 are directly dependent upon the disturbance which the 
 unequal distribution of the sun's rays produces in the 
 equilibrium of the atmosphere and the ocean. 
 
 THE ATMOSPHERE. 
 
 6. The atmosphere is the outer layer of the earth's 
 subsjances, and being the most volatile, has its balance 
 most easily disturbed by heat, and consequently it reacts 
 with proportionate facility to recover its balance. 
 
 The heaviest and densest layers of the atmosphere 
 occupy the space nearest to the surface of the earth, 
 and the lightest layers occupy the spaces which are high- 
 est, and are supposed to be about fifty miles above the 
 earth.. Between the lowest and highest parts of the 
 atmosphere there is a regular gradation of density and 
 weight, the air becoming less and less dense from the 
 bottom to the top. 
 
 7. Let us assume that the atmosphere is normally 
 
OUTLINES OP GEONOMY. 17 
 
 composed of fifty distinct layers of air, each of whicli 
 is of a different degree of density from the other, and 
 is one mile in depth. If the lowest layer becomes ex- 
 panded by heat, so that its density is only equal to 
 that of the tenth layer, the lowest layer will immedi- 
 ately rise and mingle with the air of the tenth, and 
 allow the second layer to subside to the surface of 
 the earth. 
 
 If the expansion of air by heat at the surface of the 
 earth was the same in all places, from the equator to 
 the poles, the equalizing movement would be merely up- 
 ward and downward ; otherwise it would be horizontal, 
 and constitute what is commonly called a wind. 
 
 8. The rays of the sun's heat penetrate through 
 the atmosphere without expanding it much, but after 
 striking the earth, are reflected again into the atmos- 
 phere, and cause an expansion of the lowest layers 
 only : this expansion is greatest at the equator, and is 
 gradually less as we proceed to the poles. 
 
 9. The reason why the direct rays of the sun expand 
 the upper layers of the atmosphere less than they do the 
 lower is that, from some unknown cause, the direct 
 rays of the sun have more penetrating power and less 
 heating power than the reflected rays do, and consequent- 
 ly the rays pass from the sun directly througli the atmos- 
 phere to the earth without being obstructed by the air ; 
 but when the rays rebound from the earth, they have 
 not penetrating power sufficient to expand any part of 
 tlie atmosphere except the lower layers. 
 
 10. The celestial space through which the earth is 
 moving is many degrees colder than the earth is even at 
 
 2* 
 
18 OUTLINES OP GEONOMY. 
 
 the poles ; consequently, however hot or expanded the 
 lower layers of the atmosphere may become at the 
 equator, they can perfectly recover their density without 
 leaving the tropics, by merely rising to the upper regions. 
 
 11. On each side of the equator there is a column 
 of hot and expanded air continually rising and swelling 
 the atmosphere, so as to make it about four miles higher 
 at the equator than at any other part of the earth. 
 When the expanded air reaches a sufficient elevation, it 
 becomes chilled and condensed, so that it is heaviei: 
 than when it left the surface ; of course it immediately 
 begins to fall. Being crowded by the rising and over- 
 flowing column of air near the equator, it slides down 
 an inclined plane, poleward, and reaches the surface 
 of the earth at about the thirtieth degree of latitude 
 from the equator. Perhaps it would be more correct 
 if we should say that near the thirtieth degree tlie 
 condensing column from the upper regions of the equa- 
 tor is resisted by the dry cold air beyond the tropics, 
 and prevented from moving farther poleward in the 
 upper regions ; therefore it continues gradually to sink, 
 and by its weight presses upon the lower strata, so as to 
 cause a movement towards and from the poles at the 
 surface of the earth ; just as the pressing of a heavy 
 body into the middle of a trough of water causes a 
 movement of the water towards both ends of the trough. 
 
 In accordance with this theory is the fact, that the 
 wind is constantly blowing towards the equator from 
 near the ' thirtieth degree of north and south latitude, 
 and on the contrary it is almost continually blowing 
 towards the poles beyond the thirtieth degree. 
 
OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 19 
 
 It is also in accordance with the fact, that the barom- 
 eter indicates that the weight of the atmosphere is 
 greater near the thirtieth degree than in any other part 
 of the earth. 
 
 THE OCEAN. , 
 
 12. There would be no movements of the ocean in a 
 north and south direction, were it not for the unequal 
 distribution of the sun's rays on the surface of the 
 earth. The tides cause a daily movement of the wa- 
 ters east and west ; but with this exception all the cur- 
 rents of tlie ocean are caused,^ like the currents of the 
 atmosphere, by the disturbance of the equilibrium pro- 
 duced by the sun's heat. 
 
 The heat of the sun, all else equal, being greatest at the 
 equator, and becoming gradually less to the poles, the 
 waters of the ocean are, of course, more expanded at 
 the surface the nearer they are to the equator ; and on 
 the contrary, they are more chilled and condensed at 
 the surface the nearer they are to the poles. The con- 
 sequence of this state of things is, that there is a con- 
 tinual movement going on, between the tropical and 
 polar waters, to restore the equilibrium, which is thus 
 continually being disturbed. 
 
 13. Supposing the depth of the water to be equal over 
 the surface of the whole earth, and the bed of the ocean 
 to be smooth, so that there should be no inequalities 
 nor shores to interfere with the natural direction of the 
 waters, what course would the currents pursue ? Would 
 the condensed polar waters move in a mass towards the 
 equator, and the expanded tropical waters move in a 
 
20 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 mass to meet them near the thirtieth degree of latitude, 
 as the winds meet ? Is there any law which would sep- 
 arate the poleward currents from those which are mov- 
 ing towards the equator, and force each to turn aside, 
 avoid an encounter, and choose a separate path for 
 itself? It is a law of nature that opposing forces, 
 under such circumstances, shall tend to compromise, and 
 form a circuit which is generally of an elliptical or oval 
 form. The planetary bodies, which were in motion 
 long before the ocean waters were, had already set the 
 example of obedience to the law of elliptical motion. 
 
 14. Assuming, then, that the current from the pole to 
 the equator constituted half of a circuit, and the cur- 
 rent from the equator to the pole the other half of it, 
 what natural laws are there that would impose upon 
 this circuit a definite length, breadth, and form, and 
 restrict the number of distinct circuits? The poles 
 of the earth are but two central points. Several cur- 
 rents, therefore, which go to and from one of the poles 
 without crossing each other must necessarily form acute 
 angles at the pole ; and furthermore, the currents which 
 go from the pole must be continuations of those which 
 go to it. 
 
 15. The currents that primitively moved towards the 
 equator, instead of converging to a point, as at the pole, 
 must have diverged and become widely separated from 
 each other. The earth being twenty -four thousand 
 miles in circumference, if there were but three equidis- 
 tant currents that run to the equator, they must have 
 been eight tliousand miles apart when they reached 
 there ; and as the distance to the pole is but six thousand. 
 
OUTLINES OP GEONOMY. 21 
 
 miles, the three primitive ellipses of each hemisphere 
 had their longer diameters from east to west. 
 
 16. Let us suppose that the first ocean currents were 
 thus arranged, and that each hemisphere was divided 
 into three elliptical circuits ; what natural laws would 
 govern and limit these circuits ? Before answering this, 
 let us define an ellipse. 
 
 An ellipse, or ellipsis, differs from a circle in being 
 longer than it is wide. The most distant extremities 
 of an ellipse are called apsides. The terrestrial ellipses 
 at the present time each have one apsis near the equa- 
 tor, and the other near the arctic or the antarctic circle. 
 The waters of each distinct oceanic basin run in an 
 ellipse from the equator along the western part of the 
 ocean towards the pole, and from the polar region^ along 
 the eastern part of the ocean to the equator. When 
 the primitive currents of water moved from the pole 
 towards the equator, the rotatory motion of the earth 
 must have given them a westward tendency, so that 
 they reached the equator at least two thousand miles 
 farther to the west than if they had moved in a direct 
 line. 
 
 When the water of the current arrived at the equa- 
 tor, if it was not yet sufficiently expanded by heat to 
 overflow towards the pole, it moved westward along in 
 the tropics, until it became sufficiently expanded. Let 
 us suppose that it moved along the equator two thousand 
 miles before it turned towards the pole ; it would after- 
 wards naturally move at least two thousand miles far- 
 ther before it would cease to tend towards the west in 
 any degree, and by this time it would be nearly one 
 
22 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 third of its way from the equator to the pole. During 
 the remaining two thirds of its journey, the rotation of 
 the earth would curve it in an easterly direction. 
 
 17. The causes that move the water in a northern 
 and southern direction are obvious enough, and so are 
 those that bring the currents together at the poles ; but 
 the causes that operate at the equator to send the current 
 eight thousand miles in a western direction require to 
 be fui-ther considered. First: the rotatory motion of the 
 earth gives all currents which are moving towards the 
 equator a western tendency, which is greater the nearer 
 they approach to the equator. Second: a current which 
 embraces one third of the waters of the earth must be 
 very broad, and must require considerable room to turn 
 in, and but a short segment of it would actually touch 
 the equator before it would turn again towards the pole, 
 gradually curving, until it moved in an easterly direc- 
 tion. Third : It must be evident that the larger the 
 body of water which required warming, the longer 
 must be the space which it would occupy parallel with 
 the equator ; and it must be equally evident that when 
 the water near the equator is warmed to a certain de- 
 gree, it must turn towards the pole ; and this fact limits 
 the size of ellipses, and prevents the equatorial waters 
 from moving in a continuous stream around the earth. 
 Fourth : the current from the pole must strike the 
 equator at a certain point, and after moving a certain 
 distance, leave the equator at another more western 
 point, in order to return to the pole ; the distance be- 
 tween these two points will depend principally upon 
 the distance to the pole, the depth of the water, and the 
 
OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 23 
 
 difference of temperature between the tropic and the 
 pole ; but one thing is demonstrable, and that is, that 
 an ellipse of waters can move no farther westerly along 
 the equator than is necessary to acquire a certain degree 
 of warmth. 
 
 18. If the southern hemisphere was originally divid- 
 ed into only three ellipses, as appearances now indicate 
 that it was, the reasons given above are sufficient to ac- 
 count for the fact ; and if the northern hemisphere con- 
 tains evidences of having been divided into six ellipses, 
 it will naturally be accounted for by supposing that its 
 three original ellipses were each divided, as the continents 
 gradually rose and limited the area in which the waters 
 moved. 
 
 MOUNTAINS AND CONTINENTS. 
 
 19. It appears that the principal ranges of mountains 
 were originally the boundaries and divisions between 
 the great oceanic ellipses. In the southern hemisphere, 
 from the north and south mountain ranges of Africa to 
 the mountains which run north and south in South 
 America, there was originally one ellipse, which was 
 bounded east and west by those mountains ; and even 
 now this may be geonomically considered as one basin. 
 From the north and south mountain ranges of South 
 America to the north and south mountains of east- 
 ern Australia there was another very similar ellipse. 
 From the north and south ranges on the western 
 coast of Australia to the north and south ranges of 
 Africa was a third ellipse. These three great ellipses, 
 or basins, now constitute the three great oceans of the 
 
24 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 southern hemisphere, namely, the South Atlantic, the 
 South Pacific, and the Indian Ocean ; and they are sep- 
 arated from each other by three analogous elevations of 
 land, namely, Africa, South America, and Australia. 
 These three elevations originally divided the southern 
 hemisphere into three nearly equal parts. 
 
 In the space between the southern shore of Australia 
 and the antarctic continent, the forms of the land indi- 
 cate that there is a small independent ellipse ; but we 
 know nothing concerning the directions of the currents 
 there, and this region must therefore be put down as 
 doubtful. There are also some evidences of a distinct 
 ellipse between New Zealand and Australia ; but as 
 both of these last mentioned are doubtful in the pres- 
 ent state of our knowledge, and as, if they do exist, they 
 are the consequences of a derangement of the primitive 
 ellipses, produced by the elevation of so much land above 
 the sea, I will leave them out of the account in this 
 place, and speak of the southern hemisphere as possess- 
 ing only three great oceanic basins. 
 
 In the northern hemisphere the equivalent of the 
 Indian Ocean is the continent of Asia ; the equivalent 
 of the South Atlantic basin, including a large part of 
 Africa, and of South America, is found in Europe, the 
 North Atlantic, and North America ; the North and 
 South Pacific Oceans balance each other. The north- 
 ern hemisphere is in six ellipses, as follows : — 
 
 First. Asia extends from the Aldan Mountains to 
 the Oural Mountains, and originally constituted a dis- 
 tinct submarine ellipse. 
 
 Second. Europe extends from the Ourals to the 
 
OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 25 
 
 Scandinavians, and though small, has the undoubted 
 marks of a separate ellipse. 
 
 Third. The North Atlantic constitutes a model and 
 well-known ellipse called " the Gulf Stream." 
 
 Fourth. North America was once overflowed by an 
 ellipse of the ocean extending from the Appalachians to 
 the Rocky Mountains* 
 
 Fifth. There is an imperfect ellipse now in the pro- 
 cess of draining, and rising in the north-west part of 
 North America, between the Rocky Mountains, the pen- 
 insula of Alaska, and the Sandwich Islands. 
 
 Sixth. An oceanic ellipse evidently exists between 
 Alaska and China, which I will denominate the north- 
 west Pacific ellipse. 
 
 20. A demonstrable parallelism exists between the 
 normal currents of the ocean and the principal ranges 
 of mountains, which renders it evident that there is a 
 necessary connection between the two classes of phe- 
 nomena that may rationally be accounted for as 
 follows : — 
 
 21. When the earth was first formed, its surface was 
 too hot to allow the waters to remain upon it ; but the 
 ocean then existed in the form of vapor circulating in 
 the atmosphere around the solid earth. Under these cir- 
 cumstances, there was nothing to prevent the earth from 
 assuming a spheroidal form, without any irregularities 
 upon its surface ; it had neither mountains nor valleys, 
 and it would have remained in this regular and smooth 
 condition, had not the gradual radiation of heat into 
 the celestial spaces caused the formation around the 
 earth of a shell or crust of cooled lava^- upon the surface 
 
 3 
 
26 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 of which the condensed vapors fell, to constitute the 
 ocean. 
 
 22. As soon as the ocean had covered the earth, and 
 the difference of temperature between the equator and 
 the poles began to operate, there would immediately 
 commence a movement of currents from the poles to the 
 equator, and back again, to restore the equilibrium. 
 
 23. The paths pursued by the ocean currents soon 
 became heaped with a heavy mass of detritus,. — gravel 
 and sediment, — which was precipitated and deposited 
 there. 
 
 24. When water runs the most rapidly, it becomes the 
 most heavily charged with sediment ; and when it runs 
 the most slowly, it drops the particles of sediment the 
 most copiously. 
 
 25. There are some substances that are held in solu- 
 tion by cold water, but which are immediately precipi- 
 tated and deposited at the bottom when the water 
 becomes warmed. This is the case with lime, especially 
 when the water contains considerable carbonic acid. 
 
 26. When, by the regular operation of the currents, 
 a series of strata was formed along the course and 
 direction of the current, especially in the young and 
 tender condition of the earth's primitive crust, its weight 
 caused a subsidence of the crust proportionate to the 
 quantity of the sediment accumulated in one place. 
 
 27. It would be impossible for such a subsidence of a 
 long ridge of strata to take place without producing a 
 corresponding elevation parallel to the line of subsi- 
 dence, and also parallel to the course of the current. 
 
 28. When two parallel currents run in opposite 
 
OUTLINES OF GEOXOMY. 27 
 
 directions so near to each other as to somewhat inter- 
 fere and moderate each other's movements, the effect is 
 to cause an uncommon precipitation of sediment at the 
 points of mutual contact, and consequently at such 
 points a subsidence and elevation would be most likely 
 to take place, the effect of which would be to place a 
 ridge, or line of elevation, between the two currents that 
 would prevent their further interference with each 
 other. Each current afterwards, instead of impinging 
 against another current, would impinge against its own 
 shore or side of the elevated ridge, and impress it with 
 its own character, curve, and direction. 
 
 29. If the elevation extends north and south, and is 
 very long, it has its eastern side concave at the end 
 which is towards the pole, and convex at the eastern 
 side of the other end. Its western side will be the 
 reverse of this ; that is to say, the end which is towards 
 the pole will be convex, while that which is towards the 
 equator will be concave. The mountains and shores of 
 the western part of North America are a good illus- 
 tration. 
 
 30. All normal oceanic currents invariably run /rom 
 the pole on the western sides of elevations, and all 
 normal currents that run towards the pole, take the 
 eastern sides ; and this fact, together with the fact that 
 the rotatory motion of the earth causes poleward cur- 
 rents to curve to the east when nearing the poles, and 
 those moving towards the equator to curve to the west, 
 is a sufficient explanation of the difference in the curves 
 of mountains at their northern and southern extrem- 
 ities. 
 
28 OUTLINES OP GEONOMY. 
 
 EARTHQUAKES. 
 
 31. When two currents are running, one on each side 
 of a ridge, a subsidence will be most likely to take 
 place on the side which borders the larger body of 
 water ; because that side will be likely to gather and 
 deposit the largest and heaviest body of detritus. 
 
 32. When a subsidence takes place on one side of a 
 ridge, it produces an elevation on the opposite side, by 
 crowding the subjacent lava upward, under the crust of 
 the opposite side, and sometimes causing it to gush out 
 and overflow towards the side which has subsided. This 
 explains the phenomena which are known in geology 
 nnder the name of faults. It also explains the fact that 
 mountains generally have their crests inclined towards 
 their most abrupt slopes, and are, in some instances, 
 even folded over. 
 
 33. The side of the ridge which has proved its supe- 
 riority of weight by subsiding once, seldom loses the 
 advantage thus gained over its opponent. The waters 
 on both sides of the ridge retreat from the ridge to an 
 extent proportionate to the degree of the elevation, but 
 the waters on the side which sinks deepest retire the 
 shortest distance ; and under the operation of the same 
 causes, another stratified formation of detritus and sed- 
 iment is deposited, parallel, or nearly so, with the first, 
 which is of the same weight ; but this fails to produce 
 a subsidence, for the reason that in the mean time the 
 crust of the earth has grown cooler, thicker, and strong- 
 er. The subsidence is therefore postponed until suffi- 
 cient reenforcements of sediment arrive. At length the 
 
OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 29 
 
 shell gives way, and goes down with a force propor- 
 tioned to its weight, and raises a corresponding eleva- 
 tion, as much higher than the first elevation as the force 
 which produced it was greater. A third, a fourth, and 
 a fifth formation are afterwards deposited, each of which 
 is heavier than its predecessor, and consequently pro- 
 duces a deeper subsidence and a greater elevation. The 
 highest mountains on tlie earth should by this law be 
 the product of the latest general catastrophe, and raised 
 parallel to several ranges of minor mountains in the 
 interior, whose elevation should be found to be contin- 
 ually less, and the dislocations of the crust less violent, 
 as we approach the locality of the original subsidence. 
 
 34. The rule that the larger ocean produces the 
 greater subsidence holds true not only in reference to 
 different mountains when compared with each other, 
 but also when applied to different sections of the same 
 mountain range. Those parts of a mountain range 
 will be found to be the highest which are contiguous to 
 the largest mass of waters. 
 
 Those mountains that terminate in deep water are 
 generally promontories, and owe their elevations to the 
 subsidences which have taken place around them. For 
 the same reason the mountains near the poles are not as 
 high as those nearer the tropics, because the ocean there 
 is necessarily contracted for want of space. In accord- 
 ance with these principles it will be found that the 
 ocean is generally deepest, and its diameter greatest, op- 
 posite the highest mountains. 
 
 35. The heavy metals are probably situated immedi- 
 ately beneath the lava or melted granite which is 
 
 3* 
 
so OUTLINES OF GEOXOMY. 
 
 beneath the earth's crust : and they are more likely to 
 be found, not in the highest mountains, but where the 
 greatest subsidences and elevations have been made 
 at one movement; for the reason that such a movement 
 would stir the melted masses which are beneath the 
 crust to a greater depth, and, by reaction, send the 
 heavier metals up to greater heights and in larger 
 quantities. 
 
 36. The first formation of rock upon the earth was 
 produced by the cooling and hardening of the lava. 
 The lava consists of the lightest known metals and 
 metalloids combined with oxygen ; and it is to be pre- 
 sumed that the reason why the crust is composed of 
 these light metals is, because they were floating upon 
 the melted metallic surface of the primitive earth, and 
 were thus brought into contact with the atmosphere, so 
 as to become oxidized and cooled to form the crust. 
 
 37. The next formation was gneiss, and is composed 
 of the worn and broken fragments of granite. During 
 the accumulation of this and the following formation, 
 the surface of the earth was probably in continual agi- 
 tation, in consequence of the strife which was taking 
 place between the hot lava below the thin crust and the 
 moisture which was condensing from the atmosphere 
 above it. This is evident not only from the nature of 
 things, but also from the contorted appearance of the 
 strata in the rocks themselves. 
 
 38. The next rocky formation is called mica schist, 
 and is a species of slate, in which mica abounds, and was 
 apparently formed by sediment falling from the water 
 among the lighter portions of the gneiss. Above this 
 
OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 31 
 
 are clay slates, and sandstoiies of a more fine and regu- 
 lar formation, indicating that a more quiet ocean pre- 
 vailed. 
 
 39. The next iDiportant circumstance in a geonomic 
 point of view, in the progress of the formations, is the 
 abundance of red sandstone, which indicates that sub- 
 sidences had taken place deep enough to send up a 
 large quantity of iron by their reactions, and that 
 oxides of the iron had tinged the sandstones with a 
 brownish red color. 
 
 40. Above the old red sandstones is deposited an 
 immense quantity of limestone, which was probably 
 formed in hot and shallow seas, by the precipitation of 
 lime from solution in cold water. Cold water, which 
 contains considerable carbonic acid, is capable of hold- 
 ing a large quantity of lime in solution, the carbonic 
 acid being absorbed from the atmosphere, and the lime 
 being dissolved from the rocks at the bottom of the sea. 
 When this solution was borne by the currents from the 
 deep cold waters to the shallower and warmer seas, the 
 increase of heat caused a precipitation of the lime to 
 the bottom, which, accumulating gradually for indefinite 
 ages, produced the limestones of the carboniferous 
 formation. 
 
 41. Immediately above these carboniferous lime- 
 stones are the beds of coal which now supply fuel to 
 man. These were formed in the lowlands of an archi- 
 pelago, where, in consequence of the flexible condition 
 of the earth's rising crust, there were alternate, and some- 
 times, perhaps, annual subsidences and elevations, which 
 brought the same area to the surface, and allowed a 
 
32 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 growth of vegetation upon it, and then sunk it so far 
 as to allow a formation of -limestone and detritus to be 
 made above the coal. Being again raised to the sur- 
 face, a new layer of coal was added. This carboniferous 
 formation was brought to an end by a series of general 
 and enormous subsidences and elevations, which raised 
 still more iron from below the crust, and produced the 
 new red sandstone formation. 
 
 42. The next fact to be noticed is, that above the 
 coal and lime, in the new red sandstone, is the salifer- 
 ous formation ; that is to say, there is evidence of the 
 commencement of plains of land containing salt lakes 
 or lagoons within their bosoms, from which the fresh 
 water gradually evaporated, as the land rose, leaving 
 rock salt, gypsum, and magnesian stone, deposited and 
 accumulated in the beds where they are now found. 
 
 43. Above the saliferous formation are the lias, the 
 oolitic, the cretaceous, the tertiary, the drift, and the 
 present alluvial formations, all of which unite in fur- 
 nishing satisfactory proofs that, Ist, the present dry 
 lands were sometimes elevated gradually and quietly 
 without sudden convulsions, in a way which it would 
 appear can be most easily explained by supposing that 
 the elevation was caused by the gradual subsidence of 
 the beds of the surrounding oceans crowding the sub- 
 jacent lava up under the rising continents, and pro- 
 ducing earthquakes and volcanoes occasionally, in con- 
 sequence of local interruptions of the general gradual 
 progress downward in one direction, and upward in 
 another. 
 
 2d. That the most remarkable convulsions and ele- 
 
OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 33 
 
 yations followed, in many instances, after a very long 
 period of quiet and gradual accumulations of stratified 
 deposits of sediment and detritus. 
 
 3d. That the dislocations of the crust almost inya- 
 riably took place in a line parallel with the line in 
 which the strata were deposited, and also in a line 
 parallel with the course which the ocean's currents 
 must naturally have pursued. 
 
 4th. The formations which were the last that were 
 deposited in the sea before the present time, namely, the 
 tertiary, are found tilted up from their original places 
 around the highest mountains, while around the lower 
 class of elevations they are seldom disturbed ; thus 
 demonstrating that the latest eleyations are the high- 
 est, and were caused by the latest subsidences of the 
 ocean's bed. 
 
 44. In some cases, it is very likely that local subsi- 
 dences and elevations took place in consequence of the 
 general disturbance of the crust over a ,large area. A 
 local accumulation which would be insufficient to break 
 the crust by its weight when the earth was quiet, would 
 subside if the earth were shaken in that region. Not 
 only so, if a large region were forced upward by the 
 pressure of a vast and extensive mass of lava, the 
 localities where the crust was thinnest and least loaded 
 with strata, would be likely to rise highest, and leave 
 the places lower, where the strata were thickest and 
 heaviest. The appearances in some mountainous regions 
 seem to suggest this explanation. 
 
 It is a demonstrable fact in geology, that the convul- 
 sions, as they are called, have been continually less 
 
34 OUTLINES OP GEONOMY. 
 
 frequent and more violent, from the time of the depo- 
 sition of the first and lowest strata ; the hills have also 
 become continually higher and the oceans deeper. 
 
 45. When the most modern stratified rocks are found 
 but slightly disturbed, and yet much elevated, it is gen- 
 erally near the sea shore, and their elevation in such 
 cases is owing not to the dislocation of the crust so 
 much as to the gradual and general subsidence of the 
 neighboring seas, and the equally gradual elevation of 
 the whole mass of land which borders upon the ocean. 
 
 It has for a long time been known that there is a 
 distinction between earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, 
 the sudden elevation of mountain ridges, and the grad- 
 ual elevation of continents and peninsulas ; but the 
 causes of neither have been understood. Earthquakes 
 are caused by subsidences which produce movements of 
 lava beneath the crust of the earth. Volcanoes are the 
 eruptions of lava through orifices in the crust. Conti- 
 nental elevations are caused by the gradual subsidence 
 of tlie ocean, producing unobserved reactions upon the 
 masses of higher land. 
 
 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 
 
 46. The mountains of the same hemisphere, that are 
 parallel to each other, possess the same relations to the 
 ocean currents ; and wherever similar forms of moun- 
 tains, islands, peninsulas, plateaus, or lakes are repeated, 
 it will be found that they are always the results of 
 analogous movements of different currents. 
 
 It will also be found that when the forms of dijQTerent 
 
OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 35 
 
 lands approximate to each other, but are yet, in many 
 respects, unlike, the forming currents equally approxi- 
 mated and equally varied in their conditions and direc- 
 tions when the lands were created. 
 
 47. "When the forms of different lands greatly resem- 
 ble each other, but one land is much more diminutive 
 than the other, it will be found that the smaller land 
 was produced by currents analogous in direction, but 
 proportionally as much inferior in size as the land is. 
 As illustrations, we may study the analogies of the cur- 
 rents and terrestrial forms of the three continents of 
 the southern hemisphere — South America, Africa, and 
 Australia. We here find similar ocean currents asso- 
 ciated with strikingly similar forms of land. 
 
 48. In the northern hemisphere we have a series of 
 three ellipses, Asia, Europe, and the North Atlantic, 
 repeated in every thing essential by the. next series, 
 namel}^, North America, North-west America, and the 
 North-west Pacific. 
 
 Let us make two columns, and put opposite each 
 other the names of those places that are analogous, 
 and, as it were, repetitions of each other in the two 
 series of continents. 
 
 Kamschatka, . 
 
 Okotsk Sea, 
 
 Japan, . 
 
 China, 
 
 Siam, . 
 
 Bengal Baj', 
 
 Sumatra and Java, 
 
 Borneo and Celebes, 
 
 Poling and NanUng Mountains, 
 
 India, 
 
 . Greenland. 
 
 Baffin's Bay. 
 . Newfoundland. 
 
 United States. 
 . Florida. 
 
 Gulf of Mexico. 
 . Central America. 
 
 Cuba and Jamaica. 
 . Appalachians. 
 
 Mexico, 
 
36 OUTLINES OP 
 
 GEONOMY. 
 
 Plateau of Thibet, 
 
 . Plateau of California. 
 
 The Oural Mountains, 
 
 The Rocky Mountains. 
 
 The Peninsula of Arabia, . . 
 
 . The Peninsula of California. 
 
 The Persian Gulf, . 
 
 The Gulf of California. 
 
 Europe, 
 
 . North-west America. 
 
 Scandinavia, 
 
 Alaska. 
 
 Iceland Channel, 
 
 . Behring's Strait. 
 
 North-west part of the Atlantic, . 
 
 North-west Pacific. 
 
 If we compare Europe with North America, we find 
 that Italy corresponds with Panama. The semicircle 
 of the Alps corresponds with the semicircular form of 
 the shores around the Mexican Gulf. We must not 
 allow ourselves to be deceived by the greater elevation 
 of the Alps, for in geonomy the degree of elevation is 
 of minor importance, when the analogy of forms and 
 their relation to currents are in question. In all the pre- 
 ceding instances which have been given of analogous 
 forms of land, it will be found that, as far as we know 
 or can judge, the direction of the currents was also 
 analogous. 
 
 49. There is not a land upon the earth, neither island, 
 peninsula, nor continent, the known form of which is 
 such as to contradict the geonomic theory here proposed. 
 
 In those instances where counter currents prevail 
 from temporary and local causes, the directions of the 
 land are found reversed. This is believed to be the 
 case with the Massachusetts capes,, that were formed 
 under the influence of the cold current from Baffin's 
 Bay, which is probably a relic of the ancient North 
 American ellipse. 
 
 50. There are a great many ridges of small hills in 
 the interior of almost every country, the formation of 
 
OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 37 
 
 which can only be understood by considering the condi- 
 tion of the earth at the time when they were made ; 
 most of them are composed of the earliest deposited 
 strati j&ed rocks. They contain evidence of having once 
 formed a part of the ocean's bed, at a period when the 
 crust of the earth was warm and thin, and easily bent 
 by the weight of small masses of detritus and sediment. 
 They were, in fact, the first created hills. In most in- 
 instances their highest points are unbroken by the pro- 
 trusion of lava, for powerful volcanoes had not yet burst 
 forth. It is interesting to study these ancient ocean 
 beds, and determine by observation the particular val- 
 leys or plains, the depressions of which produced the 
 particular elevations. 
 
 51. The principles of g-e'onomy, when applied to other 
 planetary bodies, indicate the existence of fluids, which 
 circulate upon their surfaces in ellipses, the forms and 
 sizes of which are modified by astronomic conditions 
 peculiar to each ; but the directions and curves of the 
 currents can be determined with great accuracy by the 
 elevations which they have been instrumental in pro- 
 ducing. 
 
 4 
 
38 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 SECTION II. 
 
 EQUILIBRIUM OF THE EARTH. 
 
 It is the opinion of many distinguished modern phi- 
 losophers that the solid materials which constitute tlie 
 earth, were at one time so much expanded by heat that 
 they were in a melted and liquid state ; that the whole 
 world was but a revolving ball of fluid and liquid sub- 
 stances, which occupied much more space than the earth 
 does at present. 
 
 It is estimated that the temperature of the space 
 through which the planets of our solar system are mov- 
 ing, is not less than sixty degrees of Fahrenheit's ther- 
 mometer below zero ; and we know that the line of 
 perpetual frost at the equator is only fifteen thousand 
 feet above the level of the sea. 
 
 It is conjectured by some astronomers that our solar 
 system is only a small segment of a vast circle of sys- 
 tems revolving around a common centre; and they sug- 
 gest it as possible that in one part of the circle, the 
 planets are all melted by the intense heat of the space 
 through which they are passing, and that in another 
 part they are congealed by the intense cold. This, 
 however, is mere speculation, concerning a question 
 which cannot be settled by observation nor experiment. 
 But we have satisfactory evidence that, whatever may 
 be the remote causes, the fact is, the surface of the 
 earth was formerly in a melted condition, so that each 
 
EQUILIBRIUM OF THE EARTH. 39 
 
 substance was at liberty to move to the place assigned 
 to it by gravitation. We are also satisfied that the 
 surface of the earth has been gradually cooling ; and 
 that, consequently, its external substances have been 
 condensing. When the surface of the whole earth was 
 in a melted state, many of the substances which now 
 exist in the condition of fluids or solids must have been 
 gases or vapors. The waters which now constitute 
 the sea, were then in the atmosphere, mingled with va- 
 pors of sulphur, phosphorus, iodine, and many other 
 things which are now only found in the natural state as 
 solid substances. 
 
 What a splendid subject have we here for the con- 
 templation of a chemical philosopher ! It is his prov- 
 ince to determine the effects of different degrees of heat 
 upon the specilic gravities of the various substances 
 which mingled in that chaos of terrestrial elements. 
 There were no solids then at the earth's surface. Met- 
 als and metalloids were in a liquid state ; all else was 
 vaporous. When the condensing process began, what 
 substances first fell from the atmosphere upon the 
 earth ? Was it a rain of sulphur, phosphorus, iodine, 
 and chlorine, in combination with oxygen ; and then a 
 rain of acidulated water ; then water more pure ; until 
 the whole ocean fell from the atmosphere upon the solid 
 surface, and enveloped the earth in a blue and waving 
 robe, to protect it from the scorching rays of the sun 
 above, and the more powerful heat of the metallic ocean 
 below ? 
 
 The astronomical position of the earth, and its re- 
 lation to the sun, are such that the tropical regions 
 
40 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 receive a constant flood of heat, while the poles are 
 supplied scantily and alternately ; the consequence must 
 have been, in the original formation of the earth's crust, 
 that the condensation and precipitation of substances at 
 the poles must have been much more copious than in the 
 tropics, and dry land would therefore be more likely 
 to appear at the poles first, while water would be ac- 
 cumulated near the equator. The continents did prob- 
 ably all commence rising in the polar regions, and grad- 
 ually extend towards the equator. 
 
 The fact is noticed and commented on by all phys- 
 ical geographers, that much the larger part of the dry 
 land is in the northern hemisphere ; though I am not 
 aware that any suggestion has ever been made concern- 
 ing the cause of this apparent violation of the laws of 
 equilibrium. As the earth revolves, steadily, upon its 
 axis, gravitation tends to make the two hemispheres 
 equal in every respect ; and tliere can be little doubt 
 that the inequality which apparently exists has been 
 produced by some cause which acted upon one hemi- 
 sphere more powerfully than upon the other. Was it 
 the unequal distribution of heat to the two hemi- 
 spheres ? Did some apparent accident in the beginning 
 elevate a little more land in the north, and thus give it 
 an advantage which, from its very nature, would in- 
 crease indefinitely? Or, may the predominance of 
 northern lands and southern waters be attributed to 
 the precession of the equinoxes ? 
 
 Every elementary work on astronomy contains an ex- 
 planation of the principles involved in the precession ; 
 and it ^is sufficient here to state the result, which is. 
 
EQUILIBRIUM OF THE EARTH. 41 
 
 that during a period of about tea thousand years, the 
 spring and summer in the northern hemisphere is about 
 seven and three fourth days longer than in the south- 
 ern, and this is followed by an equal period in which 
 the spring and summer in the southern hemisphere is 
 the longer. 
 
 At the present time the longer summer and shorter 
 winter is in the north, and will continue here about four 
 thousand years to come, when it will be transferred to 
 the southern hemisphere. Herschel calculated that the 
 precession would make no difference in the absolute 
 amount of light and heat received, but that it would be 
 the same in both hemispheres, the greater proximity' 
 of the earth to the sun in perihelion compensating for its 
 shorter time ; but Humboldt justly remarks in sub- 
 stance that a winter longer by seven and three quarter 
 days will occasion a loss of heat by radiation which is 
 not fully compensated ; and therefore the greater de- 
 gree of cold which is well known to exist in the south- 
 ern hemisphere than in the northern, at the present 
 time, may be in part, at least, if not wholly, attributed 
 to this cause. 
 
 Sir Charles Lyell, in his Principles of Geology, vol. 
 i. p. 121, adopts the same view of the subject. He 
 says, '' Perhaps no very sensible effect may be produced 
 by this source of disturbance ; yet the geologist should 
 bear in mind that to a certain extent it operates alter- 
 nately on each of the two hemispheres for a period of 
 upwards of ten thousand years, dividing unequally the 
 times during which the annual supply of solar light and 
 
 heat is received. This cause may sometimes tend to coun- 
 
 4* 
 
42 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 terbalance inequalities of temperature resulting from 
 other far more influential circumstances ; but, on the 
 other hand, it must sometimes tend to increase the ex- 
 treme of deviation arising from particular combinations 
 of causes. But whatever may be at present the inferi- 
 ority of heat in the temperate and frigid zones south 
 of the line, it is quite evident that the cold would be 
 far more intense if there happened, instead of open sea, 
 to be tracts of elevated land between the fifty-fifth and 
 seventieth parallel ; and, on the other hand, the cold 
 v/ould be moderated if there was more land between 
 the line and forty-fifth degree of south latitude." 
 
 If we multiply ten thousand years by seven and three 
 fourth days, we find that it amounts, in the aggregate, 
 to about two hundred and twelve years ; now, it is evi- 
 dent that if we could have two hundred and twelve 
 years of constant winter in the southern hemisphere, 
 and summer in the northern, the currents would, during 
 all that time, bring to the north the detritus of lands, 
 which the cold tempests and the frosts would naturally 
 break up in the south ; and we should expect to see a 
 predominance of dry land in the north. Instead of 
 having the whole two hundred and twelve years of 
 southern winter at once, we have it equally divided be- 
 tween ten thousand years, so that each year the south 
 receives but about seven and three fourth days of 
 colder weather : this makes no difi'erence in the aggre- 
 gate effects. It will, doubtless, be suggested by some 
 critical readers that, the land gained to one hemispliere 
 by the precession during a period of ten thousand years 
 must be lost during the following period ; but this does 
 
EQUILIBRIUM OF THE EARTH. 43 
 
 not necessarily follow. Before we come to such a con- 
 clusion we should consider all the possible effects that 
 the precession of the equinoxes might have produced, 
 not only upon the movements of the waters, but upon 
 the precipitation of substances held in solution by the 
 waters, and also upon the cooling of the crust of the 
 earth during the earlier ages of creation ; we should 
 also consider whether the disturbance of equilibrium 
 produced during one period might not, by a change of 
 circumstances, have been increased during the next, in- 
 stead of being compensated and balanced. Further- 
 more, we should consider whether the stage of creation 
 at which the earth had arrived in the commencement 
 of a particular period may not have been such that a 
 slight increase of heat in one hemisphere would produce 
 effects which could not be compensated during a large 
 number of succeeding cycles. Is it not possible that 
 the greater weight and pressure of the more condensed 
 atmosphere in the colder southern hemisphere may have 
 depressed the earth's crust when it was very young and 
 delicate, and thus forced a portion of the subjacent lava 
 to escape into the northern hemisphere? 
 
 It is frequently said that continents grow broader 
 towards the north pole ; but this is only apparently so. 
 The currents of the whole northern hemisphere tend to 
 converge to the north pole ; the lands, of course, do 
 the same ; and the consequence is, that the arctic circle 
 is mostly occupied by land ; but the distance around 
 the earth at the arctic circle is so small that it does 
 uot require such broad lands to fill the whole space as 
 it does nearer the equator. 
 
44 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 The greatest part of the ocean waters in the north- 
 ern hemit^phere move north as far as Iceland or Behring's 
 Strait, and south to the north part of South America ; 
 half way between these, near the fortieth degree of 
 north latitude, the lands are broadest, highest, and 
 most productive. Follow the fortieth degree around 
 the artificial globe, and we shall pass near the regions 
 most celebrated in human history, at the same time that 
 we are traversing the most extended dry lands on the 
 earth. From this it appears that the lands are broadest 
 in the middle of the ellipses. 
 
 In reflecting upon the subject of the predominance 
 of the northern lands and the southern waters, the fol- 
 lowing hypothetical explanation has occurred to me : — 
 
 It being admitted that the earth has been, during in- 
 definite ages, contracting its dimensions in consequence 
 of the gradual radiation and loss of its original heat, and 
 it being a natural law that, under such circumstances, 
 the centrifugal force increases, and causes a greater 
 bulging at the equator and a flattening at the poles, — 
 if, when the crust of the earth was first hardened, it 
 resisted the flattening tendency at the south pole, and 
 yielded to it at the north, the effect Avould be to pro- 
 duce precisely such a predominance of land in the north 
 and of water in the south as actually exists. 
 
 The precession of the equinoxes may have been a 
 cause of the more rapid cooling and hardening of one 
 pole than the other. 
 
 If, after this inequality was produced, whatever was 
 the cause, the ocean currents commenced moving be- 
 tween the equator and the poles in both hemispheres 
 
EQUILIBRIUM OF THE EARTH. 45 
 
 alike, the result would be, that the northern hemisphere, 
 having shallower seas, would have its crust most worn 
 and elevated in some places, and depressed by the weight 
 of detritus in other places, so that its land would be 
 the first to rise above the level of the ocean. That 
 part which rose in arctic regions would be broken up 
 bv frost, and form detritus to swell the bulk of lands 
 between the arctic and the tropics, where we actually 
 find the lands most elevated and broad. The lands at 
 the south pole, not being so much depressed, would 
 form an antarctic continent, and between the antarctic 
 circle and the tropic of Capricorn would be the great 
 bulk of the ocean, gathered, and, as it were, clinging 
 there, upon one side of the earth, to preserve its equi- 
 librium. These are curious and complicated questions 
 of dynamical geonomy, which I will not pursue farther at 
 present, as they are not necessarily connected with my 
 main argument, though as subordinate matters they are 
 highly interesting. 
 
 The natural laws of equilibrium must necessarily tend 
 to make the two hemispheres of the earth equal, and if 
 the partial distribution of heat, or refrigeration of the 
 earth, produces a tempoi'ary external inequality of the 
 hemispheres, there will be a tendency of the fluids, both 
 above and below the crust, to move, and ultimately to 
 restore the equilibrium. We know that the atmos- 
 phere and aqueous fluid do actually more for this pur- 
 pose, but we have not hitherto regarded earthquakes as 
 the results of movements of the lava to accomplish the 
 same object ; I have no doubt, however, that such is the 
 fact. 
 
46 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 As soon as the primitive ocean covered the earth, and 
 the polar regions became colder than the tropics, a cir- 
 culation of winds and waters commenced to restore the 
 equilibrium, which has been continually disturbed by 
 the differences of temperature. 
 
 I have no doubt that the actual amount of matter in 
 one hemisphere of the globe is continually the same as 
 that in the other ; or, if, through any apparent accident, 
 one hemisphere should temporarily get the advantage, 
 a movement of the air, the water, or the lava immedi- 
 ately begins to restore the balance. If, in consequence 
 of the more rapid cooling of the southern hemisphere, 
 from astronomic causes, there should be, for a series of 
 years, a greater amount of precipitation of substances 
 from an aeriform or a liquid state to a solid state, it 
 might, in the early and nascent condition of the planet, 
 produce a greater subsidence of its young and tender 
 crust, between the equator and the antarctic circle, 
 than what took place in a corresponding region of the 
 northern hemisphere during the same period. This 
 general subsidence of the whole southern hemisphere 
 would, of course, cause a movement of flie subjacent lava 
 to the south pole, and across l^e mid-line of the earth, 
 into the northern hemisphere ; and thus, though the 
 southern seas would be larger and the northern lands 
 higher, the relative quantities of matter would be the 
 same in each hemisphere. 
 
 The tendency of the two hemispheres to keep in equi- 
 librium seems to be indicated by the symmetry which 
 is to be observed in the ocean currents of the two oppo- 
 site hemispheres. This is especially apparent in the 
 
EQUILIBRIUM OF THE EARTH. 4T 
 
 Mozambique current being originally antagonized by a 
 current of which the Red Sea is a relic. So also the 
 normal current that flows to the equator along the 
 west coast of Africa, appears to be antagonized by the 
 European current that flows along the eastern part of 
 the Atlantic, to meet, and, as it w^ere, to balance the 
 African current at the western point of South America, 
 near Cape St. Roque ; here the two currents separate 
 again, like two limbs proceeding from one vertebra, and 
 each pursues an analogous course to the opposite poles. 
 From the poles again, a little farther west, we find two 
 currents moving towards the equator, meeting a little 
 at the west of Panama, and moving onward together, 
 until the laws of equilibrium require them to part and 
 move towards the polar extremities of the earth ; one 
 current impinging, as it goes, upon the eastern coast of 
 Asia, and the other upon the eastern coast of Australia. 
 Looking now a little farther west, we find a current 
 in the Indian Ocean, moving along the western coast 
 of Australia to the equator, and then turning again 
 towards the pole ; a part or branch of it running through 
 the Mozambique Channel, the other branch going to the 
 east of Madagascar. In the opposite hemisphere, the 
 mountains of Asia, are enduring witnesses, that a cur- 
 rent once moved on the western side of the Aldan 
 Mountains to the tropics, turned west and north-west 
 on the northern side of the Himalayas and the Hindoo 
 Kosh, and returned north by the east side of the Oural, 
 seventeen hundred miles, to the Frozen Sea. In fact, 
 we have, in the Asiatic ellipse, the counterpart of 
 the Indian Ocean ellipse. I do not wish to be under- 
 
48 OUTLINES OP GEONOMY. 
 
 stood that the ocean currents in the two hemispheres 
 are all now symmetrical, but that it is evident that they 
 originally were so when the land was all beneath the 
 sea, and even now they are as symmetrical as the ine- 
 qualities of the land will permit them to be. 
 
 The idea has been advanced by some theorists, that 
 geological phenomena may be explained by supposing 
 that the axis of the earth has been changed, so that what 
 are now the poles were formerly the tropical regions ; 
 and distinguished astronomers have been at the pains 
 to show that such could not have been the case ; but 
 when the fact is established and admitted that the 
 mountains are produced by currents that run between 
 the poles and the equator, we need look no farther for 
 proof that the poles have remained unchanged. May 
 we not hope that in the future progress of discovery, we 
 may yet find, in the physical constitution of the earth, 
 some marks produced by astronomic cj^cles or changes, 
 such as the precession of the equinoxes, and thus con- 
 nect astronomical and geological periods. 
 
ELLIPTICAL PATHS OP THE CUEEENTS. 49 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 ELLIPTICAL PATHS OF THE CURRENTS. 
 
 The tendency of the waters of the ocean is to run in 
 irregular oval currents, or elliptical circuits. 
 
 The currents appear to be, at present, divided into 
 seven great ellipses, as follows : — 
 
 1. The ellipse which circulates in the north-east part 
 of the Pacific, a part of which is elevated and drained 
 so as to constitute the North-west American ellipse of 
 land : let us name this the Vancouver ellipse. 
 
 2. The Siam or North-west Pacific ellipse, which 
 washes the shores of China. 
 
 3. The North Atlantic, or Gulf Stream ellipse. 
 
 4. The South Atlantic ellipse. 
 
 5. The Indian Ocean ellipse. 
 
 6. 7. The Chili or South Pacific ellipse, which is prob- 
 ably divided into two submarine ellipses of land. Ac- 
 cording to Lieutenant Maury, the South Pacific is divid- 
 ed into two parts by currents which run in a north and 
 south direction, between South America and Australia. 
 
 Judging by the forms of the land, I presume that 
 there is a small ellipse which circulates between the 
 southern shore of Australia and the antarctic continent. 
 This can only be determined with certainty by a future 
 survey of this region. 
 
 The analogy of the sea between New Zealand and 
 Australia to the South Atlantic leads me to suspect that 
 5 
 
50 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 there is also a small ellipse circulating in the New 
 Zealand Sea. 
 
 If these two small ellipses do exist in the vicinity of 
 Australia, it is because the lands in that region are 
 rising and interfering with the regular operations of 
 the large primitive ellipses. 
 
 It seems to me that I can trace an analogy to the 
 North and South Atlantic Ocean, on a diminutive scale, 
 in the channel that extends from Behring's Strait to the 
 antarctic continent, along the eastern coasts of Asia and 
 Australia, and I cannot help fancying that continents 
 analogous to Europe and Africa are now in the process 
 of forming and rising in the North and South Pacific ; 
 the South-east Pacific being the representative or rep- 
 etition of the Indian Ocean, — the waters between New 
 Zealand and Australia repetitions of the South Atlantic, 
 — and the waters between Behring's Strait and Siara 
 repetitions of the North Atlantic ; but these specula- 
 tions must be postponed for the present. 
 
 To the above-mentioned ellipses must be added three 
 oceanic ellipses which have been drained, but whose 
 mountain ranges show plainly the directions in which 
 the currents which created them formerly circulated ; 
 ihey are Asia, Europe, and North America ; and perhaps 
 we should reckon North-west America as an ellipse, 
 about one fourth drained. 
 
 Subordinate ellipses, or circular currents, appear to 
 be generated in small land-locked seas, bays, and gulfs, 
 by offsets from the great ellipses ; thus, in the Gulf of 
 Mexico there is a distinct ellipse, produced by the water 
 entering through the Caribbean Sea, and passing out 
 
ELLIPTICAL PATHS OF THE CURRENTS. 51 
 
 again through the Florida Channel. This sub-ellipse is 
 generally considered as the principal instigator of the 
 Gulf Stream ; but the waters of the Atlantic would cir- 
 culate in an ellipse, just as they do now, if the Gulf of 
 Mexico and the Caribbean Sea were both entirely closed. 
 The circulation in the Gulf of Mexico, instead of being 
 a necessary part of the North Atlantic circulation, is 
 merely an unessential addition to it. The same may be 
 said of the still greater sub-ellipse, which sets from the 
 North-east Pacific into Bengal Bay, through the Indian 
 Archipelago. The Gulf Stream is here repeated on a 
 larger scale, in every respect ;. not only so, the whole 
 coast, from India to Alaska, is constituted of repeti- 
 tions of peninsulas and gulfs, produced by the current 
 entering on one side of an inland sea, and passing 
 out on the other side, thus constituting a remarkable 
 series of sub-ellipses. I have no doubt that the cause 
 of many currents of the deep sea, which have hitherto 
 seemed mysterious, will be perfectly plain when the 
 bottom of the ocean is well known, and the elliptical 
 circulation understood. 
 
 Lieutenant Maury very modestly remarks, "There 
 are also about the equator in this ocean (the Pacific) 
 some curious currents which I do not understand, and 
 as to which observations are not sufficient yet to afi'ord 
 a proper explanation or description. There are many 
 of them, some of which, at times, run with great force. 
 On a voyage from the Society to the Sandwich Islands, 
 I encountered one running at the rate of ninety-six 
 miles a day." I have a sanguine hope, amounting to a 
 confident expectation that when the elliptical theory is 
 
62 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 applied to those currents, they will be readily under- 
 stood, after a more particular survey of them has been 
 made by the distinguished head of our National Obser- 
 vatory, aided by the numerous ship-masters/ who report 
 their observations to him. 
 
 EFFECTS OF THE EARTH's ROTATION. 
 
 We may enumerate six different causes which are 
 constantly tending to move the waters, or to modify 
 their motions. 
 
 1. The tides cause a flow twice a day towards the 
 west, which is each time followed by an ebbing reaction 
 eastward. 
 
 2. The earth, as it moves upon its axis from west to 
 east, successively presents its different parts to the heat 
 and light, and other influences of the sun and moon. 
 
 3. The evaporation of water from one part of the 
 earth, which falls in rain or snow in another, and then 
 flows back again. 
 
 4. The winds which blow upon the surface of the 
 waters and warm or cool them, and also force them to 
 move temporarily in the same direction. 
 
 5. The inequalities of temperature between the polar 
 and the tropical regions is the principal cause of ocean 
 currents. 
 
 6. The rotatory motion of the earth, communicating 
 itself to the waters of the ocean, causing currents that 
 are moving towards the equator to incline westward, 
 and those moving towards either pole to incline east- 
 ward. Let me explain this more particularly. As the 
 
ELLIPTICAL PATHS OF THE CURRENTS. 53 
 
 earth revolves upon its axis, the particles of \7ater, air, 
 or any other substances which are near tlie pole, have 
 but a short distance to travel to go entirely around the 
 earth ; or, if they remain still, and are carried around 
 by the rotation of the earth, they have to proceed but 
 a short distance before they complete the circuit. 
 
 At a greater distance from the pole the journey 
 around it is longer, and at the equator the circumfer- 
 ence is twenty-four thousand miles. In other Avords, 
 all the substances on the surface of the earth at the 
 equator are carried twenty-four thousand miles every 
 time that the earth revolves ; and the distance around 
 decreases continually as they approach the pole. When 
 any substance moves from a part of the earth which is 
 farther from the pole to one that is nearer, it carries 
 with it a momentum, or tendency to motion, greater 
 than it finds among similar substances there, and, of 
 course, it moves eastwardly faster than the others do. 
 For this reason a current in the ocean that would other- 
 wise flow directly poleward from the equator, actually 
 curves several degrees eastwardly ; on the other hand, 
 currents which otherwise would move from the poles 
 directly to the equator, are made to curve westwardly. 
 
 The same fact may be stated thus : When the waters 
 of the polar region move in currents towards the equa- 
 tor, they are not permitted to proceed due north or 
 south, but are made to curve so as to reach the equator 
 several deorrees west of the place from whence they set 
 out ; on the contrary, a current goino: from the equator 
 is not permitted to proceed to the pole in a direct line, 
 but the rotation of the earth forces it out of its course, 
 5* 
 
54 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 and causes it to terminate its journey several degrees 
 farther to tlie east than the place from whence it started. 
 This modifying effect of the earth's rotatory motion 
 upon the currents, to and from the tropics, is the key to 
 many important facts in geonomy. 
 
 EQUATORIAL CURRENTS. 
 
 Writers on physical geography have much to say 
 about " the great equatorial current ; " but it will be per- 
 ceived, that what appears to be one current consists of 
 the tropical segments of all the elliptical currents. Each 
 great oceanic ellipse has one of its extremities, or ap- 
 sides, in the tropical and the other in the polar region ; 
 any one, therefore, unacquainted with these principles, 
 would naturally be led, by mere practical facts, to sup- 
 pose that there is one continuous current of water tend- 
 ing to make its way along the equator, in a westward 
 direction, entirely around the earth. That this is not 
 the case, however, we might presume — independently of 
 economic considerations — from the geographical ar- 
 rangement of the two Americas, which renders such an 
 equatorial flow impossible. The only place where the 
 w^aters can escape westwardly from the Atlantic or from 
 the Polar Sea, is through Behring's Strait, or around 
 Cape Horn ; and at both these points the fact is that, 
 as far as we know, there is as much water passes to the 
 east as to the west, and probably there is more ; thus 
 proving: that there is no such tendency to a continuous 
 equatorial westward flow as is commonly supposed to 
 exist. Depend upon it, if there were any necessity for 
 
ELLIPTICAL PATHS OF THE CURRENTS. 55 
 
 such a flow, the Isthmus of Panama or of Suez would 
 never have existed ; or if they had, they would have long 
 since been swept away by the " great equatorial cur- 
 rent." If correct notions had been more prevalent con- 
 cerning the design or causes of the ocean's movements, 
 the idea would never have been entertained of such a 
 continuous westward current. The truth seems to be, 
 that water flows westwardly along the equator until it 
 acquires a certain degree of warmth, and then it turns 
 off in an easterly curve, poleward, where it parts with 
 its caloric, and returns to the tropics again by a west- 
 erly curve ; the two currents together constituting a 
 circuit of an elliptical form, the equatorial portion of 
 which moves westward, and the polar segment eastward. 
 The reason why water flows from the tropics when it 
 is heated, is, because heat expands it and causes it to 
 occupy more space than when cold. In order to flnd 
 more space, that part of it which is nearest the surface 
 flows towards the poles, and in doing so passes over the 
 surface of the intervening waters. It gradually parts 
 with its heat as it proceeds, but is enabled to continue 
 its course because it is constantly arriving in colder and 
 colder regions, so that its relative superiority of warmth 
 is still maintained. While it is in this superficial situa- 
 tion, it is continually losing a part of its substance by 
 evaporation. That portion which evaporates leaves all 
 its salt behind ; the remainder, therefore, becomes ulti- 
 mately so much heavier than equal quantities of fresher 
 waters of the same tem.perature, it consequently sinks 
 below the surface, occupying an intermediate position, 
 with the fresher ice water of the poles flowing over it, 
 
66 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 and the colder and heavier water flowing beneath it 
 towards the tropics ; but, it continues its own course 
 poleward, freshening, cooling, and sinking, until it 
 becomes assimilated to the deep polar waters ; then it 
 turns again, gradually warming, and swelling, and ris- 
 ing, until it overflows again, under the influence of the 
 tropical sun. From this statement it will be perceived 
 that water only flows westward and tropicward until it 
 becomes sufficiently warmed, and it only flows poleward 
 and eastward until it becomes sufficiently cold and 
 condensed. 
 
 It will also be apparent that we may with quite as 
 much propriety speak of a continuous eastward polar 
 flow of waters as of a westward equatorial flow ; for 
 there is near the north pole, and also near the south 
 pole, a tendency of the waters eastward in each ellipse, 
 while near the equator the waters of each ellipse tend 
 westward. This will be understood at once from 
 an inspection of the diagram map. It will be seen that 
 there is really a tendency in the poleward currents, near 
 the fortieth degree of latitude in each hemisphere, to 
 flow eastward, and also, in currents from the pole, a 
 tendency, between the fortieth degree and the equator, to 
 flow westward, and that the effect of these two tenden- 
 cies is to produce ellipses. 
 
 The whole proceeding might be experimentally illus- 
 trated by filling a trough with water, putting in blocks 
 of ice at both extremities, and then letting a heated 
 stove pipe pass over the water at right angles to the 
 long diameter of the trough. As the water in the mid- 
 dle of the trough became heated, it would flow towards 
 
ELLIPTICAL PATHS OF THE CURRE^^TS. 57 
 
 the icy extremities, and after becoming cooled, would 
 return again. If the water in the trough contained 
 considerable sediment, it would be deposited at the bot- 
 tom, in the track of the currents ; but the forms which 
 the detritus would assume at the bottom would not be 
 elliptical, as they are in the ocean, for the reason tliat 
 there would not be in the trough any movement to rep- 
 resent the eastward and westward currents of the sea ; 
 and the detritus would, therefore, be deposited in the same 
 straight line, both in moving to and from the centre. 
 
 If, instead of such a trough as I have described, we 
 take a very large, circular caldron of water, and put 
 ice into an upright cylinder in its centre, to represent 
 the north polar region, and then put a hollow rim of 
 sheet iron, filled with coals, around the rim of the cal- 
 dron, to represent the equator, and if now we make it 
 revolve, we shall have a very good representation of the 
 northern hemisphere of the earth and its currents. 
 
 Under these circumstances the sediment in the water 
 will be deposited in a series of ellipses, with their long 
 diameters extending from the warm circumference to 
 the cold centre precisely like the directions of the 
 ocean currents, and of the mountain ranges. The 
 cold water will flow from the polar centre to the 
 outer or equatorial edge in a curve, the convexity 
 of which will be in the direction in Avhich the cal- 
 dron is turning ; but in returning to the polar centre, 
 the curve will be convex in the opposite direction. 
 Theoretically it may at first seem that the curve to the 
 pole should be precisely as the one from it ; and it 
 would be so, all else equal ; but it is deflected west- 
 
58 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. • 
 
 ward, after it begins to move from the tropics, by the 
 opposite current, which is continually warming, swell- 
 ing, and rising beneath it, and, as it were, crowding it 
 over westward, until it has performed half its journey 
 to the pole ; then, however, it does move eastwardly, 
 until it completes the circuit. 
 
 It should be considered that all lines proceeding 
 north from the equator necessarily come together at the 
 pole. A current, therefore, which moves to the tropics, 
 and then proceeds a given distance westward before 
 it returns, will, of course, have made a complete ellipti- 
 cal circuit, when it has reached the pole again. 
 
 THE GULF STREAM. 
 
 The Gulf Stream is a name given to a current, or, 
 rather, a succession of independent currents, which were 
 formerly regarded as one, and were described as follows : 
 " Running from the Indian Ocean around Good Hope, 
 into the South Atlantic, and following the western coast 
 of Africa until it reaches the most western point, it 
 crosses the Atlantic to the most eastern point of 
 South America, where it becomes divided into two 
 branches, one of which runs south along the eastern 
 coast of South America to Patagonia ; the other runs 
 along the north-east coast of South America, enters the 
 Caribbean Sea, and passes through the Gulf of Mexico, 
 around which it circulates, and passes out between 
 Florida and Cuba, and proceeding along the eastern 
 coast of North America as far as Nantucket, it then 
 turns eastward, and crosses the Atlantic to the coasts of 
 Enr';"!nTid and Norway. '^ 
 
ELLIPTICAL PATHS OF THE CUERENTS. 59 
 
 Later discoveries, and especially the valuable re- 
 searches of Lieutenant Mauiy, have continually tended 
 to tlie conclusion that each ocean has a circulation inde- 
 pendent of the others ; that there are, in fact, as many 
 Gulf Streams as there are distinct oceans. 
 
 The Gulf of Mexico is the most western part of the 
 Atlantic ellipse of waters. When we reflect that the 
 waters, in all ellipses, run west in the tropics until they 
 become suf&ciently heated, and then turn north-east, 
 we can understand why the Gulf of Mexico extends so 
 far west ; why the waters there are warmer than in any 
 other part of the Atlantic ; and why, when they leave 
 there, they move north and east until they reach the 
 north of Scandinavia. 
 
 We can also understand why, on the south-eastern 
 coast of Asia, the currents and lands are so strictly 
 «.^alogous to those of the south-eastern coast of North 
 erica ; why the Bay of Bengal is situated, in relation 
 to the currents, precisely as the Gulf of Mexico is. In 
 studying the Mediterranean and Caspian Seas, we can 
 also perceive that they were formerly situated, in rela- 
 tion to the western currents, just as the Bengal Bay and 
 the Mexican Gulf are now. 
 
 Hereafter the " Gulf Stream " must be confined to 
 the North Atlantic Ocean ; and if it receives the excess 
 of water that is forced into it from the other oceans, 
 the circumstance must not be misinterpreted. The truth 
 is, that the Atlantic Ocean would have the same ellipti- 
 cal circulation if it were walled up so that no other 
 ocean could communicate with it. The probability is, 
 that, so far is it from being in any degree dependent 
 
60 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 upon the Indian Ocean or the South Atlantic, they rather 
 tend to derange its normal circulation, and force it to ex- 
 tend its operations farther north than it otherwise would. 
 
 The North Atlantic Gulf Stream, or ellipse, is better 
 know^n than any other, and may serve as a model or 
 type of all the others. Any one who objects to this 
 is bound to give some good reason why the w^aters in 
 this particular ocean should circulate on different prin- 
 ciples, or in a different manner, from other oceans. It 
 is commonly said that the Gulf Stream has its head or 
 focus in the Gulf of Mexico ; but it may as well be 
 said to have its focus in the White Sea. The fact is, 
 that it has two foci — one at its second or south-west 
 segment, in the Gulf of Mexico, and the other at its 
 sixth or north-east segment, in the Frozen Ocean. The 
 same is true of all ellipses ; they have their two ex- 
 tremes of cold and heat at their second and sixth seg- 
 ments, and between these two segments the currents 
 continually circulate. 
 
 If we make a tin trough three inches in diameter, and 
 arrange it in an elliptical or circular form, the ellipse 
 being twelve feet in its long diameter, and if now we fill 
 it with water, and put one apsis or extremity of the 
 ellipse upon ice, and the other upon fire, we shall see a 
 circulation immediately commence between these two 
 extremities of the elliptical trough. This is precisely 
 the predicament in which the waters of the Atlantic 
 are placed, so far as the causes of the circulation are 
 concerned ; and this ocean is in no respect different 
 from the other oceans ; they enjoy no exemption from 
 the operation of the natural laws that force the Atlantic 
 
ELLIPTICAL PATHS OF THE CURRENTS. 61 
 
 Gulf Stream to circulate elliptically. Each of them 
 has its second segment filled with warm water, and its 
 sixth with cold. What, then, is to prevent a circula- 
 tion from taking place ? 
 
 I have no doubt whatever that the ellipses all run in a 
 manner perfectly analogous to the North Atlantic Gulf 
 Stream : all the known facts tend to prove this. The 
 Indian Ocean ellipse runs south, along the east coast of 
 Africa, and then most of it turns east and crosses the 
 southern part of the Indian Ocean, and then turns north 
 again before reaching Australia, and, passing around 
 north-west, and then south-west, through the Arabian 
 Sea, again moves south along the east of Africa. That 
 an abnormal current runs from the Indian Ocean around 
 the Cape of Good Hope is unquestioned ; but it must 
 not be confounded with the great normal ellipses which 
 move in obedience to the same natural law that pro- 
 duces the JVorth Atlantic Gulf Stream. 
 
 It is fortunate for me that the very latest observa- 
 tions establish the fact that there is a current moving 
 east across the southern part of both the South Atlan- 
 tic and the Indian Oceans.* 
 
 Lieutenant Maury is superintendent of the National 
 Observatory, and has for a long time been engaged in 
 collecting from the reports of ship-masters whatever im- 
 portant facts they observed during their voyages. He 
 says, "The most unexpected discovery of all is that of 
 the warm flow along the west coast of South Africa, 
 its junction with the LaguUas current, called, higher up, 
 the Mozambique, and then their starting off as one 
 stream to the southward. The prevalent opinion used 
 6 
 
62 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 to be tliat the Lagullas cnrrent, which has its genesis in 
 the Red Sea, doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and 
 then joined the great equatorial current of the Atlantic, 
 to feed the Gulf Stream ; but my excellent friend, Lieu- 
 tenant Marin Jansen, of the Dutch navy, suggested that 
 this was probably not the case. This induced a special | 
 investigation, and I found it as he suggested. Captain i 
 N. B. Grant, in the admirably well kept log of his voy- j 
 age from New York to Australia, found this current | 
 remarkably developed. He was astonished at the tem- 
 perature of its waters, and did not know how to ac- 
 count for such a body of warm water in such a place. 
 Being in longitude fourteen degrees east, and latitude 
 thirty-nine degrees south, he thus writes in his abstract 
 log : — 
 
 " ' That there is a current setting to the eastward i 
 across the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean is, I be- ' 
 lieve, admitted by all navigators. Tlie prevailing 
 westerly winds seem to offer a sufficient ( ? ) reason for i 
 the existence of such a current, and the almost constant i 
 south-east swell would naturally give it a northerly 
 direction.' " , 
 
 The observations of Lieutenant Jansen exactly agree | 
 with my views concerning the Lagullas current ; that is ' 
 to say, it is merely an overflow of warm water from the | 
 Indian Ocean into the South Atlantic, which, after be- ' 
 ing thus diverted from its normal course, resumes it ' 
 again after it gets into the South Atlantic, and runs to j 
 the south and south-east to mingle with the cold waters ! 
 of the antarctic regions. 
 
 The current that runs east across the southern part 
 
ELLIPTICAL PATHS OF THE CURRENTS. 63 
 
 of the South Pacific to connect with what is called the 
 Humboldt current on the west coast of South America, 
 is commonly considered abnormal, and attributed to the 
 winds ; and so, indeed, are all the eastern currents in the 
 southern hemisphere ; but the law of rotatory motion 
 demands that they should run precisely as Lieutenant 
 Maury's latest charts indicate that they do run. That 
 the winds add to the vigor of their flow is very likely ; 
 but they would still continue to flow in the same direc- 
 tion even if the wind blew the other way. Who can 
 believe that the Gulf Stream could be made constantly 
 to reverse its course by the mere force of the wind, 
 when icebergs are annually seen to move hundreds of 
 miles against Avinds and tides, and a surface current, 
 and only because they are impelled by a powerful deep 
 current, which is perfectly protected from the influence 
 of the winds ? 
 
 Lieutenant Maury, in his Physical Geography of the 
 Sea, p. 166, says, " I have, I believe, discovered the ex- 
 istence of a warm current from the intertropical regions 
 of the Pacific, midway between the American coast and 
 the shore lines of Australia." 
 
 If this discovery is confirmed by future observers, as 
 I think it will be, there must also be a deeper and 
 colder current a little to the west of Maury's current, 
 which runs in the opposite direction. Maury's current 
 must be the complement or western half of an ellipse 
 of which Humboldt's current is the eastern half. 
 Humboldt's current runs from the antarctic coast north- 
 east until it strikes the west coast of South America ; 
 it proceeds to the equator, and then turns west, and, 
 
64 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 according to Lieutenant Maury, it does not reach Aus- 
 tralia, but turns towards the south when it gets about 
 half way there. If this be so, then there must be two 
 ellipses between Australia and South America. 
 
 I have explained sufficiently that the natural course 
 of the ocean currents is to move in ellipses whose num- 
 ber size, and form depend upon the relative temper- 
 ature and distance of the equator and the poles. I 
 have also explained the effect of the rotatory motion of 
 the earth in causing all the normal currents of both 
 hemispheres to move in a westward direction when at 
 or near the equator, and in an easterly direction when 
 approaching either of the poles. I have shown that 
 what I denominate the normal currents are simply the 
 results of the laws of expansion, condensation, gravita- 
 tion, and rotation ; that this is true, not only of their 
 rapidity, but of their directions, their distances, and 
 their curves, and that the same law of equilibrium 
 which produces the Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic 
 Ocean produces analogous circuits in every other 
 ocean. It follows, from the foregoing, that if we find a 
 current actually proceeding in a direction contrary to 
 the normal currents, there must be some special and 
 extraordinary cause w4iich has operated to^ force the 
 waters from their primitive course. Originally there 
 was nothing to prevent the currents from moving in 
 normal and regular ellipses in all cases ; but when the 
 land became elevated in some places, and depressed in 
 others, the regularity of the currents was continually 
 liable to be interfered with. When Asia, Europe, and 
 North America became drained and elevated, the water 
 
ELLIPTICAL PATHS OF THE CtlRRENTS. 65 
 
 that formerly constituted the ellipses that circulated 
 over them was forced to circulate in the remaining 
 ellipses. Where one of the oceanic ellipses is land- 
 locked, as the Indian Ocean is, an excess of water 
 poured into it causes an overflow, such as that which 
 takes place at the Cape of Good Hope, where an ab- 
 normal current flows westward into the South Atlantic 
 from the Indian Ocean. 
 
 If the Indian Ocean had several channels through 
 Asia and Europe, as it formerly had, with which to 
 communicate with the Arctic, there would be no " La- 
 gullas current " intruding from the Indian Ocean ellipse 
 into that of the Atlantic ; but after Asia was elevated, 
 the waters of the Arabian Sea had no means of commu- 
 nicating with their own natural polar regions in the 
 Arctic, and they therefore forced their way south 
 through the Mozambique Channel, with great rapidity, 
 and, passing around Good Hope, entered the Atlantic, 
 and flowed north along the western coast of Africa, in 
 company with the normal South Atlantic current, from 
 the Antarctic Seas. The probability is, that what is 
 called " the Lagullas Bank," which is supposed to 
 deflect the Mozambique current to the west, was cre- 
 ated originally by the normal current that proceeded 
 easterly from Good Hope, and that this bank was 
 modified by the Lagullas current when the northern 
 channels to the Arctic were obstructed, and the Ara- 
 bian waters forced through the Mozambique Channel. 
 
 To illustrate : Suppose that the bed of the North At- 
 lantic should become elevated as far to the south as the 
 thirtieth degree of north latitude, so that railroads could 
 6* 
 
66 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 be built along the northern shore, from Spain to Florida, 
 via Bermuda ; would there not be an enormous overflow 
 of heated waters to the south, which would manifest 
 itself in producing a powerful current west around Cape 
 Horn, analogous to the present Lagullas current, which 
 flows west around Good Hope ? 
 
 It appears that there is annually an excess of water 
 forced into the North Atlantic, in consequence of the 
 peculiar land-locked condition of the Indian Ocean. 
 Besides this, the shores of the Atlantic are continually 
 extending, and contracting the bounds of the ocean ; 
 the consequence is, that a large quantity of water is : 
 forced from the southern hemisphere, across the mid- 
 line, into ihe Gulf of Mexico, and from thence into the j 
 Arctic Ocean, as far as Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla. j 
 
 I have no idea that the Gulf Stream would extend i 
 so far north, were it not for the overflow of the Indian { 
 Ocean and thei narrowness of the Atlantic. We have 
 a proof of tills in the fact that the North Pacific does 
 not extend beyond Behring's Strait. Why should the 
 Atlantic Ocean extend its normal circulation farther 
 north than the Pacific, unless for the reasons here given ? 
 It is further to be observed, that the ancient North 
 American ellipse is nearly extinct, and that Hudson's 
 Sea and Baffin's Bay are its relics. These vast seas 
 receive warm waters from the Atlantic, and perhaps 
 some through Behring's Strait ; and in return they pour 
 a cold current into the Atlantic, to chill the Gulf 
 Stream, and deflect it east from the Banks of Newfound- 
 land and the New England coast. Being thus forced , 
 to move more easterly than it otherwise would, the 
 
ELLIPTICAL PATHS OF THE CURRENTS. 67 
 
 i -warm Gulf Stream crosses to the other side of the 
 I Atlantic, and there separates into several sub-currents, 
 'or branches ; — one moves along the coast of Norway 
 I to North Cape ; it then turns south, touching Spitzber- 
 i gen, and passes between Greenland and Iceland. An- 
 { other branch (supposed by some to be the same) moves 
 i from the North Atlantic, by the western coast of Green- 
 ! land, to the head of Baffin's Bay, then crosses over to 
 i the north-eastern coast of America, and returns to the 
 ■Atlantic, where a branch of it crowds itself between 
 I the Labrador and New England shores and the Gulf 
 I Stream, and manifests its power by forming several 
 I bays, with their mouths towards the north-east, while 
 those on the same line of coast, which are formed by the 
 Gulf Stream, have their mouths towards the south- 
 east. 
 
 The Banks of Newfoundland must be regarded as the 
 
 i product of the Gulf Stream on one side, and the Baffin's 
 
 I Bay current on the other. It appears that a subsidence 
 
 has taken place in the bed of the Gulf Stream, just south 
 
 of the bank ; for on that side it is very steep, and on 
 
 the north side the slope is gentle. 
 
 A process analogous to this is going on in the North 
 Pacific, where the warm stream from the south contends 
 with the cold waters of Behring's Sea, and between 
 them the Aleutian chain of volcanic islands is rising. 
 Kamschatka and the Kurile chain are formed in the 
 same way by the opposition of the cold stream from the 
 Okotsk Sea to the warm stream from the south. The 
 same is true of the Japan Sea and the island chain at 
 the east of it. These islands in the Pacific are eminent- 
 
OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 ly volcanic, and in this respect they dififer from New- 
 foundland at present ; but I will venture the prediction 
 that volcanoes will yet rise and illuminate the ocean |i 
 not far from the line marked out for the transatlantic 
 telegraph, and the whole north-western coast of Eu- 
 rope, Portugal, Britain, Scandinavia, and Iceland will f 
 be racked with convulsions which will leave them much '^ 
 higher, and their centres farther from their shores, than | 
 they are at the present time. fi 
 
 The northern ocean once flowed from the mountains f 
 of China to those of California, enclosed by a chain of |i! 
 low islands or submarine mountains, which extended ' 
 from Behring's Strait south-westward to India, then \» 
 west to Mexico, and then north-west to Behring's Strait ^ 
 again, constituting one vast compound ellipse, which is 'i 
 now subdivided into Asia, Europe, the North Atlantic, 
 and North America. Formerly all parts of the north- j 
 ern tropical region were in direct communication with f 
 the Arctic Ocean, the intermediate land being merely t 
 groups of islands ; but gradually the Arctic has become f! 
 a solitary and frozen inland sea, and the tropical waters f 
 are excluded except through the long, deep, and narrow 
 channel of the Atlantic. As for Behring's Strait, it is 
 only about twenty miles wide, and has a bar at its 
 entrance, which indicates that it is becoming entirely j' 
 closed. Not only so, the detritus that was wont to pass 
 through it is now gathering near by, in the Pacific i 
 Ocean, and by its weight raising the semicircular chain f 
 of the Aleutian volcanic islands, to more effectually sep- f 
 arate the Arctic from the Pacific and the tropics. The i^ 
 north part of the Atlantic is now little more than a ' 
 
I' 
 
 i 
 
 k ELLIPTICAL PATHS OF THE CURRENTS. 69 
 
 I channel of communication between the Arctic and the 
 
 ij other oceans. This channel has been becoming narrow- 
 
 1 er for many geologic ages, and will finally be entirely 
 
 I closed. To be convinced of this, we have only to study 
 
 .| the positions, and what can be learned of the history of 
 
 I the volcanic islands and shores which are continually 
 
 encroaching upon it in the Iceland Sea. Norway and 
 
 Sweden are constantly rising, especially in the northern 
 
 ] parts. The Faroe Islands, between Britain and Iceland, 
 
 I abound in volcanoes, which continue to increase and 
 
 ! rise, causing the dry lands to expand and blaze, as if in 
 
 ' defiance of the deathly cold and the terrible tempests 
 
 : which desolate the coasts. Iceland itself is remarkable 
 
 for being the scene of the most copious discharge of 
 
 lava of which we have any record. 
 
 The Mediterranean Sea is growing deeper and nar- 
 rower. The detritus of its inlets is causing its bed to 
 sink, and its volcanic shores and islands to rise, while a 
 bar is gathering at its Gibraltar mouth — a premonitory 
 symptom of its final fate, which is, to be, like the Cas- 
 pian, excluded from all communication with the great 
 oceans, and left to evaporate down to a deep salt lake. 
 The Western Islands, in the Atlantic, seem to bear 
 the same relation to the Straits of Gibraltar that the 
 Aleutians do to Behring's Strait. It appears to be a 
 general law that volcanic islands have a tendency to 
 rise in the ocean opposite the mouths of inland seas 
 that were once a part of the ocean. It may be that 
 the checkino; of the current that flows from the ocean 
 inland, causes the gathering of detritus in the ocean's 
 bed, nearly opposite the strait of the sea from which it 
 
70 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 is now excluded. Does not tliis explanation apply to 
 the volcanoes of the Iceland Sea the Kurile chain, 
 and the Isthmuses of Panama, Suez, and the submarine 
 isthmus of which Java is a part ? 
 
 It is plain, upon reading Lieutenant Maury's book, 
 that he clearly perceived the laws of the ocean currents, 
 so far as they relate to the North Atlantic ; and if he ' 
 does not apply the same rules to the other oceans, | 
 neither does he advance any thing in opposition to the | 
 views which I am presenting. He says, " We may | 
 assume it as a law, that the natural tendency of all ; 
 currents in the sea, like the tendency of all projectiles • 
 through the air, is to describe their curves of flight 
 in the planes of great circles." 
 
 " It appears that the course of the Gulf Stream is ( 
 fixed and prescribed by exactly the same laws that i 
 require the planets to revolve in orbits, the planes of - 
 which shall pass through the centre of the sun, and i^ 
 that were the Nantucket Shoals not in existence, it ' 
 could not pursue a more direct route." 
 
 Precisely so ; and the courses of all ocean streams ^ 
 are subject to the same fixed laws that the Gulf Stream r 
 is ; and were the land all on a level with the bottom of [ 
 the ocean, the normal ocean currents would move in 
 ellipses as they do now, but there would be only three f 
 ellipses in each hemisphere. " ' \ 
 
 Mr. Keith Johnson, of Edinburgh, in his beautiful 
 work on Physical Geography, has a map on which he f 
 represents the area disturbed by the great earthquake !■ 
 which destroyed Lisbon ; and it is remarkable that the 
 lines which he has drawn almost exactly coincide with ^ 
 
ELLIPTICAL PATHS OF THE CURRENTS. 71 
 
 those which I have made to represent the North Atlantic 
 ellipse. In other words, the earthquake was produced 
 by a depression of tlie whole area included in the North 
 Atlantic ellipse, or Gulf Stream. Another earthquake 
 is represented on the same map as having also dis- 
 turbed an area of an elliptical form, but it did not 
 extend more than half as far north. It appears to me 
 that this map, in connection with the geonomic theory, 
 amounts almost to a demonstration that those earth- 
 quakes were produced by the special depression of this 
 particular ellipse. I have no doubt that if a careful 
 system of soundings had been made before the earth- 
 quake, and another afterwards, the places could have 
 been ascertained with precision where the greatest de- 
 pressions and elevations or eruptions had taken place ; 
 and though the idea may excite a smile, a method like 
 this may yet be contrived of gauging tlie loss of lava 
 from the internal and the gain upon the external parts 
 of the earth. 
 
 Mathematics alone can never originate a new sci* 
 ence ; but neither can any natural science be much 
 advanced nntil brought within the jurisdiction of 
 weights and measures. Mathematics presides in the 
 supreme court, of the sciences, and holds the scales of 
 equity with an impartial hand. It does not conde- 
 scend to collect and arrange facts nor to frame hypothe- 
 ses ; but when they are produced, it sits in judgment and 
 decides upon their merits in accordance with eternal 
 laws and with inexorable justice. 
 
 Geonomy is of such a nature as to be especially liable 
 to be brought to this severe test ; it cannot escape from 
 
72 OUTLINES OP GEONOMY. 
 
 the scrutiny of a tribunal from which there can be no 
 appeal. Geonomy is a question of quantity. It relates 
 to the rising and falling of the external parts of the 
 earth and of the other planets, by an unvarying rule • 
 and it is absolutely true, or its falsity can be demon- 
 strated by circles and ellipses, angles and numerical 
 figures, whose very essence is truth. 
 
GEOLOGY. 73 
 
 SECTION lY. 
 
 SUCCESSION OF GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS AND THEIR 
 RELATION TO MOUNTAIN RANGES. 
 
 There are few geologists, if any, wlio do not now 
 admit that granite forms the foundation of the earth's 
 crust, and that below it is a fluid mass of lava, the 
 inovements of whioh occasionally elevate the crust ; 
 I hough no one has given a satisfactory explanation of 
 the causes that produce and direct the elevating move- 
 ments. 
 
 Granite,* or consolidated lava, is not only at the 
 foundation of all the rocky formations, so as to consti- 
 tute the true crust of the earth, but it is frequently 
 poured forth by volcanoes, so as to occupy situations 
 above some of the stratified rocks, in such a way as to 
 leave us in doubt whether the granite rocks, in a par- 
 ticular place, are a part of the original crust, or the 
 product of comparatively modern volcanoes. 
 
 All the rocks above granite were deposited from 
 water in strata, and are therefore called stratified. The 
 rock which is generally found immediately above gran- 
 ite is called gneiss^ and is composed of fragments of 
 granite, broken and worn by attrition against each 
 
 * " That there is a basis of crystallized granite rocks beneath all the stra- 
 ta, in all countries, cutting off and limiting our obser^-ations, and hiding 
 whatever -wonders are concealed below, is now universally admitted." — 
 Philips. 
 
 7 
 
74 OUTLINES OP GEONOMY. 
 
 other and against the surface of the earth, by the move- 
 ments of the primitive ocean. 
 
 Gneiss is peculiar in several respects. 1. It contains 
 no large blocks of granite, and but few other volcanic 
 products ; thus indicating that volcanoes had not com- 
 menced their labors at that early age of the world. 
 2. It contains in its composition less of the heavier me- 
 tallic substances than the higher formations do ; though 
 it is frequently pierced by veins of metal which have 
 passed through it on their way upward. 3. It contains 
 no evidence of the existence of organic beings. In 
 this last respect it agrees with several formations im- 
 mediately above it. The reasonable conclusion from 
 these facts is, that neither volcanoes, mountains, nor 
 organized beings of any kind had been instituted at the 
 time that this lowest stratified rock was formed. Gneiss, 
 originally, was laid upon a granite floor at the bottom 
 of an ocean which had no bounds, and above whose sur- 
 face not a single island had yet reared its crest. 
 
 The waters were probably nowhere less than half a 
 mile in depth, and were of nearly a uniform tempera- 
 ture from the equator to the poles. 
 
 The next higher formation was that which is princi- 
 pally composed of mica schist — a species of coarse, con- 
 torted slate-like rock, in which mica predominates. It 
 appears to be constituted of some of the same elements 
 as gneiss, but formed under different circumstances. 
 It is probably the result of the attrition of granite 
 and gneiss, which took place while the waters of the 
 ocean were hot, and perhaps boiling ; for it is com- 
 posed of laminae or thin layers of mica, mingled with 
 
 i 
 
GEOLOGY. '75 
 
 pebbles and sediment, and bent into short, irregular 
 curves, in a way that indicates a violent agitation of 
 the waters in which it was deposited. In the lower 
 portions of this formation there is evidence of some 
 slight volcanic action ; for small masses are frequent 
 which contain iron and other metals, so heavy that they 
 must have come from below the crust. In the higher 
 parts of the formation heavy metals become more and 
 more abundant, and there are also found other evidences 
 of vigorous convulsions. 
 
 Above the mica schist are more regularly formed 
 slates and sandstones, which seem to be produced by a 
 greater degree of attrition and subdivision of particles, 
 worn or dissolved from the lower rocks, and after being 
 deposited, were subjected to the pressure of the super- 
 incumbent ocean. Most of these slates and sandstones 
 are blue, or brown, but a very few of them are red, 
 indicating the presence of a small quantity of iron. 
 
 After the land had been raised to a sufficient height, 
 and the agitation of the ocean and the atmosphere 
 had produced the requisite combinations, vegetable 
 and animal life appeared in their lowest and simplest 
 possible forms. This was the commencement of what 
 is called the protozoic or first animal formations. 
 Geologists, at the present day, admit that the best, if 
 not the only guide which they possess to the relative 
 ages of the stratified rocks, is the character of the or- 
 ganic remains which they severally contain. It is 
 found that the organisms, both vegetable and animal, 
 are progressively superior and more complicated, from 
 the lower to the higher stratified formations. 
 
76' OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 The next higher formation is the old red sandstone 
 system of rocks, wliich is very extensive, and demon- 
 strates that, between the deposition of the gneiss and 
 the commencement of the old red, there must have been 
 a large quantity of iron ejected from beneath the granite. 
 
 Next above the old red sandstone is the carboniferous 
 formation ; so called on account of the immense quan- 
 tity of carbonic rocks which it contains, especially the 
 carbonates of lime, which were deposited from water in 
 a way which is yet undetermined. 
 
 In the midst of these rocks are the coal measures, con- 
 sisting of the immense beds of coal which now furnish 
 fuel to mankind. The limestone formations differ in 
 several important respects from any which had preceded 
 them. Instead of being constituted of the detritus 
 worn from other previously formed rocks, they are com- 
 posed of lime which had probably been dissolved in 
 water that contained carbonic acid. It is well known 
 that hot water is capable of holding a much smaller 
 quantity of lime in solution than cold water can. When, 
 therefore, during the upward progress of the land, the 
 waters became warmer in some places than others, the 
 lime was precipitated to the bottom in some localities, 
 and formed the carboniferous limestone. It is found in 
 the largest quantities around the bases of the older 
 mountains ; owing perliaps to the fact that those elevat- 
 ed places were generally warmer than those in deeper 
 situations, and their higher temperature caused the es- 
 cape of a part of tlie carbonic acid, and a precipitation 
 of lime to take place against their sides. It is believed 
 that the most extensive connected formations on the 
 
GEOLOGY. 77 
 
 present dry land are those of the mountain limestones. 
 The coal measures were produced by the combinations 
 and condensations from the atmosphere and water of 
 hydrogen and carbonic acid in the form of vegetable 
 productions. This vegetable coal formation took place 
 soon after groups of islands had risen above the surface 
 of the sea.* At that time carbonic acid was much 
 more abundant, both in the atmosphere and the ocean, 
 than it is now. The process which produced the car- 
 boniferous rocks purified the water of an immense quan- 
 tity of lime, magnesia, sulphur, chlorine, and silex, which 
 it previously held in solution. It also purified the air 
 of a vast amount of carbonic acid. It was not until 
 after this period commenced that any land animals ex- 
 isted to breathe the air ; nor was it until after this pe- 
 riod closed that animals were created that were above 
 the race of low, crawling reptiles. 
 
 The next higher mass of rocks is called the permian 
 system, or lower division of what is sometimes called 
 the new red sandstone formation.! The carboniferous pe- 
 riod was followed and closed by important elevations of 
 
 * A wide expanse of ocean, interspersed with, islands, seems to have per- 
 vaded the northern hemisphere at the periods when the transition and car- 
 boniferous rocks were formed, and the temperature was then hottest and 
 most uniform. Subsequent modifications of climate accompanied the depo- 
 sition of the secondary formations, when repeated changes were effected in 
 the physical geography of our northern latitudes. Lastly, the refrigera- 
 tion became most decided, and the climate most nearly assimilated to that 
 now enjoyed, when the lands in Europe and Northern Asia had attained 
 their full extension, and the mountain chains their actual height. — Lyell. 
 
 f The prevalent red color of the saliferous system is of itself a circum- 
 stance of great interest, but of unknown origin. — Philips. 
 
 7^ 
 
78 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 the land, and the formation of a series of rocks which 
 indicated once more the intimate connection between 
 the red oxide of iron, the volcanic eruptions, the moun- 
 tain elevations, and the progress of organisms. As the 
 dry land increased, the geological formations partook 
 more and more of a fresh water character, and abound- 
 ed more in remains of land plants. 
 
 The permian system is mostly constituted of red sand- 
 stones, which are composed of materials torn from the 
 bed of the ocean, alternating with magnesian limestones 
 precipitated from solution in water in a way which has 
 not been clearly explained by geological chemists, but 
 probably the temperature had much to do with it. 
 
 Next higher is the saliferous triasic, or higher new 
 red sandstone formation, which is mostly distinguished 
 by its containing a large quantity of common salt, and 
 also plaster Paris and magnesia. This indicates that 
 extensive lakes had been elevated above the level of the 
 sea, something as the salt lake of Utah is now, and that 
 the waters had been forced by evaporation to give up 
 their solutions to the earth again from whence they had 
 been previously derived. 
 
 Above the saliferous is the oolitic formation, so called 
 on account of the egg-shaped stones which it contains. 
 It is a more variously compounded rock than any of the 
 preceding ; its elements combining in a greater degree 
 the characters of land and sea, and showing that it was 
 formed near the shores of the ancient island continents. 
 Being derived mostly from the dry land, it has much 
 less of the oxide of iron diffused through it than the 
 formations immediately below it have. There are sev- 
 
 1 
 
GEOLOGY. 79 
 
 eral subdivisions of the oolitic rocks, the lowest of 
 which is called the lias formation. Next higher is the 
 cretaceous, or chalk formation, which is still more de- 
 cidedly marked by circumstances that indicate an inti- 
 mate relation to the dry land in the vicinity. 
 
 Following the chalk comes the tertiary formation, 
 which Mr. Lyell divides into the eocene, miocene, and pli- 
 ocene, and then subdivides each of these. It is remarka- 
 ble for containing the remains of a great number of land 
 animals analogous to those now existing. The investi- 
 gations and subdivisions that have been made of this 
 system by the labors of Lyell and others all confirm the 
 fact that the animal remains, from the lowest part of the 
 formation to the highest, indicate a gradually improving 
 condition of the earth, fitting it for the habitation of 
 animals that generate warmth within their own bodies 
 by respiration, «o as to be less dependent upon the 
 warmth imparted by the external atmosphere. The 
 genQYoX forrns of the great continents existed then as. 
 now, with this difference, that more than one half of the 
 present dry land, including nearly all the present low- 
 lands, was then beneath the sea.* 
 
 Mr. Lyell makes the following remarks concerning 
 the relation of the tertiary to physical geography : — 
 
 " About two thirds of the present European lands 
 have emerged since the earliest of these tertiary groups 
 originated." 
 
 "Brocci inferred that the Apennines were elevated 
 several thousand feet above the level of the Mediterra- 
 
 * " Yarious parts of the British Islands were dry land, while most of the 
 continent of Europe was yet below the ancient ocean." — Somerville. 
 
80 OUTLINES OP GEONOMY. 
 
 nean before the deposition of the recent sub-Apennine 
 beds which flank them on either side.'' 
 
 The central and higher ridges of the Alps are, ac- 
 cording to Mr. Lyell, " encircled bj a great zone of ter- 
 tiary rocks of different ages, both on their southern 
 flank towards the plains of the Po, and on the side of 
 Switzerland and Austria, and at their ea&tern termina- 
 tions towards Stjria and Hungary. This tertiary zone 
 marks the position of former seas or gulfs, like the 
 Adriatic, which were many thousand feet deep. These 
 marine tertiary strata have been raised to the height of 
 from two thousand to four thousand feet. The older 
 tertiary groups generally rise to the greatest heights^ 
 and form interior zones neare&t to the central ridges of 
 the Alps.'' 
 
 " The Pyrenees, also, have acquired their present alti- 
 tude, which in Mount Perdu exceeds eleven thousand 
 feet, since the deposition of some of the newer members 
 of our secondary series.'' 
 
 *' The Jura owes a great part of its present elevation 
 to subterranean convulsions which happened after the 
 deposition of certain tertiary groups." 
 
 " The former connection of the White Sea and the 
 Gulf of Finland is proved by the fact that a broad band 
 of tertiary strata extends throughout part of the inter- 
 vening space." 
 
 " I believe that since the commencement of the ter- 
 tiary period, the dry land in the northern hemisphere 
 has been continually on the increase. The Alps have 
 acquired an altitude of from two thousand to four thou- 
 sand feet, and even in some places still more ; and the 
 
GEOLOGY. 81 
 
 Apennines owe considerable part of their height (from 
 one thousand to two thousand feet) to subterranean 
 convulsions which have happened within the tertiary 
 epoch." 
 
 " The great lowland of Siberia, lying chiefly between 
 the latitudes fifty-five and seventy-five degrees north, 
 (an area nearly equal to all Europe,) is covered for the 
 most part by marine strata, Avhich, from the account 
 given by Pallas and other writers, may be considered 
 as of tertiary formation." 
 
 Between the present period and the tertiary was de- 
 posited the drift formation. No geological period has 
 been the subject of so much learned discussion as that 
 which is known as the glacial or drift period. The fact 
 seems to be, that near the close of the tertiary period, 
 and just before the commencement of the modern allu- 
 vial formations, some cause hitherto unexplained began 
 to operate to convey large quantities of gravel, and 
 also large rocks, called bowlders^ from the north and 
 north-west to the south and south-east, and scatter them 
 over the surface of so much of the earth, in most of the 
 temperate regions, as was covered by the sea. These 
 gravelly and rocky deposits from water differ from all 
 others in not being stratified, and in not generally con- 
 taining organic remains which belong in the climate 
 where the drift is found. They were not deposited in 
 sediment quietly, as most of the stratified rocks were, 
 but were evidently borne violently along in mass by 
 some powerful force. 
 
 It is now generally believed that water and ice were 
 both agents in producing the drift ; but no satisfactory 
 
82 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 explanation has yet been made concerning tbe causes 
 which set the water and ice in motion. Perhaps the 
 most plausible suggestion is that when the polar regions 
 became cold enough to produce icebergs, the Arctic 
 Ocean was an extensive archipelago, and the northern 
 temperate regions were mostly covered by the sea ; this 
 being the case, each season would send a large crop of 
 icebergs loaded with bowlders southward, drifted by 
 the ocean currents. This process doubtless continued 
 until the continents were so far elevated that the drift 
 could not pass over them ; but even now a similar pro- 
 cess is taking place in the Atlantic, and bowlders and 
 drift are being scattered over the banks of Newfound- 
 land which will ultimately be raised and exhibit appear- 
 ances similar to those presented by the fields of New 
 England and of Northern Europe* 
 
 The subdivisions and classifications made by the sys^ 
 tematic geologists are at present very unsatisfactory, and 
 indicate the want of more knowledge concerning the 
 causes which produced geological phenomena. I can- 
 not help expressing the hope that the principles here 
 announced will be instrumental in giving a new impulse 
 to this noble science, by furnishing new means of in- 
 vestigation, and indicating a rational mode of explain- 
 ing many things which have appeared mysterious. 
 
 Organic Progress. 
 
 It has been a prevailing opinion that the progress of 
 organized beings in structure and intelligence has been 
 accompanied by a simultaneous progress of the whole 
 
GEOLOGY, 83 
 
 earth to a cooler and more modern condition — that, in 
 fact, the organic progress is evidence of terrestrial 
 progress. But when we reflect that three hundred feet 
 of elevation has an effect upon climate equal to a re- 
 moval one degree towards the pole, — when, in addition 
 to this, we ascertain that the geological formations, 
 which have been examined, were, in most cases, sub- 
 jected to the elevating process from the time of the 
 lowest depositions to the highest, — we shall perceive 
 that the. advance in the organic character of the re- 
 mains found in the formations is not of itself a proof 
 of the progress of the whole earth towards a more 
 perfect state, but only of a local advance to a cooler 
 region and a higher and rarer atmosphere. 
 
 That the whole earth has gradually progressed from 
 a liquid state, and become gradually condensed and 
 cooled to its present condition, there are good reasons 
 for believing ; but had it not been for the inequalities 
 which have been produced by the depression of some 
 parts and the elevation of others, it is certain that the 
 ocean would now cover the whole earth : none but 
 aquatic animals and plants would exist, 'and only the 
 lower species even of these. The ocean, being of an 
 equal depth, would be of nearly an equal temperature 
 in all its parts. The heat of the tropics and the cold of 
 the poles would so modify each other that it is question- 
 able whether any ice would be found out of the polar 
 circles. 
 
 Assuming that the surface of the earth was at one 
 time too warm to admit of organic existence, as geol- 
 ogy appears to demonstrate that it was, it must be ob- 
 
84 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 vious that the elevation of some parts of the ocean's 
 bed would enable those parts to sooner become the 
 nurseries of organic form's, while the lower parts 
 would still remain uninhabited. If, afterwards, the 
 same parts were raised again to a still higher level, 
 they would be rendered capable of sustaining a higher 
 class of beings. If, many ages after thus being re- 
 peatedly elevated and peopled with a succession of 
 adapted organisms, this spot should be examined by 
 some geologist, he might infer that the whole earth 
 must have gradually cooled and advanced in its organic 
 conditions in the order and to the degree indicated by 
 these remains, when, in fact, the earth, as a whole, during 
 the same time, had not advanced in a perceptible degree. 
 Suppose that, after the formation just described had 
 been made and finished, another spot, at a distance from 
 it, had been repeatedly elevated and inhabited in the 
 same manner, and in subsequent ages examined by the 
 same geologist ; if similarity of organic remains is to be 
 considered sufficient proof of contemporaneous exist- 
 ence, the geologist, in this case, would be entirely mis- 
 led. To obviate this source of error, it will be well to 
 consider whether there is any method of learning the 
 relative ages of the various mountains which are distant 
 from each other. If it should be rendered probable by 
 further investigation, as I think it will, that the eleva- 
 tions commenced at the north-east,* in the polar regions, 
 and then proceeded in a south-western direction, we 
 
 * "The dh-ision of the animal and vegetable creation into geographical 
 districts has been contemporaneous with the rise of land." — Somerville. 
 
GEOLOGY. 85 
 
 shall be able to combine a knowledge of the relative 
 ages of the elevations with those of the formations, and 
 thus improve our geological calendar. 
 
 After carefully reviewing all the geological forma- 
 tions and their order of deposition in connection with 
 the theory of the elevation of the land by the pressure 
 and sinking of strata, we shall find that the whole sub- 
 ject will be greatly simplified by regarding the thinnest 
 portions of the lowest formations as having been the first 
 raised above the sea, and the next formation as being 
 deposited near the shores or borders of the first eleva- 
 tion, so as to tend, by its subsidence, to elevate it still 
 more. As land rose higher, it carried up with it a 
 portion (generally the thinnest) of the next lower forma- 
 tion ; at a third elevatory impulse a third formation 
 was raised, and so on until the continents assumed their 
 present outlines, and the geological formations their 
 present arrangements. 
 
 This view of the matter shows why it is that each 
 formation appears to have been closed by convulsions • 
 for they raised some part of the formations above the 
 reach of further deposits of a similar character, and, at 
 the same time, qualified the locality for the reception or 
 generation of new and higher organic forms. 
 
 I was first led to the novel conclusions, published in 
 these pages, by observing that the directions of the prin- 
 cipal mountain chains, and also their curves, correspond 
 with the directions which the ocean currents must nat- 
 urally have pursued when the land was submerged be- 
 neath the sea. Eeasoning from the known to the un- 
 known, I inferred that the Gulf Stream, which certainly 
 8 
 
86 OUTLINES OP GEONOMY. 
 
 runs in an irregular ellipse, is not governed by dif- 
 ferent laws from those which regulate the other ocean 
 currents, and therefore they must all tend to run in 
 similar elliptical directions ; and, as the laws of nature 
 are the same in all ages of the world, the present dry 
 lands were once acted upon by the ocean currents, just 
 as the bed of the ocean is now. When to this I added 
 the fact that the geological strata are laid in ranges 
 which are parallel to the mountains, it only remained 
 for me to conclude that the subsidence of the heaviest 
 strata caused the elevation of the highest mountains, 
 and the geonomic theory was complete. 
 
 Geology affords no evidence that there were moun- 
 tains in existence before the deposition of the stratified 
 rocks. Surely all the commonly supposed causes of 
 volcanic excitement existed then, as now, in full vigor. 
 This fact, when admitted, is alone presumptive evidence, 
 that the subsidence of the strata in one place caused 
 their elevation in another. 
 
 It explains why we have no mountains of mere gran- 
 ite, with horizontal stratified rocks at their bases, and 
 why we have no mountains of the highest class, which 
 are encased in gneiss and primary slate only. 
 
 The first stratified deposits from the waters of the 
 primitive ocean produced a low class of elevations ; 
 subsequent deposits, in many instances, raised those 
 same mountains' still higher by causing a greater degree 
 of subsidence, while other mountains remained in their 
 original lowliness. Is it to be believed that the causes 
 of volcanic eruptions slumbered quietly in the deep 
 bosom of the young earth, while the granite crust 
 
 4 
 
 I 
 
GEOLOGY. 87 
 
 formed more than a mile thick over the liquid lava, and 
 the ocean of hot waters rolled tumultuously above this 
 new crust ? What prevented the subterranean ocean of 
 lava from sending up some permanent volcanic signs of 
 its existence for our present instruction ? 
 
 If, as some suppose, steam is the cause of volcanoes, 
 did it not exist then in the greatest quantities? Did 
 not internal heat exist then ? Did not the attraction 
 of the moon and the heat of the sun — in a word, did 
 not all the supposed causes of volcanic disturbance exist, 
 except the weight of the stratified deposits? Profess- 
 or Philips says that the principal convulsions of the 
 earth happened, 1. Immediately after the deposition of 
 the Silurian, or lowest stratified formation ; 2. Immedi- 
 ately after the accumulation of the coal system ; 3. Af- 
 ter the deposition of the oolitic rocks ; 4. After the 
 deposition of the chalk ; 5. After the formation of the 
 tertiary system. 
 
 In this brief statement, the veteran English geolo- 
 gist gives a history of the principal geological forma- 
 tions, in the very language required by the geonomic 
 theory. He makes ifive grand periods of stratified 
 formation, each of which is foUowed by a convulsion and 
 an additional upheaval of the land. His extensive and 
 life-long experience has impressed upon his mind, as it 
 has upon all practical geologists, that each convulsion 
 and upheaval, which has left a monument of its power, 
 took place immediately after the deposition of a great 
 formation. 
 
 The following is the almost prophetic language used 
 by Professor Philips : — 
 
88 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 " Principal Epochs of Convulsion. — By pursuing this 
 investigation in different situations, we find that these 
 internal movements, or convulsions, happened at inter- 
 vals during the whole period of time occupied in the 
 deposition of the strata. Some of the most prevalent 
 and remarkable cases of dislocation and unconformity 
 are, however, observable : 1. Immediately after the dep- 
 osition of the Silurian series ; 2. After the accumula- 
 tion of the coal system ; 3. After the deposition of the 
 oolitic rocks ; 4. After the deposition of the chalk ; 
 and, 5. One of the most recent, probably, of all, after 
 the completion of almost all the formations above the 
 chalk. It is not to be supposed that all, even of these 
 principal cases of dislocation, can be recognized in 
 every country ; on the contrary, the subterranean forces 
 appear frequently to have shifted their points of action. 
 We shall have occasion to show, while speaking of 
 the organic remains, that there is sometimes observed a 
 singular harmony between these periods of extraordina- 
 ry internal disturbance and the several epochs when the 
 different races of animals and plants came into exist- 
 ence ; and it is not unreasonable to suppose that in 
 this manner it may be hereafter found possible to estab- 
 lish such a relation between the internal and external 
 conditions of the earth, as to afford the greatest assist- 
 ance towards defining the agencies which have produced 
 changes so extensive and repeated in both." — Philips's 
 Manual of Geology, page 36, (1855.) 
 
 We have mountains with only Cambrian and silurian 
 rocks tilted around their bases, but none of these are 
 very high ; they were raised by the subsidence of the 
 
GEOLOGY. 89 
 
 earliest formations. We have other mountains with 
 Silurian and carboniferous rocks dipping around them ; 
 they are higher, but not equal in elevation to those that 
 in addition have the chalk and tertiary formations in- 
 clining upon their sides. The highest mountains are 
 those that have been more or less elevated in modern 
 times. All high mountains bear evidence of being 
 raised at several different epochs ; as if one formation 
 subsided and forced them up to a certain point, and 
 then another and another superadded formation caused 
 a further subsidence in the same locality, which raised 
 the same mountains to their present height. I know of 
 no other theory by which these successive upheavals of 
 the same places have been or can be accounted for, even 
 by conjecture, though it seems to me that nothing can be 
 more simple or reasonable than the explanation which 
 is afforded by the geonomic theory here given. 
 
 The elliptical circulation of the ocean waters being 
 admitted, it follows that each distinct ellipse must be 
 a separate geological basin, and that the phenomena 
 which are presented in one basin must be repeated in 
 another with but little variation. In this respect geo- 
 logical formations must be, like peninsulas and moun- 
 tain ranges, liable to be repeated again and again, wher- 
 ever the elliptical circulation of the waters is repeated. 
 Hereafter, it will be a question when a geological exam- 
 ination of any district is made. To what ellipse does 
 it belong ? Assuming that mountains were caused in 
 the first place by the sinking of the primitive strata, 
 the secondary strata would of course be laid upon the 
 top of the primitive, and the mountains would be paral- 
 
90 ' OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 lei with both ; not because the mountains or shores 
 fenced in the currents, and forced them to assume their 
 characteristic curves, but it is because the strata, the 
 shores, and the mountains, received their curves from the 
 currents to which they all owed their birth. 
 
 The geological strata are piled up as if one formation 
 was riding upon the other behind ; each new addition 
 tending to tip the hindmost part of the load farther 
 down. We actually find the last deposited strata, when 
 undisturbed, in the lowest situations, and the first the 
 highest. The lowest deposits are near the shore, and 
 frequently extend beneath the sea ; and there, over all, 
 another formation, of unknown depth, is taking place, 
 which, if it subsides by its weight, must press the lava 
 up to the highest part of the slope in the manner of a 
 wave, forcing it out at the top of a volcano, or a series 
 of volcanoes, along a line of fractures parallel with 
 the line of the deposits whose pressure produced the 
 movement. 
 
 Sometimes it has probably happened that one forma- 
 tion, as it is called, did not weigh enough to turn the 
 -^.cale, and produce a movement, until another, and per- 
 haps a third, was added ; but when the mass moved, 
 though but a few feet, it would cause a tremendous vol- 
 cano at the point where it was vented. 
 
 It will be admitted that depositions of sediment have 
 always been made horizontally ; of course, the first 
 depositions were so. If any submarine mountains had 
 existed at that time, the strata must have been formed 
 horizontally on the tops of those mountains ; or if the 
 mountains had been previously elevated above the sea, 
 
GEOLOGY. 91 
 
 the strata must have formed around their bases in a 
 horizontal manner. If, afterwards, the whole mountain 
 had been elBvated still higher, the granitic top would 
 yet have towered high above all the strata, and borne 
 the most decisive evidence of its priority of birth. But 
 no such mountains exist. All granitic crags are 
 sheathed in gneiss, slate, sandstone, or limestone, which 
 has fallen from water, and been pierced by, and been 
 elevated along with, the granite. 
 
 There are no granitic mountains with only horizontal 
 strata around them. The primary stratified rocks, 
 therefore, were not deposited at the bases of mountain 
 ranges of granite, for none such existed when the first 
 aqueous deposits were made ; and I conclude they never 
 would have existed but for the pressure of the accumu- 
 lated sediment in one place, forcing the lava to seek 
 relief and an outlet above. 
 
 The igneous crust of the earth was equalized in 
 thickness by the internal heat below it and the water 
 which flowed above it. Bearing with equal weight upon 
 all points of the earth's surface, it could of course pro- 
 duce no mountains nor valleys. But the water, alter- 
 nately heated at the tropics and cooled at the poles, was 
 made to carry detritus, and make deposits in the course 
 of its circuit, until it formed for itself an elliptical 
 path, bounded by strata, the weight of which has pro- 
 duced parallel mountain ranges and shores, whose length 
 and height have continually increased to the present 
 time, to give outlines to our continents and variety to 
 our climes. 
 
9^ OUTLINES OF GEONOMT. 
 
 SECTION y. 
 
 PARALLELISM OF CUHRENTS, STRATA, AND MOUNTAINS, 
 
 No class of facts relating to this subject will be as 
 convincing to a geologist as those which show that the 
 mountains are parallel to the strike or range of the 
 stratified rocks, and to the ocean currents also. 
 
 Professor Philips, in his excellent Manual of Geology, 
 (London, 1855, p. 67,) says, — 
 
 "It was long since remarked by Mitchell, (one of the 
 best and earliest of English geologists,) that the direc- 
 tion of the strata, in any region, was generally parallel 
 to the ranges of mountains — a truth of great impor- 
 tance in the modern system of geology. 
 
 " The most prevalent range of the strata in any coun- 
 try must, however, depend on another circumstance, viz., 
 the original line of the ocean's boundary. In many 
 parts of the globe, the most prevalent direction of the 
 strata is observed to be north-east and south-west. Hum- 
 boldt was so struck with these loxodromic [oblique] 
 lines in Europe, that he says one of his principal in- 
 ducements to visit equatorial America was to examine 
 the directions of the strata there. He has furnished 
 evidence that 'parallelism of the strata to the great lines 
 of mountains is a general law of nature ^ 
 
 It would certainly be difficult to defend the geonomic 
 theory, if the general parallelism of the strata, an- 
 
PARALLELISM OF CUERENTS, STRATA, ETC. 93 
 
 nounced by Mitchell, and confirmed by the venerable 
 Humboldt, did not exist. But this being thus settled 
 by the very highest authorities in science, and it being 
 self-evident that the deposits from the water must be 
 made in the paths of the currents, and that the currents 
 must move in conformity with the astronomic laws which 
 produce the changes of the seasons and the rotation of 
 the earth, there is little else to prove. 
 
 There is nothing inconsistent with these principles in 
 the fact that in some instances the strike of the strata 
 run, as, according to Lyell and Yon Dechen, they do in 
 the Hartz Mountains, frequently north-east, and south- 
 west, while the geographical direction of the mountains 
 is transverse. This may always be expected in cases 
 where opposite currents have alternately prevailed in 
 the same region, and passed over parts of the same 
 area, each current depositing its burden of sediment in 
 the line of its own path. The result would naturally 
 be, that the heaviest ridge of stratified sediment would 
 prevail, and raise a mountain parallel to its own course 
 or strike; in doing this it would make a transverse 
 section of the strata which run in the opposite direction. 
 This is one of those cases where the exception clearly 
 proves the rule. 
 
 There are some such striking parallelisms of the 
 mountains to each other, to the sea shores, to lines of 
 volcanoes, and to the range of stratified deposits of an- 
 cient detritus, that it was almost impossible for geolo- 
 gists to avoid noticing them. Elie de Beaumont in- 
 ferred that those mountains that are parallel to each 
 other were elevated simultaneously, and at a different 
 
94 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 period from the others. The reader will, however, per- 
 ceive that geonomy lends no support to this theory, but 
 rather it indicates that the mountains of Asia were 
 created first, and that the progress of detritus was 
 south-westward to Patagonia. Beaumont attributes 
 the elevations, as most authors do, to the expansion of 
 vapors and gases. Humboldt, in his " Cosmo.^,*' suggests 
 that volcanoes rise in lines along shores, because they 
 meet with less resistance there than at other places ; 
 but on the whole he admits his inability to understand 
 the phenomena, and contents himself with adding essen- 
 tially to our knowledge of facts. This distinguished phi- 
 losopher performed a service to science by sanction- 
 ing with his authority the suggestion of Mitchell, that 
 ranges of strata are laid parallel to ranges of moun- 
 tains ; though it appears to be more in accordance with 
 the facts to say that mountains are raised in lines par- 
 allel to the ranges of strata ; and I would remark, in 
 reference to Baron Humboldt's su2:a:estion concernino; 
 shores, that ranges of mountains rose in lines before 
 shores existed ; indeed, it was such lines that originally 
 constituted shores. 
 
 It has often been observed that the appearance of a 
 mountainous country resembled the waves of the sea. 
 Professor H. D. Rogers was particularly struck with 
 the parallelism of groups of mountains to each other, 
 when he was engaged in the survey of the Appalachian 
 chain in Pennsylvania, in company with his brother. 
 Professor Wm. B. Rogers. He attempts to account for 
 the wave-like appearances, by assuming that a sudden 
 explosion of gaseous elements had in each instance 
 
PARALLELISM OP CURRENTS, STRATA, ETC, 95 
 
 caused an undulation of the liquid ocean below the 
 earth's crust ; that the undulation took the same form 
 as that which is generally assumed by the ocean's 
 waves, but more regular. These subterraneous waves, 
 acting upwards, elevated the crust, and impressed upon 
 it their own wave-like or undulatory forms. Although 
 I cannot- subscribe to the theory adopte'd by Professor 
 Rogers, I must do him the justice to acknowledge that 
 he has shown, by an array of important and original 
 observations, that, in many instances, the separate 
 groups of mountains do appear to assume the charac- 
 teristic forms of waves, their crests all inclining in one 
 direction. In some instances the mountain top is folded 
 over so that it points downward. 
 
 If one mountain crest only presented the appearance 
 of inclination in a particular direction, it might be at- 
 tributed to accident ; but it is a universal fact, that, in 
 each distinct group of parallel mountains, the crests 
 incline in one direction, just as do those of the wBjVes 
 of the sea, when urged by a strong wind. The irresist- 
 ible inference is, that a common or a similar cause 
 operated upon them all, bending them in one common 
 direction, in such a way as to produce the wave form 
 which is now apparent. 
 
 Professor Rogers concluded that there must have 
 been a large body of liquid lava below the crust, the 
 undulatory movements of which produced the appear- 
 ances that he has so well described. He was confirmed 
 in his views by noticing that the tops of these rocky 
 waves are progressively more distant from each other, 
 and also less elevated and less inclined, the farther they 
 
96 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 are situated from the highest petrified mountain wave, 
 or what he denominates " the chief igneous axis of dis- 
 turbance." 
 
 It had been previously remarked that the long, gentle 
 slopes of the land are most frequently to the north and 
 east, and that the abrupt slopes are to the south and 
 west ; but the details of the wave-like arrangement had 
 not before been distinctly described. It must be ob- 
 served, however, that while the observations of Profess- 
 or Rogers indicate . that the difference in the steepness 
 of the opposite slopes of the same mountain is owing to 
 the direction of the force which produces the elevations, 
 it gives no clew to the cause of their assuming one 
 direction rather than another, nor of their operating 
 in such long extended lines as those which the Appala- 
 chians present. But the geonomic theory shows plainly 
 and consistently how the appearance of waves origi- 
 nated ; why they were produced in lines in one direc- 
 tion ; why they differ in height ; why they operated with 
 most intensity at the close of the geological formations ; 
 why they are parallel to those formations, to the ocean 
 channels, to the shores, and to each other ; and also 
 why the mountains have progressively increased in 
 height as the stratified deposits have increased in depth. 
 The geonomic theory also gives a perfect explanation 
 of the fact that the abrupt slopes of the mountains are 
 towards the east in the eastern part of Asia, Australia, 
 and Africa, towards the south in the southern part of 
 Asia and Europe, towards the west in the north-western 
 part of Europe and almost every part of the two Ameri- 
 cas. In fact the greater abruptness is towards the larger 
 
PARALLELISM OF CURRENTS, STRATA, ETC. 97 
 
 ocean, where the most detritus has accumulated, and the 
 greater subsidences have been produced. 
 
 Although nearly all the mountains of the eastern con- 
 tinent slope abruptly to the east or south, the Scandi- 
 navian and British mountains are exceptions, and are 
 most elevated towards the Atlantic Ocean.* 
 
 Subsidences unquestionably may produce waves in 
 the lava beneath the crust, but it does not follow that 
 mountains are petrified waves, nor that the lava moved 
 in waves in the direction indicated by the foldings of 
 the mountain crests. The probability is, that it moved 
 in a contrary direction, and that the crests are produced 
 by the reaction of one wave against another ; the side 
 on which there was the least subsidence overriding the 
 other, and allowing it to spend its force against the 
 base of the abrupt side of the mountain. 
 
 Professor Traill in his article on Physical Geography, 
 in the Encyclopasdia Britannica, remarks, — 
 
 " If we endeavor to generalize the observations on 
 the direction of mountain chains, one very remarkable 
 peculiarity seems deducible, namely, that they very gen- 
 erally present their steepest acclivities towards the 
 great basins to which they are contiguous, while they 
 slope more gradually in the opposite direction ; and on 
 examining their intimate structure, we find their strati- 
 
 * The gradual elevation on the west and depression on the east of the 
 south-eastern parts of England, parallel to the line of the oolites, and pro- 
 longed in duration through the whole period of the saliferous, oOHte, cre- 
 taceous, and tertiary rocks, would fully agree with the general physical 
 features of the surface of the district." — Philips's Mamial of Geology. 
 
 9 
 
98 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 fied beds dipping generally from the basins to which 
 their escarpments are presented. Thus the ridges of 
 the Scandinavian peninsula present their boldest escarp- 
 ments to the basin of the Northern Atlantic ; while the 
 opposite ranges of Greenland and Iceland also show 
 their steepest acclivities towards that basin. Round 
 the shores of the Mediterranean the same arrangements 
 are especially observable. The lofty ridge of the Atlas 
 is very bold on the northern side, and declines more 
 gradually towards the Sahara. The chain of Spanish 
 mountains which skirt the Mediterranean, froui Gibral- 
 tar to the Pyrenees, present their escarpments towards 
 that sea ; and the Maritime Alps of France, the moun- 
 tains of Switzerland and the Tyrol, of Istria, Dalmatia, 
 and Thrace, all present their most precipitous sides to 
 the basin of the Mediterranean. We believe that the 
 considerable chain which in Asia Minor extends from 
 Mount Ida to the country around Scanderoon has the 
 escarpment directed towards the Levant seas ; while 
 the mountains of Armenia present their boldest declivi- 
 ties to the basin of the Euxine, and the Caucasus and 
 mountains of Mazanderan towards that of the Caspian. 
 The escarpment of the great chain of Africa, termed 
 that of Lupata, which seems to be prolonged from the 
 lofty mountains of Abyssinia to the south of the Mo- 
 zambique Channel, would appear, from the little we 
 have learned of its structure, to face the basin of the 
 Indian Ocean ; and we know that the steepest decliv- 
 ities of the Western Ghauts of India are directed 
 towards the same basin. The mighty spine of the 
 
PAEALLELISM OF CURRENTS, STRATA, ETC. 99 
 
 American continent, from the shores of the Arctic Fro- 
 zen Ocean to the extremity of South America, through 
 a course of more than eight thousand six hundred British 
 miles, presents a series of rugged precipices to the vast 
 basin of the Pacific ; and, if we might indulge in one 
 sweeping generalization, it would seem that the chains 
 stretching from the Persian Gulf eastward through 
 Thibet, and thence bending to the north-east through 
 Mongolia and Northern China to Tscheoutskoi-nos on 
 the Frozen Ocean, present their fronts also to the Pa- 
 cific Ocean. 
 
 " As such coincidences can scarcely be considered as 
 accidental, they afford a wide field for speculation. 
 Can we suppose that appearances, on such an immense 
 scale, have any relation ta the operation of the force 
 which caused the elevation of the land, acting towards 
 a central point, and producing the dip of the elevated 
 strata all around, from a common axis of movement ? 
 Such speculations, aided by the position of volcanoes, and 
 other mountains of igneous formation, might lead us to 
 infer the direction of the great lines of subterranean dis- 
 turbances which have modified the appearance of the 
 crust of the earth.'' 
 
 The preceding observations of Professor Traill are 
 very interesting and instructive ; but the learned author 
 did not mention that there are some remarkable excep- 
 tions to the rule that mountains present " their steepest 
 acclivities to the great basins to which they are contigu- 
 ous J^ The Appalachians, for instance, are contiguous to 
 the Atlantic, but they present their steepest acclivities 
 to the Pacific ; and this, in my opinion, proves that at the 
 
100 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 time that the Appalachians were elevated, which was 
 immediately after the coal period, the Pacific extended 
 to the western side of the Appalachians, and the Rocky 
 Mountains were not then in existence. (See Professor 
 Guyot's Earth and Man.) 
 
 The rule seems to be, that if an elevation is contigu- 
 ous to two oceans, it presents its steepest acclivities to 
 the larger one, and in all cases it presents them to the 
 basin the subsidence, of which caused the elevation. 
 
 Perhaps one of the best authenticated cases that I 
 can produce at present, in which earthquakes have been 
 detected in the very act of producing elevations in lines 
 parallel to the lines of subsidence and to the shore lines, 
 is the following, related by Mr. Lyell : — 
 
 " A violent earthquake occurred at Cutch, in the 
 delta of the Indus, June 16, 1819. The sea flowed in 
 by the eastern mouth of the Indus, and in a few hours 
 converted a tract of land two thousand square miles in 
 area into an inland sea, or lagoon. 
 
 "Immediately after the shock, the inhabitants of 
 Sindree saw, at the distance of five miles and a half from 
 their sunken village, a long, elevated mound, where pre- 
 viously there had been a perfectly level plain. To this 
 uplifted tract they gave the name of ' Ulla Bund,' 
 or the ' Mound of God.' 
 
 " It has been ascertained that this newly-raised coun- 
 try is upwards of fifty miles in length, from east to 
 west, running parallel to that line of subsidence before 
 mentioned, which caused the grounds around Sindree to 
 be flooded ; its breadth from north to south is conjec- 
 tured to be in some parts sixteen miles, and its greatest 
 
PARALLELISM OP CURRENTS, STRATA, ETC. 101 
 
 ascertained height above the original level of the delta 
 is ten feet, — an elevation which appears to the eye to 
 be very uniform throughout." 
 
 STEAM AND EXPLOSIVE THEORY. 
 
 Whatever may be thought of my views, the steam 
 and ex]^osive theory is utterly inadequate to account 
 for the origin of earthquakes and volcanoes ; for even 
 if we assume that water, in sufficient quantities, when 
 brought into contact with melted lava, would generate 
 steam enough to elevate mountains and continents, we 
 must previously contrive some way for the water to 
 penetrate through the crust of the earth. Here our 
 theorists rely upon "accidents" to produce eruptions, 
 and upon " dislocations caused by previous eruptions." 
 It appears to me that there is no known way in which 
 the crust of the earth could be originally broken, ex- 
 cept by external pressure. It must also be evident that 
 it requires as great a force to break the crust downward 
 and. admit the water to the liquid lava as it does to 
 raise the lava to the surface. When the deposits press 
 the crust, and cause it to move downward, they must 
 crowd away the lava which is underneath, and break 
 the crust besides. If we have a force sufficient to do 
 this, we require no other ; for the downward movement 
 in one line will, of itself, cause an upward, wave-like 
 movement of the lava in a parallel line. 
 
 When the granite was first formed on the surface of 
 the lava, and the waters and atmosphere arranged 
 themselves concentrically above, what was there to 
 9^ 
 
102 OUTLINES OF GEONOMT. 
 
 cause the water to come into contact with the subter- 
 ranean lava, except the unequal downward pressure of 
 detritus and strata ? The suggestion that crevices made 
 during one earthquake are the passages by which the 
 water enters to produce a subsequent explosion an in- 
 definite time afterwards, is too palpably illogical to re- 
 quire a serious refutation, since the very question is, 
 what caused the first eruptions ? ♦ 
 
 Sir Charles Lvell and some others imao^ine that the 
 lava which is emitted through volcanoes cause vacant 
 places beneath the crust, so that it is liable at any time 
 to collapse and fall beneath its own weight, and thus ex- 
 tend the depth of the ocean. On the other hand, when 
 the crust is elevated by volcanic action, they suppose 
 that it sustains itself on the principle of an arch 
 after the lava and gases which temporarily upheld it 
 have subsided. These are the speculations to which 
 even superior minds are driven to support an erroneous 
 opinion. 
 
 Let us suppose, for the sake of argument, that the 
 water, by some accident, should actually pass through a 
 chasm in the crust ; what would be the natural effect ? 
 Would it produce an explosion which would operate in 
 regular lines for hundreds of miles, and cau^e long, 
 beautiful, petrified waves in the lava, several thousand 
 feet high, by its reaction, and yet merely break the 
 earth's crust at the top ? Would it not, like the explo- 
 sion of a mine, scatter the external crust in all direc- 
 tions, leaving nothing to mark the spot but a deep, 
 irreo'ular pit, bordered by cliaotic ruins? 
 
 If any philosopher who believes in this theory pos- 
 
PARALLELISM OF CURRENTS, STRATA, ETC. 103 
 
 sesses a practical turn of mind, he can easily verify his 
 opinions by an experiment. Let him take a vessel 
 which is filled with molten metal or lava, cover the 
 surface of the liquid with a red-hot iron plate, strewn 
 with sand and clay, to represent the earth's crust, 
 fasten it securely in its place ; now, through a pre-ar- 
 ranged crevice, admit a little water into the vessel, and 
 observe the effect. Let the experimenter vary the op- 
 eration in any way he may please, provided he brings 
 liquid lava and water together, he will have nothing 
 but an irregular and ruinous explosion. If any waves 
 are produced in the lava, they will move in all direc- 
 tions, and subside again to their original place. 
 
 Reason upon this subject as we may, we must com- 
 mence with a lineal cause. Whatever produces the 
 first movement of an earthquake evidently moves in a 
 line. If we suppose that the earthquake merely breaks 
 through a previously prepared line, we must yet inquire 
 what force caused the original line to extend so far in 
 one direction, instead of radiating in many lines from 
 one point. If we assume that the force was constrained 
 by some limiting cause, then we must inquire what was 
 that cause ; for that also must have acted in a line. 
 The problem appears to be solved when we ascertain 
 that the lines of mountains are parallel with the lines 
 of stratified deposits, and that both are in the line of 
 the ancient ocean currents. 
 
 Some of those who advocate the steam and explosive 
 theory combine with it the idea that the cooling and 
 contraction of the internal nucleus of the earth leaves a 
 space between the nucleus and the crust, so that when 
 
104 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 the crust collapses it lets the water down upon the lava 
 beneath. According to this theory the earth may be 
 compared to a dried fig, the outer enveloping skin of 
 which is too large for the internal parts that have lost 
 their juices by eyaporation. 
 
 Notwithstanding that mathematical calculations ap- 
 pear to demonstrate that the loss of heat by radiation 
 through the crust could not possibly be sufficient to pro- 
 duce the contraction which this hypothesis demands, it 
 is still adhered to by some geologists^ apparently for the 
 want of a more plausible explanation of the facts. 
 
 According to Mrs. Somerville, " M. Fourier has com- 
 puted that the central heat is decreasing from radiation 
 by only about the one three thousandth part of a second 
 in a century. If so, there can be no doubt that ulti- 
 mately it will all be dissipated ; but as far as regards 
 organic life it is of very little consequence whether the 
 centre of our planet be liquid fire, or ice, since its con- 
 dition in either case would have no sensible effect on the 
 climate of the surface.'^ 
 
 Mr. Lyell remarks, that " astronomers having proved 
 that there has been no perceptible change in the diame- 
 ter of the earth during the last two thousand years, we 
 may assume it as probable that the dimensions of the 
 planet remain uniform. If, then, we inquire in what 
 manner the force of earthquakes must be regulated in 
 order to restore perpetually the inequalities of the sur- 
 face, which the levelling power of the water tends to 
 efface, it will be found that the amount of depression 
 must exceed that of elevation. It would be otherwise 
 if the action of volcanoes and mineral springs were sus- 
 
PARALLELIS3I OF CURRENTS, STRATA, ETC. 105 
 
 pended ; for then the forcing out of the earth's envelope 
 ought to be no more than equal to its sinking in. 
 
 '' To understand this proposition more clearly, it must 
 be borne in mind that the deposits of rivers and cur- 
 rents probably add as much to lands which are rising 
 as they take from those which have risen." 
 
 Geologists have been much puzzled to find a normal 
 force which is powerful enough to cause the upheaval 
 of continents, and yet capable of remaining quiet when 
 not wanted to produce terrestrial convulsions. Such a 
 force is found. Nature is engaged during a whole geo- 
 logical age in accumulating at one end of a scale-beam 
 a weight sufficient to raise the other end ; and when the 
 time has nearly arrived, the balance trembles with warn- 
 ing, and then moves — sometimes suddenly — just far 
 enough to restore the lost equilibrium, but no farther. 
 In all cases the movement upwards must be exactly 
 equalled by the movement downwards. 
 
 We have the high authority of Lyell to sustain the 
 assumption that the subsidences of the earth's crust are 
 on the whole fully equal to the elevations ; and the 
 logical reader will perceive that the admission is of 
 considerable importance to the new theory. 
 
 Sir John Herschel, being struck, as Humboldt was, 
 by the fact that most volcanoes are situated near the sea 
 shores, proposed a theory in which he assumed that two 
 corresponding openings are made through the crust of 
 the earth before the eruption commences ; one at the bot- 
 tom of the ocean, — not by the weight of the detritus 
 there, but by its non-conducting qualities, like addi- 
 tional clothing to our bodies, preventing the escape of 
 
106 OUTLINES OP GEONOMY. 
 
 the internal heat, so that it melts a portion of the crust. 
 The other opening is made near the sea shore, where the 
 abrasion of the waves has already worn the crust very 
 thin, and thus exposed it to cool unequally, and conse- 
 quently to crack opes. These two openings being thus 
 previously made, by directly opposite causes, the super- 
 incumbent water and detritus are supposed by their 
 weight to crowd a portion of the melted matter down 
 through the orifice at the bottom, and to force an equal 
 quantity of lava to vent itself through the higher open- 
 ing near the shore. 
 
 This hypothesis, besides being subject to the serious 
 objection of being founded upon two very doubtful as- 
 sumptions concerning mptures of the earth's crust, en- 
 tirely fails to account for the established fact of the 
 gradual elevation of whole countries and continents 
 without any volcanic eruptions whatever. According 
 to the geonomic theory advocated in these pages, earth- 
 quakes and eruptions of lava are only occasional inci- 
 dents which attend the elevation of lands. Scandinavia 
 affords an illustration in point ; the depression of the 
 southern shore and of the ocean's bed has caused the 
 northern portion of Sweden and Finland to rise, slowly 
 and gradually, for ages, without being visited by any 
 volcanoes ; but let the upward progress of the land be 
 resisted and prevented, or let the crust be weakened at 
 a particular point, and a quaking or a local eruption 
 would be the immediate consequence. I doubt not that 
 the volcanoes of IceFand and the Faroe Islands are 
 caused by the same general depression which is elevating 
 Sweden. 
 
PARALLELISM OF CURRENTS, STRATA, ETC. 107 
 
 It has been observed (see Silliman's Journal, vol. 
 xix. p. 55) that earthquakes happen most frequently 
 during the time of certain tides. Is this because the 
 weight and pressure of the ocean at that time is greater 
 than usual in some places, and less in others ? If the 
 observation is correct, — and I have no doubt of it, — 
 does it not harmonize with the views advocated in these 
 pages ? 
 
 THICKNESS OP THE CRUST. 
 
 In regard to the thickness of the earth's crust, noth- 
 ing certain is known. All the prominent authors who 
 have referred to it treat the stratified rocks as if they 
 were a part of the crust ; and when they claim that they 
 have been able to measure from ten to sixty-eight miles 
 perpendicularly by adding together the thicknesses of a 
 succession of overlapping strata, they appear to- assume 
 that the real crust of the earth is known to that depth. 
 But the true original crust is granite only, upon which 
 the strata are superimposed. Dr. Hitchcock says, — 
 
 " If we get the perpendicular thickness of a series of 
 strata, we ascertain the character of the crust of the 
 globe to that depth. If we measure the breadth of a 
 series of upturned strata, on a line at right angles to 
 their strike, and ascertain their dip, we have given the 
 hypoihenuse and angles of a right-angled triangle to 
 find tlie perpendicular, which is the thickness of the 
 strata. If the strata are perpendicular, a horizontal 
 line across their edges gives their thickness. By meas- 
 urements and calculations of this sort, it has been ascer- 
 tained that the total thickness of the fossiliferous strata 
 
108 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 in Europe is not less than twenty-seven miles. In 
 Pennsjlyania, the fossiliferous rocks beneath the top of 
 the coal measures are forty thousand feet, or more than 
 seven and a half miles in thickness. (Rogers's Report.) 
 In the peninsula of Tauris, Pallas describes a continued 
 series of primary strata, inclined forty-five degrees over 
 a distance of eighty-six miles ; which would give a per- 
 pendicular thickness of more than sixty-eight miles. 
 (LyelFs Geology.) In New England, as, for instance, on 
 the railroad between Westfield and Pittsfield, we have 
 strata of primary rocks, for the most part nearly per- 
 pendicular, not less than twenty miles in thickness." 
 
 I cannot help suspecting that the thicknesses of the 
 strata are greatly overrated ; but assuming the very 
 lowest estimates to be correct, the weight of the strata 
 gives us a force quite sufficient to account for all the 
 phenomena of earthquakes and volcanoes. 
 
 There is nothing, with which we are acquainted, to 
 thicken the granite crust of the earth, except the radi- 
 ation of the internal heat into celestial space. It must, 
 therefore, be of nearly a uniform thickness ; and since 
 granite is exceedingly non-conductive, I see no reason 
 for supposing the crust to be more than one mile thick 
 in any place. 
 
LOWLANDS, PLATEAUS, AND MOUNTAINS. 109 
 
 SECTION YI. 
 
 RELATION OF LOWLANDS, PLATEAUS, AND MOUNTAINS TO 
 EACH OTHER AND TO EARTHQUAI£ES. 
 
 The term plateau is applied to a series of valleys be- 
 tween mountains of comparatively moderate height. In 
 the progress of continental elevation, plateaus must have 
 once been islands, with groups of mountains running 
 across them, after the manner of Great Britain and Ire- 
 land. The same upheaving cause which raises a succession 
 of narrow mountains forms them into a group, and rends 
 their axes to give vent to igneous rocks, operates in a 
 more steady and quiet, though perhaps really more pow- 
 erful manner, to produce those elevations of the land 
 which we call plateaus. We may regard a plateau as a 
 wider species of mountain, or a succession of nearly 
 parallel ridges of mountains, which anciently was an 
 island ; and in being afterwards elevated to its present 
 height, it drew the lower lands after it from the sea, 
 and forced up the mountain ridges as much higher as it 
 rose itself. Anatomically speaking, a plateau may be 
 regarded as the skeleton of a continent, while the main 
 ridge of mountains is the backbone, and the lowlands 
 the most external and active portions. 
 
 "Viewing things on a broad scale, it appears that 
 
 there is a very striking connection between the physical 
 
 geography, or external aspect of different countries and 
 
 their geological structure. By a minute comparison of 
 
 10 
 
110 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 the different parts of the land, M. Bou^ has shown 
 that similarity of outward forms, while indicating simi- 
 larity in the producing causes, must also, to a large ex- 
 tent, indicate identity of structure, and therefore from 
 the external appearance of an unexplored country its 
 geological structure may be inferred, at least to a cer- 
 tain extent. 
 
 "The form of the great continent has been determined 
 by an immense zone of mountains and table lands, lying 
 between the thirtieth and fortieth or forty-fifth parallels 
 of north latitude, which stretches across it from w^est- 
 south-west to east- north-east, from the coasts of Barbary 
 and Portugal, on tlie Atlantic Ocean, to the-farthest ex- 
 tremity of Asia, at Behring's Straits in the North Pacific. 
 North of this lies a vast plain, extending almost from 
 the Pyrenees to the extremity of Asia, the greater por- 
 tion of which is a dead level, or low undulations unin- 
 terrupted except by the Scandinavian and British system 
 on the north, and the Ural chain, which is of but small 
 elevation. 
 
 *' The table-lands which constitute the tops of moun- 
 tains, or of mountain chains, are of a different charac- 
 ter from those terraces by which the high lands slope to 
 the low. The former are on a small scale in Europe, 
 and of a forbidding aspect, with the exception of the 
 Jura, which is pastoral. The mass of high land in 
 South-eastern Europe shelves on the north to the great 
 plain of Bavaria, three thousand feet high ; Bohemia, 
 which slopes from fifteen hundred to nine hundred feet ; 
 and Hungary, from four thousand above the sea to three 
 hundred. The descent on the south side of the Alps 
 is six or seven times more rapid. 
 
LOWLANDS, PLATEAUS, AND MOUNTAINS. Ill 
 
 " As the table lands extend from south-west to north- 
 east, so also do the principal mountain chains, as well 
 those which bound the high lands as those that traverse 
 them. 
 
 " Remarkable exceptions to this equatorial direction 
 of the Asiatic mass, however,, occur in a series of me- 
 ridional chains, whose axes extend from south-south- 
 east to north-north-west, between Cape Cormorin, oppo- 
 site to Ceylon, and the Arctic Ocean, under the names 
 of the Western Ghauts, the Soliman, East Persia range, 
 the Bola, West Tibet, and the Oural ; to this may be 
 added the Khinghan, in China. 
 
 " Tibet is a mountain valley enclosed between the 
 chains of the Himalaya on the south, and the Kuen-lun 
 on the north. 
 
 " The table land of Tibet is only four thousand feet 
 above the sea towards the north ; but it rises in Little 
 Tibet to between eleven thousand and twelve thousand 
 feet. 
 
 " The great northern plain is broken by two masses 
 of high land, in every respect inferior to the Oural and 
 the Scandinavian. The Scandinavian mountain has been 
 compared to a great billow, or wave, rising gradually 
 from the east, which, after having formed a crest, falls 
 perpendicularly into the sea at the west." — Mrs. Som- 
 crville. 
 
 The lovv^lands and the highest mountain peaks appear 
 to have been raised after the intermediate plateaus, for 
 there is perfect geological evidence that the lowest Si- 
 berian lands which lie at the north-eastern terminus of 
 the Asiatic slope have but recently emerged from the 
 
112 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 sea ; at the same time the higher parts of the Hima- 
 layas contain evidence of, modern volcanic elevations, 
 which have certainly taken place since the deposition 
 of the first tertiary formations. 
 
 In regard to the modus operandi of the convulsions 
 which raised plateaus, it should be remarked that a 
 slight depression of a vast submarine plain might qui- 
 etly raise a whole country, or it might cause a tremen- 
 dous earthquake in a limited region, and a remarkable 
 outburst through a long line of parallel volcanoes. 
 Suppose, for instance, that a subsidence of one inch 
 should take place in a portion of the bed of the Atlan- 
 tic consisting of one thousand square miles ; the conse- 
 quence would be, that a sheet of lava would be forced 
 upward, which would be one inch thick and a thousand 
 square miles in superficial extent. If, in rising, the 
 crust of the continent did not give way in any particu- 
 lar locality, the result might be a quiet and impercepti- 
 ble elevation of one thousand square miles of the 
 American or European lands to the height of one inch. 
 This movement might or might not be accompanied by 
 a slight shock or tremulous motion of the earth in some 
 places, and a slight comjnotion of the water. On the 
 other hand, if a portion of the oppressed lava shouki 
 find vent through a parallel line of volcanoes, it would 
 elevate the whole mass of land less by so much. 
 
 The place where the pressure and subsidence is great- 
 est may be, and doubtless it frequently is, at a great 
 distance from that of the eruption of lava, though it 
 may also be very near. 
 
 Jorullo, in Mexico, is one hundred and seventy-five 
 miles from the nearest sea ; but the lava which it poured 
 
LOWLANDS, PLATEAUS, AND MOUNTAINS. 113 
 
 forth doubtless pursued the line of the least resistance 
 to vent itself there. The subsidence may have hap- 
 pened in the Gulf of Mexico, or in the Pacific, or 
 we may never be able to determine its locality with 
 perfect certainty. I doubt not, however, that the time 
 will soon arrive when we shall be able, not only to trace 
 each eruption to its source, but to predict its recurrence 
 with approximate accuracy from a scientific knowledge 
 of its remote causes, its direction, and the angles and 
 slopes that it produces. 
 
 I do not wish to be understood as pretending that we 
 can now, by looking at a common map, at once proceed 
 to explain precisely where the subsidences took place, 
 which caused each particular elevation ; nor can we, in 
 all cases, point out the direction taken by the lava from 
 its deep fountain to its place of eruption ; neither can 
 we explain, in every instance, the relation between the 
 forms assumed by the continents, peninsulas, and islands, 
 without a thorough knowledge of the geological and 
 topographical circumstances. I do, however, insist, that 
 when a good scientific survey of a region has been 
 made, so that its actual structure is known, all will be 
 found consistent with the essential principles advanced 
 in this treatise. We find but few maps of large coun- 
 tries which are reliable, and in regard to many regions 
 the authorities differ so essentially that we are in con- 
 siderable doubt concerning them. Nothing, however, is 
 wanting to determine geonomic questions but a correct 
 survey of the premises. I have no hesitation in ex- 
 pressing the confident belief that, with the aid of the 
 simple principles of geonomy, an ordinary geological 
 10 *^ 
 
114 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 examiner, with ample opportunities, would now be able 
 to give a good account of any country on the earth, 
 and explain the origin of all its elevations and geologi- 
 cal formations. Not only so, he would be able to 
 predict with considerable accuracy its future changes 
 of level. What geonomer will hereafter express sur- 
 prise on hearing that the land at the north end of the 
 Gulf of Bothnia is rising, while that at the south is 
 sinking? Who will, after this, be puzzled to explain 
 why there are volcanic eruptions in the Sicilian islands, 
 the Mexican plateau, the Pacific Ocean, or along the 
 Aleutian chain. 
 
 If I appear to avoid details in this general treatise, I 
 frankly confess that it is in part owing to a desire not 
 to weaken my readers' confidence in the novel principles 
 which I am advancing, by any rash applications of them 
 to cases where the essential topographical circumstances 
 are not understood, and where I should consequently be 
 liable to commit serious errors. I, therefore, shall re- 
 serve for a future time, and perhaps for other, and I 
 hope abler hands, the task of applying these principles 
 more particularly to special and limited regions. Ex- 
 perienced philosophers will appreciate my motives and 
 approve of my cautiousness. My only object in this 
 treatise is to announce certain laws hitherto unknown, 
 that afford a key by means of which the physical 
 geography of any region of the land or sea can readily 
 be understood after it has been carefully surveyed. 
 
 The following extracts from Lyell's Principles of Ge- 
 ology are full of interest and instruction. The facts 
 recorded concerning earthquakes and volcanoes are 
 highly illustrative of the principles of geonomy, and in 
 
LO^VLANDS, PLATEAUS, AND MOUNTAINS. 115 
 
 turn receive from them their only rational explanation. 
 I leave the readers to make their own application of 
 the principles to the facts as related. 
 
 " Lisbon Earthquake. — In no part of the volcanic 
 region of Southern Europe has so tremendous an earth- 
 quake occurred in modern times as that which began on 
 the 1st of November, 1755, at Lisbon. A sound of 
 thunder was heard under ground, and immediately 
 afterwards a violent shock threw down the greater part 
 of the city. In the course of six minutes, sixty thousand 
 persons perished. The sea first retired, and laid the 
 bar dry ; it then rolled in, rising fifty feet or more 
 above its ordinary level. 
 
 " The most extraordinary circumstance which oc- 
 curred at Lisbon during the catastrophe was the subsi- 
 dence of a new quay, built entirely of marble, at an 
 immense expense. The water in the place where the 
 quay had stood is stated, in many accounts, to be un- 
 fathomable ; but Whitehurst says he ascertained it to 
 be one hundred fathoms. 
 
 " The great area over which this Lisbon earthquake 
 extended is remarkable. The movement was most vio- 
 lent in Spain, Portugal, and the north of Africa ; but 
 nearly the whole of Europe, and even the West Indies, 
 felt the shock on the same day. 
 
 " The shock was felt at sea on the deck of a ship to 
 the west of Lisbon. Another ship, forty leagues west 
 of St. Vincent, experienced so violent a concussion that 
 the men were thrown a foot and a half perpendicularly 
 up from the deck. In Antigua and Barbadoes, as also 
 in Norway, Sweden, Germany, and Italy, tremors w^ere 
 felt. 
 
116 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 " A great wave vSwept over the coast of Spain, and it 
 is said to have been sixty feet high at Cadiz. At Tan- 
 gier, in Africa, it rose and fell eighteen times on the 
 coast. In Madeira it rose full fifteen feet perpendicular 
 above the high-water mark, although the tide, which 
 ebbs and flows there seven feet, was then at half ebb. 
 At Kinsale, in Ireland, a body of water rushed into the 
 harbor, whirled round several vessels, and poured into 
 the market place. 
 
 " The sea first retired at Lisbon ; and this retreat of 
 the ocean from the shore at the commencement of an 
 earthquake, and its subsequent return in a violent wave, 
 is a common occur7'ence. In order to account for the 
 phenomenon, Mitchell imagined a subsidence at the 
 bottom of the sea, from the giving way of the roof of 
 some cavity, in consequence of a vacuum produced by 
 the condensation of steam." 
 
 In 1751, at St. Domingo, twenty leagues of the coast 
 sunk down, and has since been a bay. 
 
 Mr. Lyell says that " in the earthquake at Chili, in 
 1822, the earth was elevated over an area of one hun- 
 dred thousand square miles. Mrs. Graham observed, 
 after the earthquake of 1822, that, besides the beach 
 newly raised above the high- water mark, there were 
 several older elevated lines of beach one above the other, 
 consisting of sliingle mixed with shells, extending in a 
 parallel direction to the shore, to the height of fifty 
 feet above the sea. 
 
 " Assuming the great pyramid of Egypt, if solid, to 
 weigh, in accordance with an estimate before given, six 
 million tons, we may state the rock added to the con- 
 
LOWLANDS, PLATEAUS, AND MOUNTAINS. 117 
 
 tinent by the Chilian earthquake to have more than 
 equalled one hundred thousand pyramids. 
 
 "The discharge of mud in one year by the Ganges 
 equalled the weight of sixty pyramids. In that case it 
 would require seventeen centuries and a half before the 
 river could bear down from the continent into the sea 
 a mass equal to that gained by the Chilian earthquake. 
 
 " Violent earthquakes, in 1812, convulsed the valley of 
 the Mississippi, at New Madrid, for the space of three 
 hundred miles in length. As this happened exactly at 
 the same time as the great earthquake of Caraccas, it is 
 probable that these two points are parts of one con- 
 tinuous volcanic region ; for the whole circumference 
 of the intervening Caribbean Sea must be considered 
 as a theatre of earthquakes and volcanoes. On the 
 north lies the Island of Jamaica, which, with a tract of 
 the contiguous sea, has often experienced tremendous 
 shocks ; and these are frequent along a line extending 
 from Jamaica to St. Domingo and Porto Kico. On 
 the" south of the same basin the shores and mountains 
 of Colombia are perpetually convulsed. On the west 
 is the volcanic chain of Guatimala and Mexico, and on 
 the east the West India Islands — St. Yincent and 
 Guadaloupe." The same region has been shaken again 
 during the last year, (1857,) and a few weeks afterwards 
 shocks were felt in the vicinity of Lake Erie. 
 
 The probability is, that the slight shocks which are 
 felt in the interior of basins, like the Mississippi valley, 
 and in the vicinity of the Caspian Sea, are owing to de- 
 pressions produced by the gradual accumulation of 
 sediment by the rivers in the deeper and more central 
 
118 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 portions of the great basin or valley, the weight of 
 which occasionally is sufficient to cause a movement of 
 the crust. If any one thinks that such small quantities 
 of detritus are insufficient to break the crust of the earth, 
 let him reflect that we know not how long the load has 
 been accumulating, and that the state of the balance 
 may be such that it only requires a small additional 
 weight to turn the scale. The old proverb is that " it 
 is the last feather that breaks the camel's back." 
 
 " In 1815 one of the most frightful eruptions recorded 
 in history occurred in the mountain Tomboro, in the 
 Island of Sumbawa. It began on tho 5th of April, and 
 was most violent on the 11th and 12th, and did not en- 
 tirely cease till July. The sound of the explosions was 
 heard in Sumatra, at the distance of nine hundred and 
 seventy geographical miles in a direct line, and at Ter- 
 nate, in an opposite direction, at the distance of seven 
 hundred and twenty miles. 
 
 " The area over which tremulous noises and other vol- 
 canic effects extended, was one thousand English miles 
 in circumference, including the whole of the Molucca 
 Islands, Java, a considerable portion of Celebes, Suma- 
 tra, and Borneo. 
 
 " In October, 1746, Peru was visited by an earthquake 
 which is declared to have been more tremendous and 
 extensive than even that of Lisbon in 1755. In the 
 first twenty-four hours, two hundred shocks were expe- 
 rienced. The ocean twice retired, and returned impet- 
 uously upon the land ; Lima was destroyed, and part 
 of the coast near Callao was converted into a bay ; four 
 other harbors, among which were Cavalla and Gua- 
 nape, shared the same fate. 
 
119 
 
 " The volcanoes of Iceland have been in activity ever 
 since the island was discovered, in the ninth century. 
 Hecla, though not the most considerable of these, from 
 its position and its former activity, is the best known. 
 It has had many formidable eruptions, twenty-two of 
 which have been noted in about eight hundred years ; 
 and in the same period we have notices of twenty erup- 
 tions from five other Icelandic volcanoes. A succession 
 of eruptions of Hecla lasted for six years ; but the most 
 severe convulsions of that country happened in 1783, 
 when the dreadful eruption of the Skaptar Yokul burst 
 forth, and did not cease till the following year. About 
 a month before this terrible catastrophe, a submarine vol- 
 cano elevated the crater of Nyoe, seventy miles south- 
 west of Cape Reikianes, and threw out such an immense 
 quantity of scorise as to cover the sea, to the distance 
 of one hundred and fifty miles, with a stream which im- 
 peded the progress of ships making the island ; and 
 portions of this eruption floated as far as the Shetland 
 and Orkney Islands. Nyoe emitted smoke and scoria 
 from several apertures ; but within a year the island 
 disappeared, and a shoal marks its former site. On the 
 8th of June the Skaptar Yokul threw out smoke ; on 
 the 10th an enormous current of molten lava flowed 
 from numerous cones on the Yokul, which, dividing into 
 two main streams, pursued its course to the sea, filling 
 up the beds of two large rivers, and covering an im- 
 mense extent of once productive country. The horrors 
 of the scene were aggravated by the enormous torrents 
 of boiling water produced by the liquefaction of the 
 glaciers that covered the Yokul, and by incessant 
 
120 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 showers of ashes, which darkened the sun ; stream of 
 lava succeeded stream from the 10th of June to the end 
 of August, at short intervals ; and noxious emanations 
 destroyed numbers of those whom fire and water had 
 spared. From this calamity Iceland has never recov- 
 ered ; for within the space of two years the island, in 
 consequence of this eruption, lost nine thousand three 
 hundred and thirty-six persons, eleven thousand four 
 hundred and sixty head of cattle, twenty-eight thousand 
 horses, and one hundred and ninety thousand four hun- 
 dred and eighty sheep. The extent of the principal 
 stream of lava is fifty miles in length ; its greatest 
 breadth is from twelve to fifteen miles ; in the plains its 
 general depth is one hundred feet, but in the channel 
 of the Skapta River, which it dried up, it is six hundred 
 feet in perpendicular depth. The south-western side of 
 Iceland appears to be one vast focus of subterranean 
 fire ; for the several eruptions of the Orgefa, the Skei- 
 dera, Sida, and Skaptar Yokuls, seem but as occasional 
 outbreakings from one immense volcanic fissure, which 
 really belongs to the same chain of icy mountains." — 
 Dr. Traill. 
 
RELATION OF OCEAN CURRENTS TO GEOGRAPHY. 121 
 
 SECTION YII. 
 
 ilELATION OF THE ANCIENT AND MODERN OCEAN 
 CURRENTS TO GEOGRAPHY. 
 
 The fact being admitted that earthquakes, volcanoes, 
 and moimtains are caused by the downward tendency 
 of the ocean's bed, we shall be led to inquire into the 
 detailed effects upon the forms of the land and the sea. 
 We shall be curious to ascertain the situation of the 
 sea or lake that produced each particular mountain, to 
 trace, in the curves and slopes of the mountain ranges, 
 the direction of the ocean currents that produced their 
 upheaval. 
 
 In this general outline it cannot be expected that I 
 shall do more than indicate the course of study and 
 observation which must be pursued in future ; but a 
 key to physical geography is given when it is ascer- 
 tained that all elevations are but the reactions of cor- 
 responding depressions ; that Asia, Europe, and North 
 America are three elevated and extinct ellipses ; and 
 that Africa, South America, Australia, and Greenland 
 are portions or fragments of ellipses, or else they are 
 interspaces situated between several great ellipses, 
 most of which are still continuing their circuits, bear- 
 ing in the bosom of their waters the detrital elements 
 that, give energy to earthquakes, supply the fires of 
 slumbering volcanoes, elevate the surfaces of continents, 
 and contract the boundaries of oceans, 
 11 
 
122 OUTLINES OP GEONOMY. 
 
 A few elements of a planet and its orbit being known^ 
 astronomers are enabled to determine its whole path, and 
 its relations to other orbits with great precision. The 
 same appears to be now true of the elements of oceanic 
 ellipses, which the forms of the land present to us as 
 indications of the entire paths pursued by the currents 
 that gave birth to those forms. The sea is poetically 
 characterized as the emblem of inconstancy; but the 
 laws which govern the movements of the sea are as un- 
 changing as gravitation, though they have not hereto- 
 fore been understood. It is the land, rather than the 
 sea, that, geologically considered, is subject to change ; 
 for the ocean currents mould the surface of the earth 
 into correspondence and subordination to themselves, 
 and pursue a course determined by astronomic forces, 
 over which the earth has no essential influence. 
 
 It must be evident that if the principles which I am 
 advocating are to be relied upon, the inequalities of 
 surface at the bottom of the sea are mere continuations 
 and repetitions of those seen upon the dry land ; and 
 if the whole ocean could be drained, and then carefully 
 surveyed, what we call the dry land would be found to 
 be but the segments or highest portions of a regular 
 system of reliefs produced by elliptical currents. 
 
 I earnestly hope that by the liberality of our govern- 
 ment the ocean depths throughout the world will soon 
 be known, so far, at least, as may be necessary for scien- 
 tific and practical purposes. When that knowledge is 
 obtained, I expect that the islands of the great Pacific 
 will be proved to be the tops of mountain ranges, which 
 are the borders of definite marine ellipses, analogous 
 
RELATION OF OCEAN CUKRENTS TO GEOGRAPHY. 123 
 
 in outline to the mountains of the dry land. It is not 
 unreasonable to suppose that then we shall be able to 
 predict the elevation of lands and the breaking out of 
 volcanoes in regions where nothing of the kind is now 
 anticipated. Mankind will then learn to regard such 
 movements as but a part of the progressive system of 
 nature, dependent, like tempests and thunder storms, 
 upon a disturbance of elements which are known, and 
 which science can subject to the ordeal of mathematical 
 calculation. 
 
 If we look at a curious map of the bed of the At- 
 lantic, published by Lieutenant Maury in his " Physical 
 Geography of the Sea," we may observe that a sub- 
 marine continent is forming in the middle of that vast 
 lower region, which, in form, bears a striking resem- 
 blance to Italy, and, like that beautiful peninsula, it 
 resembles a human leg and foot in its outlines, with its 
 sole and heel towards the equator, and its toe pointing 
 towards the west. The depressions around it are also 
 analogous to the marine basins around Italy. The 
 Gulf of Venice, the Bay of Sicily and Naples, and the 
 Gulf of Taranto have their analogues here. We may 
 also notice its resemblance to New Zealand, and that it 
 is literally its antipode, the forms being exactly the 
 reverse of each other. 
 
 Are these beautiful analogies meaningless, or do they 
 rather speak with the irresistible logic of nature, to 
 teach us that similar causes operated to produce similar 
 forms ? It is worthy of remark, that the part of the 
 Atlantic's bed which must receive the greatest quantity 
 of detritus and sediment, instead of being the most 
 
124 . OUTLINES OP GEONOMY. 
 
 elevated, is actually the most depressed. Now, since it 
 is well known that it is not worn by the currents, it 
 must be sunken by its own weight. 
 
 Lieutenant Maury manifests a singular power of ob- 
 servation, combined with an admirable sagacity, in the 
 following remarks, which I take the liberty to quote 
 from his useful and elegant treatise on the Physical 
 Geography of the Sea, p. 252. 
 
 " To measure the elevation of the mountain tops 
 above the sea, and to lay down upon our maps the 
 mountain ranges of the earth, is regarded in geography 
 as an important thing, and rightly so. Equally im- 
 portant is it in bringing the physical geography of the 
 sea regularly within the domain of science, to present 
 its orography, by mapping out the bottom of the ocean 
 so as to show the depressions of the solid parts of the 
 earth's crust there below the sea level. 
 
 " What is to be the use of these deep sea soundings ? 
 is a question that often occurs ; and it is as difficult to 
 be answered, in categorical terms, as Franklin's ques- 
 tion, What is the use of a new-born babe ? Every phys- 
 ical fact, every expression of nature, every feature of the 
 earth, the work of any and all of those agents which 
 make the face of the world what it is, and as we see 
 it, is interesting and instructive. Until we get hold of a 
 group of physical facts, we do not know what practical 
 bearings they may have, though right-minded men know 
 that they contain many precious jewels, which science 
 or the expert hand of philosophy will not fail to bring 
 out, polished, and bright, and beautifully adapted to 
 man's purposes. Already we are obtaining practical 
 
I- 
 
 RELATION OF OCEAN CURRENTS TO GEOGRAPHY. 125 
 
 answers to this question as to the use of deep sea 
 soundings ; for as soon as they were announced to the 
 public, they forthwith assumed a practical bearing in 
 the minds of men with regard to the question of a 
 submarine telegraph across the Atlantic. 
 
 " There is at the bottom of the sea, between Cape 
 Race in Newfoundland and Cape Clear in Ireland, a 
 remarkable steppe, which is already known as the tel- 
 egraphic plateau. 
 
 " There appears to be, corresponding to this elevation 
 of the bottom of the sea, a ridge on the land, which 
 runs nearly, if not entirely, around the earth. Leaving 
 this continent between the parallels of forty-five de- 
 grees and fifty degrees north, the British Islands are 
 within its range. Passing thence to the continent, we 
 recognize it in the great ' divide,' which separates the 
 drainage of the Arctic Ocean from the drainage of the 
 south. In Asia it rises up into a chain of steppes and 
 mountains, extending across that continent from west to 
 east, and disappearing on the shores of the Pacific. 
 We do not know how it is at the bottom of the 
 ' Grand Ocean ; ' but the chain of Aleutian Islands, 
 rising out of the water midway between Asia and Amer- 
 ica, seem to suggest that it is there also. However, 
 if we run the eye along to America, we shall perceive 
 again, as soon as we come to this continent, indications 
 of this ridge, which divides the waters that flow from 
 the north from those that seek the ocean in more south- 
 ern latitudes." 
 
 The explanation that geonomic principles give to the 
 " remarkable steppe '' in the sea and " ridge on the 
 11* 
 
126 OUTLINES OP GEONOMY. 
 
 land," wliicli Lieutenant Maury describes so well, is^ 
 that the northern and southern oceans have antagonized 
 each other in the northern hemispliere, and produced the 
 elevation of the bottom of the sea, and this ridge on 
 the land betweeen them, which " runs nearly, if not en- 
 tirely, around the earth," parallel with the Polar Sea, 
 and also with the ancient sea that formerly washed the 
 southern side of the annular ridge. Geonomy requires 
 that there should be a predominance of east and west 
 elevations and ridges near the equator and near the 
 poles ; but between these two annular ridges there should 
 be a succession of north and south elevations. Geog- 
 raphy demonstrates that the elevations actually exist in 
 accordance with the requirements of this law. 
 
 In looking at the map of the world we find that all 
 the large level plains are in the middle of ellipses, or 
 they are between ellipses ; in other words, they are in 
 situations where the circulation of the currents could 
 not produce subsidences and elevations : thus, Asia 
 constitutes a great circular basin, the southern and east- 
 ern edges of which are elevated into a series of enor- 
 mous, nearly parallel ridges, which correspond in direc- 
 tion with the course which the ocean currents must have 
 pursued when the land was the ocean's bed, and was 
 gradually rising. It is evident that these mountain 
 ranges were produced by a series of subsidences, which 
 commenced at the Altai, and proceeded southward to 
 the Himalaya, continually increasing in height as they 
 proceeded. 
 
 " The most ancient chains are the least elevated ; 
 while the colossal grandeur of the Andes and the Him- 
 
RELATION OP OCEAN CURRENTS TO GEOGRAPHY. 127 
 
 alaya bear the traces of an upheaval comparatively very 
 • recent. In America, from the coasts of Brazil to the 
 high table lands of Bolivia, and from the Atlantic 
 shores to the Rocky Mountains ; in Europe, from the 
 mountains of Scandinavia to the summit of the Alps, we 
 meet with upheavings successively less ancient." — 
 Professor Guyot's Earth and Man. 
 
 On the north side of the basin there is a series of 
 low elevations which have an east and west direction ; 
 but they are so low, so barren and cold, that they have 
 scarcely been noticed by geographers. They are low 
 because they have been produced by seas that are of 
 limited dimensions, when compared with the vast areas 
 of the Pacific and the Indian Oceans. 
 
 On the western side is a range of mountains which 
 extend from the Caspian Sea to Nova Zembla, a distance 
 of seventeen hundred miles, in a north and south direc- 
 tion generally, but curving to the west at the southern 
 extremity of the chain, and to the east at the northern 
 extremity. This is the Oural chain, which divides the 
 Asiatic basin from the European. Between four sys- 
 tems of elevation, namely, the Aldan Mountains on the 
 east, the Altai on the south, the Oural on the west, and 
 the Arctic shore on the north, is a vast level plain — 
 the largest in the world. Why should it not be level? 
 No currents have ever crossed it to deposit layers and 
 strata of sediment, the weight of which could break the 
 earth's crust. The currents circulated around it, and 
 left its surface unbroken. 
 
 Look now at the European basin, and observe how 
 analogous it is to that of Asia ; yet in some details how 
 
128 OUTLINES OP GEONOMY. 
 
 different and diminutive ! Instead of the Aldan Moun- 
 tains on its eastern border, it has the Oural ; instead of • 
 the Himalaya and Hindoo Kosh on the south, it has the 
 Caucasus and the Carpathians ; instead of the Chinese^ 
 Bengal, and Arabian Seas, and the peninsulas of Siam, 
 India, and Arabia, it has the deep basins of the Caspian^ 
 the Euxine, and the Eastern Mediterranean, with the 
 peninsulas of Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy. Instead 
 of having the Ourals on the western border, Europe has 
 the Scandinavians. Spain, France, and Great Britain 
 belong to the North Atlantic basin, and not to the Eu- 
 ropean. This is evident from the directions of their 
 mountains, and their correspondence with the easteria 
 segments of the North Atlantic ellipse. But let us re- 
 turn to view the European basin, which, like Asia, has a 
 succession of nearly parallel ridges on its southern bor- 
 der, but is bounded east and west by simple north and 
 south ranges. Like Asia, its greatest elevation is at the 
 south, and declines gradually to the Frozen Ocean. ^ 
 The North Sea and the Baltic are the depressed por- 
 tions of the European basin. So the Aral Sea and the 
 Caspian are the most depressed parts of Asia. The 
 great plain of Asia is between the ranges of the Oural, 
 the Altai, and the Aldan. So the great plain of Eu- 
 rope is between the Scandinavian, the Carpathian, and 
 the Oural ; except the trifling elevation of the Yaldai, 
 there is nothing to indicate a rupture of the earth's 
 crust in this vast interior of the European ellipse. All 
 around it the crust is broken up like the ground in a 
 circus ring. 
 The Mediterranean and Caspian Seas were formerly 
 
RELATION OF OCEAN CURRENTS TO GEOGRAPHY. 129 
 
 the channel of the European ellipse, and though the 
 influence of the large oceans has elevated the land all 
 around them, they still continue to accumulate detritus 
 and sediment, and to sink deeper, while the countries in 
 the vicinity are kept in constant dread of the earth- 
 quakes and volcanoes which the reaction of their sub- 
 sidences produce. In the same manner the Mexican 
 and Caribbean Seas, though gradually narrowing and 
 closing, do not abandon the ground without a struggle, 
 which is attested by the numerous volcanoes that encir- 
 cle its basins, and the dreadful earthquakes that dev?is- 
 tate its shores. In the East Indies the same principles 
 are illustrated in a still more powerful manner by the 
 circle of volcanic fire that is drawn around the ellipti- 
 cal channels near the East Indian islands. The law 
 seems to be, that the channels shall continue to sink as 
 long as they can obtain sediment enough- to break the 
 crust ; and it will be broken the more easily for being 
 frequently ruptured ; but between the channels the land 
 may rise to maintain the equilibrium. 
 
 There is a peculiarity in the region of the Caspian and 
 Aral Seas that is finely illustrative of the geonomic 
 theory, which is, that the surface of the land is below 
 the surface level of the surrounding seas. It seems 
 that the oceans have caused the elevation of the land 
 around the basin, and cut it off from all communication 
 with the open sea. Being in a temperate climate, the wa- 
 ter which was thus left enclosed by elevations has been 
 evaporated away, except that which is now found in the 
 Aral and Caspian Seas, and a number of small 
 lakes. It is said that earthquakes frequently disturb 
 
130 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 this region. Why, then, do they not elevate it at least 
 to a level with the ocean ? The answer is, that subsi- 
 dence is the only means of elevation, and of course that 
 cannot elevate the lowest place. To accomplish the ele- 
 vation of the Caspian or the Meditei-ranean, a " lower 
 deep " must be made, to crowd the lava beneath the 
 crust on which the Caspian rests. Instead of the Cas- 
 pian rising-, it is probably sinking, and thus raising the 
 land around it^ producing slight earthquakes as it 
 does so. 
 
 The Adriatic and the Euxine have, like the Mediter- 
 ranean, been for a long time sinking in the same man- 
 ner, and occasionally causing elevations and eruptions 
 which have given birth to the Apennines, the Alps, 
 the Taurus, the Balkan, and Caucasian Mountains* 
 We know but little of Africa ; but what we do know 
 tends to show that its creation and elevation is compar- 
 atively modern. The probability is, that at the time 
 that the mountains around the Mediterranean were ele- 
 vated above the surface of the ocean, most of Africa 
 was at the bottom of the sea. If Africa had not risen 
 and limited the area of the Mediterranean, the moun- 
 tains of Southern Europe would have been higher than 
 the Himalaya. Arabia appears to be an inter-land, 
 which i& nearly level from the want of a large ocean on 
 any of its borders. When any land is surrounded by 
 seas which are nearly of equal size, it must necessarily 
 be almost a level country ; though, if the seas are large, 
 it may be elevated into a level table land. 
 
 The North American basin is formed on the same 
 principles as Asia and Europe. It has three oceans. 
 
RELATION OF OCEAN CURRENTS TO GEOGRAPHY. 131 
 
 and three correspondiug systems of elevations on its 
 borders — the Appalachians and Ozark on the east, the 
 Eocky on the west, and the low Lawrentine range on 
 the north. Between these three, in the interior, is the 
 vast level plain called the great valley of the Mississippi. 
 * North America differs from Asia in the fact that the 
 abrupt declivities are on the western side in America, 
 and on the eastern in Asia ; but otherwise it greatly re- 
 sembles it. 
 
 Greenland, South America, Africa, and Australia are 
 four continental areas of land, which are not, and never 
 were ellipses, but are situated between them. Green- 
 land is between three seas, the Arctic, the North At- 
 lantic, and Baffin's Bay, which is really a sea. South 
 America is between the North Atlantic, the South At- 
 lantic, and the South Pacific ; Africa between the North 
 Atlantic and Mediterranean, the South Atlantic, the In- 
 dian Ocean, and the Red Sea. 
 
 Australia is situated between the Indian Ocean and 
 the Java Sea on the west and north, the North Pacific 
 on the north-east, the New Zealand Sea and South Pa- 
 cific on the south-east, and a small oceanic ellipse which 
 I will call the Tasmanian, on the south. The most im- 
 portant fact to be noticed in relation to ^hese inter- 
 lands is, that they are, without exception, the most ele- 
 vated on the side which borders upon the largest ocean. 
 Thus Australia, Africa, and Greenland are most elevat- 
 ed on their eastern sides, and South America on the west- 
 ern. Australia is the least elevated on the south ; Af- 
 rica and South America on the north. 
 
 What are called the trade winds blow from near the 
 
132 OUTLINES OP GEONOMY. 
 
 thirtieth degree of latitude to the equator, in a western 
 direction, and carry with them the moisture which pro- 
 duces fertility. Those lands, therefore, which have 
 their largest ocean', and consequently their highest lands, 
 on the eastern border, as Australia, Africa, and Asia have, 
 will have large barren deserts in their western parts-; 
 but those lands which, like South America, have the 
 largest ocean on the western borders, will have their 
 larger mountains on their western border also ; so that 
 the moist winds from the south-east will pass over the 
 larger part of the land before they reach the mountains, 
 and are arrested and robbed of their fertilizing moist- 
 ure. This is the reason of the smallness of the deserts 
 in South America, compared with those of other coun- 
 tries. 
 
 In the extreme southern part of the southern ellipses 
 there is so little known of the submarine forms, that we 
 are left almost entirely to conjecture from analogy. I 
 presume that the Lagullas bank, which is a submarine 
 plateau south-east of Good Hope, is an inter-elliptic ele- 
 vation analogous to the banks of Newfoundland. 1 also 
 regard the islands at the south-east of Patagonia as of 
 the same character, and as indicating the eastern course 
 of the current there. 
 
 It is remarked by many physical geographers that 
 the principal mountains of the eastern continent run 
 east and west, and of the American continent north and 
 south. This is true if we confine our observations to 
 the higher class of elevations, and to the dry land ; 
 but if we view the matter 'philosophically, and consider 
 the submarine rid2:es and elevations as continuations of 
 
 1 
 
RELATION OF OCEAN CURRENTS TO GEOGRAPHY. 133 
 
 tlTOse above the surface of the sea, we must conclude 
 that the prevalence of ranges of mountains in any one 
 particular direction is only apparent. 
 
 The extraordinary elevation of the lands of the old 
 continent is owing to the fact that the great Indian 
 Ocean bathes the southern shores of Asia, and by its 
 
 subsidences causes the elevation of the mountain!^ in 
 
 « 
 
 an east and west direction ; whereas, in America, the 
 great Pacific Ocean, both north and south, bathes the 
 western shores for eight thousand miles, and produces 
 abrupt slopes and high mountains continuously the 
 whole distance. 
 
 It must also be remarked that Asia and Europe are 
 united at the Oural Mountains, so as to bring two 
 drained ellipses together, and make the continent con- 
 tinuous from Kamschatka west to Iceland, a distance 
 which extends nearly half round the earth, at the 
 arctic circle. This union of Asia and Europe gives an 
 appearance of great extension in an eastern and west- 
 ern direction. The fact, also, that the Indian Ocean 
 and the Mediterranean combine to elevate the land on 
 the south produces the appearances that are peculiar to 
 the eastern continent, and which have hitherto remained 
 without an explanation. 
 
 The rule appears to be, that the directions of the cur- 
 rents determine, in all cases, the directions of the 
 mountains ; and the size of the contiguous ocean, all 
 else equal, determines the size of the mountains. The 
 condition of " all else equal " must be continually borne 
 in mind, for it is not in reality the ocean itself directly 
 that produces the elevation of the mountains, but the 
 12 
 
134 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 detritus which the ocean gathers from its shores and 
 its bed, and deposits in different quantities in different 
 places, according to circumstances. In some places, as 
 in the Mediterranean, for instance, the subsidence has 
 been very great, in consequence not so much of the 
 present size of the sea, as the concentration of deposits 
 in tine great sink. 
 
 If we adopt the idea of Professor Guyot, that Italy 
 and Cape Bon together may be considered as equiva- 
 lent or analogous to the Central American isthmus, 
 then we may regard the great circle of the Alps as the 
 former shores of a basin analogous in form and position 
 to the Gulf of Mexico. The peculiar forms and curves 
 of the Alps are thus accounted for. We must not allow 
 ourselves to be misled by the great elevation of the 
 Alps compared with the shores of the Mexican Gulf, for 
 the degree of elevation has nothing to do with the form 
 of a country. 
 
 I have no doubt that Fremont's Basin was once as 
 low as the Gulf of Mexico, and performed a similar 
 function. The same may be said of the Himalayas and 
 the plateau of Tibet. They both were once basins, 
 and constituted the turning points of ancient elliptical 
 currents, and were gradually filled, abandoned, and 
 elevated by the action of the powerful oceans around 
 them. The Gulf of Mexico is going through the same 
 process ; the time will come when Florida will have 
 mountains like those of Greece, and Texas will have 
 Alps more exalted than those of Switzerland. Then 
 will the valley of the Mississippi be a desert, and the 
 plains of Kansas and Nebraska rival the frozen steppes 
 of Siberia. 
 
RELATION OP OCEAN CURRENTS TO GEOGRAPHY. 135 
 
 TTe observe, in looking at a map of the world, that 
 there are three analogous southern continents, namely, 
 Africa, South America, and Australia. It is near the 
 northern borders of these that the greatest number of 
 volcanoes are found, in the vicinity of three isthmuses, 
 — one of which is submarine, — that unite them with 
 the three northern continents, frodf which they are par- 
 tially separated by three archipelagoes. In other 
 words, there are three pairs of continents, and in each 
 pair the region which is most volcanic is that which is 
 intermediate, and is occupied by an archipelago. 
 
 Let us notice, that next to the three tropical inter- 
 continental archipelagoes, in volcanic and geonomical 
 importance, are the two arctic archipelagoes, which 
 are also inter-continental : one, the Iceland and Faroe, 
 is between Europe and America, and the other, the 
 Aleutian, between Asia and America. They occupy 
 the only situations of importance where the inter-con- 
 tinental currents turn from the arctic to go southward. 
 It must be remarked that they have their analogues in 
 the antarctic region, where Mount Terror and Mount 
 Erebus illuminate the regions of eteAal winter, and 
 where the southern ellipses turn to carry cooling 
 streams to the tropics. 
 
 The rocky ridges, which are found to run parallel 
 to most large rivers and lakes, were doubtless caused 
 by the sinking of their beds while they were ocean 
 channels. The fact pointed out by Professor H. P. 
 Rogers, that the Appalachian chain is divisible into 
 eleven groups, each of wliich is composed of a succes- 
 sion of mountains, of various dimensions, but all more 
 
136 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 nearly parallel to each other than to those of other 
 groups in the chain, is perfectly consistent with the 
 theory of their origin which I am advancing, and I 
 think that it will be found that each group or section 
 of the great Appalachian chain, however much it may 
 differ from the other groups in direction, is generally 
 parallel, or nearly s<P, with the nearest ocean shore and 
 channel. In other words, the whole chain of moun- 
 tains is generally nearly parallel with the whole coast 
 line, and each group of the chain is nearly parallel with 
 the part of the coast line nearest to it. 
 
 The Gulf of Mexico and the mountains of Central 
 America afford a good illustration of the production 
 of elevations in conformity with currents. The form 
 of the gulf is precisely such as the action of currents 
 of water would naturally create, and yet we find it sur- 
 rounded by mountains which water could not produce, 
 except by the weight of detritus- and the reaction of 
 gravitation. If we look at such a place as Cape Cod, 
 and its ba}^, which is formed entirely of sand, scooped 
 out, as it were, by water power, and then compare the 
 Gulf of Mexico »with it, we shall perceive that they 
 both appear to be formed on the same plan, and by the 
 same aqueous causes, with this difference, that after the 
 Mexican Gulf was laid out, and its shores as far 
 advanced towards completion as Cape Cod is now, 
 the subsidence of its bed raised a number of ridges 
 of rocky heights along its shores and around its basin. 
 No other conceivable force would be likely to raise 
 mountain chains in such curves as to correspond with a 
 water-made bay. 
 
RELATION OF OCEAN CURRENTS TO GEOGRAPHY. 187 
 
 We shall find, upon a correct application of geonomic 
 principles, that the form of the gulf and the direction 
 of the mountains around it in Yucatan, the isthmus, 
 Cuba, and Mexico, are the results of depressions pro- 
 duced by the detritus that has been so long pouring 
 into that great focus of the Atlantic currents. The 
 modern volcanoes that have arisen in this region will 
 probably be hereafter proved to be but a continuation 
 of a system of geonomic reactions, which commenced in 
 the beginning of terrestrial time. It will be found 
 that all the short curved or elliptical ranges of moun- 
 tains, in the interior of the continents, are now, or 
 once were, the borders of bays, lakes, or inland seas ; 
 while the long, nearly straight ranges, like the Andes, 
 were produced by the main channel, which constitutes 
 the long side of some great ellipse. 
 
 Nearly all peninsulas are formed upon one principle, 
 by the opposition of two currents, one of which is forced 
 to turn out of its course and in some degree turn back 
 and double on itself.* Accordingly, w^e find peninsulas 
 most developed where currents turn and encounter other 
 currents ; thus Alaska seems to be formed by the cur- 
 rent throuo^h Behrino^'s Strait into the Pacific, beins; 
 turned or reflected south-west towards the eastern shore 
 of Asia. Lower California appears to be formed by 
 the current from the south, being driven in shore by 
 
 * The tendency of the land to assume a peninsular form is very remark- 
 able, and it is still more so that almost all the peninsulas tend to the south 
 — circumstances that depend upon some unkno\A-n cause, which seems to 
 have acted very extensively. — Mrs. Somerville. * 
 
 " 12 * 
 
138 OUTLINES OP GEONOMY. 
 
 the current from the north, which moves along the west- 
 ern shore of the peninsula. 
 
 The peninsula of Kamschatka was formerly an island, 
 between which and the main land the waters once flowed ; 
 but now, the channel being obstructed, the water enters 
 and makes a circuit, and proceeds on towards Alaska. 
 The Japan Isles are going through the same process, 
 and are doubtless destined to become a peninsula with 
 a large gulf, through which a sub-ellipse wall circulate. 
 The Corea is formed on the same principle as Florida, 
 and the Yellow Sea is like the Gulf of Mexico. The 
 Gulf of Tonquin is still more like that of Mexico, with its 
 islands and its peninsula to represent Cuba and Florida. 
 The Gulf of Siam depends upon the same causes, and 
 when the peninsula of Malacca was an island, the re- 
 semblance to the Gulf of Mexico was perfect. 
 
 Leopold von Buch has given a chart, which has been 
 copied and approved by Sir Charles Lyell, showing the 
 tract or band visited by earthquakes and illuminated 
 by volcanoes among the Molucca and Sunda Islands, be- 
 tween Australia and Asia. And I would call especial 
 attention to its remarkable agreement with my views 
 of the causes of earthquakes. The band, according to 
 the chart, is parallel to the tract of the ocean currents, 
 as indicated by Lieutenant Maury. From Barren Isl- 
 and, in the Bay of Bengal, it passes to Sumatra, Java, 
 New Guinea, and thence to the Philippine Islands, ex- 
 actly parallel with the current which proceeds from the 
 Bay of Bengal to Behring's Strait. (See LyelFs Ge- 
 
 A similars volcanic band, or half ellipse, may be de- 
 
RELATION OF OCEAN CURRENTS TO GEOGRAPHY. 139 
 
 scribed as running parallel with the current which cir- 
 culates in the Mexican and Caribbean Archipelago, in- 
 cluding within its borders Guadaloupe, Caraccas, Nica- 
 ragua, and Mexico. 
 
 It is evident that a similar half ellipse once existed 
 in the Mediterranean region ; and one certainly does 
 now in the Aleutian group, including Alaska and 
 Mount St. Elias. Another exists in the Iceland and 
 Faroe Islands. If we draw a line from the south of 
 Greenland, which is said to be slowly sinking, to Ice- 
 land, and the Faroes, and the north of Scandinavia, 
 which is gradually rising, and thence to the south of 
 Scandinavia, which is also said to be sinking, we shall 
 trace another arc of an ellipse which is probably anal- 
 ogous to the others already described. 
 
 The volcanic band copied by Mr. Lyell is exactly in 
 the place of the southern apsis, or first segment of the 
 North-western Pacific ellipse. The Aleutian volcanic 
 band occupies the place of the other or northern apsis. 
 So, also, the two volcanic bands of Mexi(!o and Iceland 
 are in the places of the apsides of the North Atlantic 
 ellipse. 
 
 That the continents are in some places gradually 
 rising, is now generally admitted ; and the only theoret- 
 ical explanation of the fact that has been suggested, 
 within my knowledge, is, that it is owing to the con- 
 traction of certain parts of the earth, in consequence of 
 the gradual radiation of heat. I will not discuss this 
 theory, but content myself with proposing another, which 
 seems to me much more reasonable, which is, that the 
 oceanic basins are in many places quietly and imper^ 
 
140 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 ceptibly, but progressively, sinking, on account of the 
 accumulation of sediment in their beds : in consequence 
 of this depression, the lava is pushed up under the 
 neighboring continents with a force equal to the weight 
 of the sinking mass; this causes a part or the whole of 
 a continent to rise with a rapidity equal to that of the 
 accumulation of sediment. In some parts of the ocean's 
 bed, and particularly in the courses of the principal cur- 
 rents, the sediment is deposited so much more copiously 
 than in other places, that the crust of the earth becomes 
 locally fractured by the unequal weights that press upon 
 it. This causes sudden local subsidences, which usually 
 take place in lines parallel with the currents. Isolated 
 volcanoes are probably caused by extraordinary and 
 special accumulations in limited spaces, which pro- 
 duce great local depressions and corresponding ele- 
 vations.* 
 
 The attention of mankind was first attracted by sin- 
 gle^ volcanoes ; next it was observed that they generally 
 occur in lines, and that they seem to alternate in ac- 
 tion, as if they are so connected below that they arc 
 capable of mutually relieving each other. It was also 
 observed that all mountains appear to be of volcanic 
 origin. Finally, it was ascertained that extensive coun- 
 tries, and even continents, have risen, while oceans have 
 grown deeper, without any perceptible cause. 
 
 The Baron Humboldt, with very great labor, deter- 
 
 * However natural it may be that the force of running water in numer- 
 ous vallej's should be spent, it is by no means so easy to explain why the 
 violence of the earthquake and the fire of the volcano should also have be- 
 come locally extinct at successive periods, — Lyell. 
 
RELATION OF OCEAN CURRENTS TO GEOGRAPHY. 141 
 
 mined as near as practicable the height of the several 
 continents. The following are his results : — 
 
 Mean Elevation. 
 
 Europe, 671 feet. 
 
 Asia, 1151 " 
 
 North America, .... 748 " 
 South America, . . . . 1132 " 
 In order to determine how much the lands altogether 
 have risen, we must first calculate how deep the ocean 
 was when it was universal and uniform. This cannot 
 be estimated with any thing like accuracj^, until the 
 present depths of the ocean are measured in a great 
 many places. We may doubtless be safe in assuming 
 that the ocean has varied as far from a uniform depth 
 as the land has from a uniform height above the level 
 of the bottom of the primitive ocean. 
 
 If the water was once uniformly a mile in depth over 
 the whole earth, the ocean's bed may have risen a mile 
 in one place and sunk a mile in another place, without 
 raising any land above the ocean's level. Now, as the 
 lands are on an average one thousand and eight feet above 
 the level of the ocean, they must have risen that much, 
 besides rising from their ancient beds to the surface. 
 
 From this it does not follow that the depths of the 
 ocean in any one place must be greater than the eleva- 
 tion of the land in any place, for the lava which is dis- 
 placed from beneath a very large superficial area beneath 
 the ocean may have been forced up into ridges and penin- 
 sulas, which are very high and narrow ; but it does fol- 
 low that the same quantity of lava by cubic measure is 
 elevated, which is displaced by depression. 
 
142 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 If we view the great liemispberical circle of conti- 
 nents that extend from Behring's Strait south-west 
 through the tropics, and then north-west to Behring^s 
 Strait again, we shall perceive that it is divided into 
 an eastern and a western portion by the North Atlantic, 
 which runs through it like a vast river whose banks are 
 nearly parallel. We shall see that the southern points 
 of Africa and Soath America are two great capes con- 
 stituting the mouth of the Atlantic River, Africa being 
 the eastern, and South America the western cape. 
 
 The inland seas of the two continents are subordinate 
 streams to the Atlantic ; thus, in the eastern continent 
 we have the White Sea, the Baltic, and the Mediterra- 
 nean, with its dependencies. In the western we have 
 the Gulfs of Mexico and St. Lawrence, Baffin's and 
 Hudson's Bays. All these communicate with the At- 
 lantic. It is through the medium of the Atlantic that 
 the north and south polar seas communicate with each 
 other. In this view it may be regarded as a sound or 
 strait, running north and south from the arctic to the 
 antarctic. 
 
 If we make a map of the world on Mercator's pro- 
 jection, extending from Behring's Strait, west to Behr- 
 ing's again, and a little beyond, so as to include the 
 eastern coast of Asia, and present a view of the Pacific 
 as a connected whole at the west end of the map, we 
 shall be able to represent all the ellipses, and illustrate 
 many of the general principles of geonomy by its 
 means. It will be observed that on this map all the 
 principal lands in the northern hemisphere are included 
 in a semicircle which extends from Behring's Strait to 
 
RELATION OF OCEAN CURRENTS TO GEOGRAPHY. 143 
 
 the tropic of Cancer, and then west to Mexico, and 
 thence to Behring's Strait again. If we then continue 
 the line east through the north polar sea to Behring's 
 Strait once more, we shall have completed avast ellipse, 
 which includes all the lands of the northern hemisphere. 
 This grand hemispherical ellipse appears to be divided 
 into live smaller ellipses, which, being named in their 
 order from Behring's Strait west, are, 1. The Asiatic ; 
 2. The European; 3. The North Atlantic; 4. The 
 North American ; 5. The North-west American. 
 
 If we study the lands in the southern hemisphere, we 
 shall find them to be mere points projecting from the 
 southern border of the grand northern hemispherical 
 ellipse, like points or projections on the border of a 
 lady's cape which is scalloped or notched. Each of 
 these southern points, or peninsulas, is situated between 
 southern and northern ellipses, and in no instance does 
 one of them constitute an ellipse of itself ; indeed, 
 there are no drained ellipses in the southern hemi- 
 sphere, but only parts of the borders of such el- 
 lipses. 
 
 It may be noticed that the inland waters or lakes of 
 the northern continents are arranged in a semicircle, 
 or, rather, a curve, which corresponds in a remarkable 
 manner with the polar circle, and with the outline of the 
 lands of the northern hemisphere ; so much so that they 
 may be said to be nearly parallel with them. Thus, 
 commencing at Lake Baikal, in Asia, and proceeding 
 tlirough the smaller lakes to tlie Aral and Caspian, the 
 Black and the Mediterranean Seas, then across the 
 Atlantic to the Ontario, Erie, Michigan, Superior, Win- 
 
144 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 ipeg, and Slave Lakes, we shall find that we have 
 described a curve which corresponds with, and is nearly 
 parallel with, the northern and with the southern shores 
 or borders of the lands of the northern hemisphere. 
 These inland waters generally have their greatest ex- 
 tension north and south, and their shores are generally 
 curved just as the mountains are, to conform to the 
 normal directions of the currents that run between the 
 polar and tropical regions. 
 
 We shall probably be justified if we view the conti- 
 nental semicircle from Behring to Behring as marking 
 the former bounds of the ancient northern sea, of which 
 the Frozen Ocean and the North Atlantic are the rem- 
 nants. We may believe that a time existed when the 
 Asiatic, European, and North American basins were oc- 
 cupied by water and bounded by chains of islands which 
 have since been elevated to constitute the two great 
 chains of mountains that distinguish the eastern and 
 western continents. During the progress of the lands 
 to their present elevations, there must have been a 
 period when there were numerous outlets from the Arc- 
 tic Ocean to the tropics. Perhaps the southern penin- 
 sulas of Asia may be regarded as marking the places 
 of some of those outlets, just as the African and South 
 American points now mark the southern extremity of 
 the Atlantic. Perhaps we may look upon the peninsu- 
 las of Alaska, Kamschatka, Chin India, Hindostan, and 
 Arabia, as points, or headlands, from whence the an- 
 cient Asiatic sea found outlets, before the chain of 
 mountains was elevated in the eastern and southern 
 parts of Asia ; and we may regard the circle of inland 
 
RELATION OF OCEAN CURRENTS TO GEOGRAPHY. 145 
 
 seas and lakes as remnants of tlie ancient channels which 
 the ocean made in communicating with the tropics. 
 
 THE THERMAL EQUATOR. 
 
 The extreme eastern points of South America, x)f Af- 
 rica, and of Australia, are not only analogous in form, 
 but in function. Each is a dividing point, where the 
 westward equatorial currents of the two hemispheres, 
 after having run a certain distance together parallel 
 with the equator, separate, one to flow north and the 
 other south. Perhaps it would be more correct to say 
 that the three points were formed originally by the 
 separation of the currents at these places. 
 
 The question then arises, Why are not the eastern 
 points of these three southern inter-lands all arranged 
 precisely at the equator, or in one line parallel with the 
 equator ? Why is the eastern point of Australia about 
 thirty degrees south of the equator, that of Africa about 
 ten north, and of South America about six degrees south ? 
 
 The answer to this question involves an explanation 
 of the isothermal lines, and is a rather complicated 
 matter. I shall therefore only touch upon it generally. 
 It is commonly assumed that the difference in the lines 
 of equal temperature depends upon the relative posi- 
 tions and heights of land and sea ; but if the lands were 
 put into their present places by the action of the water, 
 how has it happened that they are placed so differently 
 with reference to the equator ? In other words, why 
 did not the creative currents operate in the same line, 
 instead of producing two of the eastern points, Africa^ 
 13 
 
146 OUTLINES OP GEONOMY. 
 
 and Australia, thirty-five degrees apart, and the third, 
 South America, intermediate ? Does not the answer to 
 this question involve another still more curious, namely, 
 which of the three southern continents were elevated 
 first ? which second, and third ? 
 
 Let. us assume that a portion of Asia and Africa 
 were the first lands to rise above the surface of the sea. 
 "What effect would their elevation have upon the ther- 
 mal equilibrium of the earth ? There is no doubt that 
 it would be to increase the warmth of the northern hemi- 
 sphere at the expense of the southern ; and the conse- 
 quence would be, that an efi'ort (so to speak) would be 
 made by the air and water to restore the thermal bal- 
 ance. To accomplish this, the winds and currents would 
 swerve over the mid-line into the colder southern hem- 
 isphere, and meet the currents from the antarctic about 
 six degrees south of the equator. At the location of 
 Cape St. Roque, the two currents would again part, and 
 return, each to its own proper hemisphere, one along 
 the eastern coast of South America, and the other to 
 the Gulf of Mexico, and then along the eastern coast 
 of North America. 
 
 Having thus briefly accounted for the position of 
 the eastern point of South America south of the equa- 
 tor, we must further inquire how the eastern point of 
 Australia came to be still farther south. 
 
 Let us assume — what will probably not be ques- 
 tioned by any geologist — that all the other continents 
 were elevated before Australia was : the thermal equi- 
 librium was then farther from a balance than ever, and 
 the winds and waters were necessarily driven still farther 
 
RELATION OF OCEAN CURRENTS TO GEOGRAPHY. 147 
 
 to the south, to disburse the excess of heat which north- 
 ern lands radiated from their extensive surfaces. Under 
 these circumstances, the currents of wind and water 
 from the north would be likely to run, and doubtless 
 did run, over into the southern hemisphere, as far as the 
 thirtieth degree of latitude, before they were antago- 
 nized and arrested by the cold antarctic waters, so as 
 to be brought into a state of equilibrium. At the 
 point where these waters again parted, the most eastern 
 mountains of Australia were formed. 
 
 The current which flows to the south from the eastern 
 point of Australia probably enters the Antarctic Sea 
 near Victoria Land, and returns to the equator through 
 the South Pacific. The current that flows to the north 
 of the eastern point of Australia is better known, for it 
 has made a deep impression upon the ocean's bed, and 
 raised a series of mural monuments to indicate its path 
 — the north-eastern shore of Australia, the islands of 
 Java and Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes, and New Guinea, 
 the peninsulas of India, Siam, and Malacca, — these are 
 the offspring of this mighty current, and their moun- 
 tains are parallel to its course. 
 
 This hypothesis has the merit of accounting for the 
 gradually increasing advance to the south of the eastern 
 and southern points of land, successively, from India to 
 Africa, South America, and Australia. 
 
 THERMAL TROPICS. 
 
 If there are three eastern points where the equatorial 
 currents originally divided and separated into two 
 
148 OUTLINES OP GEONOMY. 
 
 branches, one of which moved towards the north-west, 
 and the other towards the south-west, the question is, 
 Are there two corresponding points in the two hemi- 
 spheres where the two currents turned from the north 
 and south-west, and moved towards the north and south- 
 east ? Looking at the eastern coast of the Americas, 
 the forms of the land give a ready answer ; for Cape 
 Horn and Yucatan are evidently the two turning points, 
 nearly equidistant from the Cape St. Roque. The east- 
 ern coast of North America shows plainly the direction 
 to the north-east taken by the current from the Gulf of 
 Mexico ; and we are safe in assuming that an analogous 
 current flows south-east from Cape Horn, the effects of 
 which will yet be learned by deep sea soundings, which 
 I hope Lieutenant Maury will be authorized to make. 
 From the most eastern point of Africa we see plainly 
 marked the track of the two currents, one to the south- 
 west, through the Mozambique Channel, between Mada- 
 gascar and Africa, and the other through the Red Sea 
 to the north-west. An interesting question now is. 
 Where are the corresponding points where these two 
 currents turn to move eastwardly? There is a noted 
 Submarine plateau south of Madagascar, called the La- 
 gullas bank, which rises suddenly above the bed of the 
 ocean several thousand feet, and I have no doubt that 
 this will prove to be the turning point which marks the 
 path to the south-east taken by this southern branch of 
 the African current. The northern branch moves 
 along the Red Sea to the Isthmus of Suez : no one 
 doubts that it once flowed through the Mediterranean ; 
 but where was its turning point to the north-m^^ ? 
 
RELATION OF OCEAN CURRENTS TO GEOGRAPHY. 149 
 
 The answer is found, in the Black Sea, the Caspian, and 
 the Oural Mountains. On the Asiatic coast the Bay of 
 Bengal is the turning point, but the Tasmanian region 
 is unexplored. 
 
 OF THE MAGNETIC NEEDLE. 
 
 The magnetic needle, instead of always pointing north 
 and south, varies to the east or to the west. It does so 
 much more in some places than in others, and in differ- 
 ent degrees in the same place at different times. The 
 causes or law of this variation are unknown. Captain 
 Sabine noticed that the compass needle varies in a 
 manner which indicates a tendency to conform to the 
 directions of the mountain ranges. 
 
 I have lately been struck with the correspondence 
 between the curves of magnetic variation as indicated 
 on the map of the world, and the elliptical curves of 
 the ocean currents when marked on the same map. 
 The correspondence is so remarkable, that there must 
 be some connection between the phenomena. Is it 
 because the submarine mountains agree in their direc- 
 tion with the currents, and also because the needle is 
 influenced by the largest and nearest masses of land ? 
 or is it owing to the thermal influences of both moun- 
 tains and currents upon the magnetic forces? The 
 latter seems to me the more probable. 
 
 I have now before me " A Chart of the Magnetic 
 Curves of equal Variation," by Peter Barlow, Esq., 
 London, in which the curves on the west of Africa and 
 Europe are identical with the curves of the ocean cur- 
 rents in the same places ; one set of lines proceeding 
 13^ 
 
150 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 from the arctic and another from the antarctic, and 
 the two meeting at the Canary Islands, and crossing 
 the Atlantic together to the American coast. In the 
 South Pacific the magnetic curves are represented as 
 forming an ellipse, which embraces the whole ocean 
 in a manner identical with that in which I have, in 
 the diagram map, represented the ocean currents as 
 running. 
 
 So, also, in the region between Australia and Asia, 
 the magnetic curves are identical with the curves of 
 the currents as marked on the diagram map. The same 
 is true concerning the curves parallel with the eastern 
 coasts of Asia and of Australia. 
 
 Again, two magnetic ellipses impinge upon each 
 other near the Sandwich. Islands ; the principal part 
 of one ellipse being in the South, and of the other in 
 the North Pacific ; just as are the two elliptic currents 
 of water in the same places, as represented in the dia- 
 gram map. The hypothesis which I would propose to 
 account for the variations of the magnetic needle is the 
 following : — 
 
 The rotation of the earth causes a current of thermo- 
 electricity to move with the sun around the earth con- 
 tinually. Any magnet, like the compass needle, always 
 assumes a position at right angles to a current of elec- 
 tricity. This theory is generally adopted, and it ex- 
 plains the pointing of the needle north and south. To 
 this I would add that the inequalities of the ocean and 
 the land cause vaiiations of the thermo-electric current, 
 and of course produce corresponding variations of the 
 compass. On the land the variations correspond with 
 
RELATION OF OCEAN CURRENTS TO GEOGRAPHY. 151 
 
 the mountains and large masses of cold lands. On the 
 water they correspond with the great currents, and 
 they are parallel with the submarine mountains. 
 
 According to this theory, if the crust of the earth 
 was uniform and level in all its parts, there would be 
 no variation of the magnetic needle, and if the inequali- 
 ties of the earth were all well understood, — the sub- 
 marine mountains and valleys, the currents of all the 
 oceans, and the elevations of all the lands, — the varia- 
 tions of the needle would be found to correspond with 
 them, and could therefore be reduced to known laws 
 and practical rules. 
 
 If I am not greatly mistaken, important practical 
 results may be obtained by following up this observa- 
 tion of the relation which unquestionably exists between 
 the currents, the mountains, and the needle. It is pos- 
 sible that not only the causes of the magnetic variations 
 may be demonstrated, but the compass needle may be 
 used as an indicator of the directions or forces of the 
 currents in places where they flow unseen. It may also, 
 perhaps, become an index of the degree of variation of 
 tbe crust of the earth from uniformity of thickness or 
 of temperature. 
 
 Note. Dip of the Needle. — Some experiments witk eoils of wire, which 
 I have tried within a few days in illustration of theoretical views, have in- 
 duced me to regard the dip of the magnetic needle as but a modified man- 
 ifestation of the same principle as that which causes it to point north and 
 south, namely, a tendency to balance itself at right angles to the predom- 
 inant current of magnetic force. Magnetic poles appear to be centres or 
 axes of thermo-electric circles. The thermal inequalities near the surface 
 of the earth seem to give a tendency to increase the number of magnetic 
 circles, axes, and poles. 
 
152 . OUTLINES OP GEQNOMY, 
 
 SECTION YIII. 
 
 1 
 
 RELATION OF THE EARTH'S CRUST TO THE LIQUID OCEAN" 
 OF METAL BELOW, AND THE WATERY OCEAN AND THE 
 ATMOSPHERE ABOVE. 
 
 The earth is surrounded by an atmosphere which 
 modifies and refracts the rays of light. It also pos- 
 sesses oceans of water that refract the rays still more 
 in their passage to its depths. But astronomers have 
 concluded that the moon is nearly or quite destitute 
 of an atmosphere, from the fact that light seems to 
 be refracted but little, if any, when reflected from its 
 surface. The telescope demonstrates that the moon has 
 no large bodies of water ; yet the existence of moun- 
 tains in the moon is placed beyond all question, and 
 : their forms, sizes, and relatiye positions are determined 
 with approximate accuracy. Observations made upon 
 Yenus and Mars prove that they have atmospheres, 
 mountains, and snov/-clad polar regions, and of course 
 oceans of water, as the earth has. The moon, there- 
 fore, appears at first sight to be an exception and ao 
 anomaly.* 
 
 * " Not a drop of water, or of any fluid akin to it, is now in the moon. 
 Besides, there are no clonds ; and as the moon has a small atmosphere, 
 this alone is decisive ; for othenvise vapors would float there, and the purity 
 of the disk appear variable. The question whether water has been there, — 
 whether in the history of that globe, in the course of its growth and revo- 
 lutions, the epoch of water, or of fluidity in general, has not come or is 
 passed, — is of more difficult solution." — Pkof. Nichols, 0?i the Solar 
 System. 
 
RELATION OF THE CONSTITUENTS OP THE GLOBE. 158 
 
 It is utterly improbable, a priori, that the moon is 
 governed by different laws from those which regulate 
 the constitutions of other planets ; we are therefore led 
 to inquire whether there is not a process going on in 
 this earth which is gradually tending to the final de- 
 struction of its ocean and atmosphere, though it may 
 leave its mountains higher and its valleys deeper than 
 they are now, thus reducing it to the same condition as 
 the moon. 
 
 The elementary or ultimate substances which compose 
 the earth are divisible into metallic, non-metallic earths, 
 and gases, numbering all together about sixty ; of these 
 nearly fifty are considered metallic, eight are conjectured 
 to be non-metallic earths, and four gaseous. Before the 
 time of Sir Humphry Davy, many of the substances 
 which are now known to be metals were considered as 
 non-metallic earths ; but he proved experimentally that 
 they are metals combined with oxygen. It has been 
 demonstrated that a large proportion of the solid crust 
 of the earth is oxygen combined with substances most 
 of which have a metallic basis. This oxygen must have 
 been originally derived from the atmosphere, for in the 
 beginning there could have been none any where else. 
 There is no avoiding the conclusion that the atmosphere 
 has been continually yielding its contents to the solid 
 earth. 
 
 The original crust of the earth must have been com- 
 posed of those metals and earths which have the least 
 specific gravity, combined with oxygen. The principal 
 of these are calcium, potassium, silicium, or silicon, sodi- 
 um, aluminum, and magnesium. These substances must 
 
154 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 at one time have floated upon the liquid surface of the 
 earth, and were thus exposed to form combinations with 
 ^oxygen, sulphur, phosphorus, carbon, iodine, and other 
 volatile substances. Upon the crus't thus formed the prim- 
 itive ocean fell from the atmosphere. Then commenced 
 that series of geological operations which produced the 
 present condition of the earth, the sea, and the air — 
 operations which are still progressing in the same direc- 
 tion, under the influence of the same laws, though the 
 combinations and circumstances are continually becom- 
 ing more and more complicated. The metallic earth 
 and the liquid ocean and atmosphere have been unceas- 
 ingly acting and reacting upon each other ; but in this 
 contest the atmosphere has been continually losing sub- 
 stance. The earth had originally nothing to gave ta 
 the atmosphere but metals, and these the atmosphere 
 could not retain ; but the atmosphere possessed an 
 immense quantity of vaporous and gaseous substance^ 
 which the gradually increasing coldness forced it to 
 impart to the earth. 
 
 The oxides of metals, which formed upon the surface 
 of the new earth, being non-conductors of heat, con- 
 fined most of it within the sphere oT the earth itself, 
 and thus enabled the vapors of water to condense and 
 fall upon the oxidated surface, and form an unbounded 
 and shoreless ocean. The heavier metals of course 
 sunk below the first formed crust, though some of them 
 were thrown up by eruptions afterwards. On the other 
 hand, the lighter metals united with the oxygen to form 
 the top of the crust, and were, therefore, first exposed 
 to the attrition of the waters. This being the case, it 
 
RELATION OP THE CONSTITUENTS OF THE GLOBE. 155 
 
 would naturally follow, that the first stratified deposits 
 would be composed of ingredients worn from the prim- 
 itive crust, and constituted of the oxides of the lightest 
 metals. 
 
 In accordance with this reasoning, we actually find 
 potassium, sodium, aluminum, calcium, and silicium, the 
 lightest known metals and metalloids, performing the 
 principal part in forming the first stratified' rocks that 
 were deposited from the primitive ocean. Sodium, the 
 lightest known metal, united with oxygen and chlorine to 
 form common salt, wliich was dissolved in the ocean 
 waters. Potassium, the next lightest of the metals, 
 united with oxygen to form potash, which is an essential 
 constituent of granite — and granite is the material of 
 which the original crust was mostly formed. Silicium, or 
 silicon, a metalloid which belongs to the lightest class, 
 is the principal constituent of mica and quartz. Alumi- 
 num, one of the same class of light metals, is the main 
 ingredient of clay. Calcium, another very light metal, 
 constitutes the essential part of lime. 
 
 It has been a question how the rocks originated 
 which are composed of the carbonate of lime. I have 
 suggested already, in another place, that cold water 
 will hold more lime in solution than warm will. I be- 
 lieve, however, that water will not hold tlie carbonate 
 of lime in solution, — except, perhaps, in small quanti- 
 ties, when the water contains an excess of carbonic 
 acid. Another explanation of the phenomenon has oc- 
 curred to me, which is, that, when the ancient waters 
 held a large quantity of lime in solution, and the atmos- 
 phere was also heavily charged with carbonic acid, the 
 
156 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 carbonic acid of the atmosphere would be absorbed by 
 the water aiid unite with the lime, forming the insoluble 
 carbonate of lime, which would of course be precipi- 
 tated and constitute the limestones. 
 
 From this brief statement it appears that granite was 
 formed by the cooling of melted lava ; gneiss, sandstones, 
 and clay, by the wearing away and rearranging of gran- 
 ite by water ; and limestones and some others were de- 
 posited from solution in water. 
 
 Iron unites with oxygen to form an oxide whicli gives 
 its peculiar color to all the rocks through which it is 
 diffused ; but we do not find this red color characterizing 
 the earliest deposits from the ocean. Iron was, un- 
 doubtedly, thrown up as a consequence of the pressure 
 produced by the primary stratified rocks. The forma- 
 tion called the old red sandstone was produced by the 
 attrition of the sediment and the water upon the. iron 
 which had been thrown up from below the crust after 
 the deposition of the primary strata of gneiss and the 
 lower slates. 
 
 If the volcanic forces merely threw up the primitive 
 crust of the earth and exposed it again and again to 
 the action of the atmosphere and the water, there would 
 be a limit to the absorbing power of the crust, and we 
 might be allowed to indulge a hope that a mathematical 
 calculation would demonstrate the impossibility of the 
 whole ocean and atmosphere being ultimately absorbed ; 
 but when we know that the vast stores of metal below 
 the crust are thirsting to drink up our ocean and atmos- 
 phere, digest all the gases, and assimilate them to earth, 
 we must abandon such a hope, and look at the actual 
 
RELATION OF THE CONSTITUENTS OF THE GLOBE. 157 
 
 facts. " One half at least of the ponderable matter near 
 the earth's surface is oxygen," which was once in the at- 
 mosphere ; the granite and slate rocks are saturated 
 with oxygen, and so is the iron which succeeded the 
 earlier slates ; the limestones, also, are composed prin- 
 cipally of calcium, magnesium, carbon, and oxygen. 
 When vegetation commenced on the earth, and the coal 
 was formed, it drank millions of millions of tons of vapor, 
 carbon, and oxygen from the atmosphere, and deposited 
 it in the form of coal beds. Above this again rose new 
 red sandstone, and chalk, and a great variety of minor 
 rocks ; but all robbed the atmosphere and the water to 
 obtain ingredients with which to constitute themselves. 
 At the present time, the atmosphere weighs nearly 
 fifteen pounds to the square inch ; but it must once have 
 been man}^ times heavier, and it must now be continually 
 growing lighter ; for volcanoes are incessantly pouring 
 forth lavas, and forcing up metals, which have a strong 
 affinity for oxygen ; vegetables are continually absorb- 
 ing vast quantities of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen ; 
 and animals, without conceivable number, are appropri- 
 ating oxygen to produce their motions and sustain life. 
 The gradually decreasing size of the products of vege- 
 tation in the known parts of the earth, since the car- 
 boniferous period, is evidence that its capabilities are 
 not what they once were, and philosophy shows us no 
 limit to this decrease until the present condition of the 
 moon shall be reached by the earth, and ocean, air, and 
 organic life shall all be compounded with the metals. 
 The length of time that must transpire before these ex- 
 treme results are produced will be vast, no doubt ; but, 
 14 
 
158 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 logically or geologically, that makes no final difi"erence. 
 If it appears that the earth is continually absorbing 
 more of the atmosphere than it restores, the time will 
 come when there will be none left, and the analogy of 
 the earth to the moon will be complete. If by any 
 means all the metallic contents of the interior of the 
 earth could be brought, in a subdivided state, into con- 
 tact with the atmosphere and the ocean for only a single 
 moment, the latter would both be entirely absorbed and 
 amalgamated with the earth. 
 
 It is v/orthy of especial remark that the absence of 
 red oxides from the very earliest deposits, and their 
 abundance afterwards, not only proves that iron and 
 the heavier metals had not yet been thrown to the sur- 
 face in an}^ great quantities, and that the lighter metals 
 preceded them in composing the earth's crust, but it 
 proves also that there could not have been any powerful 
 volcanoes before the primary .strata were deposited 
 from the ocean ; for, if there had been, iron would have 
 been thrown up by them, and would have tinged the 
 granite and gneiss, as it afterwards did the sandstone 
 formations, below and above the coal measures. Before 
 there were any mountains there could not have been 
 much iron on the earth's surface, and the composition of 
 the earliest rocks shows, in fact, that there w^as but little ; 
 but after the first convulsions and eruptions, we find iron 
 and other metals increasing in quantity continually. 
 
 If circumstances were now to put the earth into a 
 place where its whole surface would be melted, gravita- 
 tion would at once restore all the substances on its sur- 
 face to their original positions, as they were before the 
 
RELATION OP THE CONSTITUENTS OF THE GLOBE. 159 
 
 first strata were formed. The surface of the melted 
 earth would be covered with the elements of the early 
 rocks ; granite, gneiss, and sandstone would be formed 
 upon the surface again, but iron, tin, lead, copper, and 
 other heavy metals would be below the surface, and 
 would remain there until pressure from above produced 
 an eruption, which would force them up in veins. If, 
 before such an eruption, the new granite were worn and 
 brojien up by the water, it would cause a deposit of 
 strata composed only of the same chemical elements as 
 those which constituted the granite, combined, perhaps, 
 with some other substances, absorbed from the water ; 
 but there would be no iron. Now, let an eruption en- 
 sue, and on the top of that primitive stratum there 
 would be poured a mass of iron, the most abundant of 
 the heavy metals, and one of the lightest of those which 
 are beneath the granite crust, being, at the same time, 
 remarkable for the deep color of its oxides. During 
 the formation of the strata that followed the eruption 
 of the iron, the oxide would be mingling its red and 
 yellow dyes with the sand and marl which constituted 
 the layers of strata. The iron below the crust is like the 
 blood beneath the skin ; it never appears in large quan- 
 tities, except in consequence of a wound of considerable 
 depth. 
 
 It follows, from the foregoing, that metals should be 
 most abundantly emitted in those places where disloca- 
 tions of the earth's crust have been produced the most 
 suddenly and the most deeply, and I believe that the ap- 
 pearances presented by mining regions agree with this 
 idea. It must necessarily happen that, in some cases an 
 
160 OUTLINES OP GEONOMY. 
 
 immense load of detritus will collect upon a portion of 
 the crust of the earth before it yields in any degree to 
 its weight ; but when it does give way, it produces a 
 sudden downward movement on one side of the fissure, 
 which is instantly followed by a corresponding reaction 
 upward of the metallic fluid from below to the other side. 
 This being so, it must be easy to determine on which 
 side of the fissure the subsidence took place, and in what 
 direction the metals may be found. A gradual pressure 
 would be likely to crowd up only the melted lava which 
 floats upon the surface ; but a sudden, deep, and power- 
 ful fall of the ocean's bed might, by its reaction, throw 
 up the heavier metals, which are below the lava. 
 
 In mines it is a general fact that the metallic veins run 
 at right angles to the mountain range, or main axis of 
 elevation ; the reason of this has always been a mystery. 
 Is not the explanation to be found in the fact that the 
 lava and its metallic accompaniments are forced and 
 powerfully pressed between the opposite sides of the 
 mountain, and thus driven, in a melted state, into the 
 crevices that run at right angles to the mountain ? * 
 
 * As, after the deposit of the slates, violent dislocations happened and 
 were succeeded by the old red conglomerate, so, after the deposit of the 
 coal, similar and equally extensive interruptions of the planes and courses 
 of strata were followed by the analogous deposit of lower red (?ie2^ rea) 
 sandstone. — Philips. 
 
COMPARATIVE GEONOMY. 161 
 
 SECTION IX. 
 
 COMPARATIVE GEONOMY. ANALOGY OF THE EARTH TO 
 MARS, VENUS, AND THE MOON. 
 
 In order more perfectly to conceive of the operation 
 of geonomic principles, let us suppose that one of the 
 planets, otherwise like this, had no equinoctial precession, 
 nor change of seasons, the terrestrial equator, the ther- 
 mal equator, and the ecliptic being identical. In such 
 a planet, the northern and southern currents, and conse- 
 quently the continents, would be nearly symmetrical. 
 The forms of the continents and the directions of the 
 ocean currents, the mountains, and the rivers, could all 
 be predicted before the creation of such a world. Its 
 condition at any given time being known, its future 
 changes and its progress could be calculated with cer- 
 tainty. The positions of its latest volcanoes and the 
 direction of its earthquakes being ascertained, it could 
 be determined when and where the outbreak of a new 
 volcano might be expected. Even in regard to our own 
 planet, singular and presumptuous as it may seem, I am 
 fully convinced that we now have the clew to the chain 
 of facts and reasonings by which we shall be able to 
 point with phifef^phical confidence to the course of 
 future earthquakes and volcanoes, though with much less 
 certainty than we could in the case we are supposing. 
 In our hypothetical planet, the currents would tend to 
 produce a series of continents which would be of an 
 U* 
 
162 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 oval or elliptical form, with their long diameters to the 
 north-east and south-west on the north side of the planet, 
 and to the north-west and south-east on tbe south side. 
 Tlie mountains, rivers, slopes, the volcanoes, earthquakes, 
 and even the clouds and the weather, would be nearly 
 alike in each one of these continents ; and all terres- 
 trial phenomena wouM present one continuous round of 
 tedious repetitions. 
 
 Let us now imagine another planet, so situated, if 
 possible, that its ecliptic is constantly in the plane of 
 the tropic of Cancer, or several degrees north of it. Of 
 course we should have continual summer in the north and 
 winter in the south ; the currents would alternately flow 
 from the north pole to about the thirtieth degree of south 
 latitude and back again ; the continents would all be 
 formed in the northern hemisphere ; for^here would be 
 no currents to form any in the south ; nor would there 
 be a mountain, a volcano, nor an earthquake in that for- 
 saken hemisphere south of Capricorn. If any did exist, 
 they w^ould be placed, like Hecla and Erebus, as if to 
 mark the proper bounds of the ocean currents in that 
 direction. 
 
 Again, let us suppose, what is probably true of Yenus, 
 that the axis of the earth, at its creation, was inclined 
 seventy-five degrees, so that the tropical lines would be 
 much farther apart, and very near the poles ; of course, 
 in that case, the currents from the north would extend 
 farther over into the southern hemisphere than they do 
 now ; and the southern currents would reciprocate, by 
 alternately extending almost to the north pole, and then, 
 in the southern winter, being confined to the polar regions 
 
GOMPABATIVE GEONOMY. 1^ 
 
 of the southern hemisphere. The consequence would be, 
 that the mountains would be much higher in the tropics 
 than they are now. The poles would each, alternately, 
 at lone season, be deeply covered with ice and snow, and 
 broken up by frost, and then, at another season, over- 
 whelmed with a flood of warm water and solar heat. 
 The regions of the equator would be loaded with detri- 
 tus from each pole in turn, and mountain ranges would 
 consequently assume forms and directions, and rise to 
 heights, now unknown on this earth. 
 
 Illustrations like these lead us to regard our oceans, 
 mountains, and shore lines with new interest, as me- 
 morials of changes produced by regular and universal 
 laws. The inequalities which form such an important 
 feature in the face of mother earth may hereafter be 
 considered, without fancy, as so many wrinkles which 
 Time is continually deepening and extending to mark 
 his inexorable progress towards the ultimate decay of 
 terrestrial nature.* 
 
 If the mountains and valleys of the earth are formed 
 by the movements of the liquids upon its surface, the 
 same must be true of the moon and those planets the 
 mountains of which can be seen by the telescope. As 
 far as I have been able to examine the subject, the tel- 
 
 * " Amid these singular varieties one fact or feature seems so uniform, or, 
 at least, so general, that the idea of its being a catholic or cosraical feature 
 can hardlj' be evaded ; I mean the presence of an upheaving cause, that 
 grand energy which has elevated our ranges of mountains. In the moon, 
 especially in Mercury, Mars, and Venus, elevations of imposing magnitude 
 unquestionably exist. 
 
 " Assuredly enough is already known to demand the extension of our views 
 regarding this wide-spread energy." — Nichols, On the Solar Sy stent. 
 
164 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 
 
 escope appears to confirm the doctrines here advocated. 
 One view of Mars, as depicted by Sir John Her'scheL 
 exhibits the outline of a continent which bears a strik- 
 ing resemblance to the western outline of Africa tnd 
 Europe ; that is to say, the land is pointed westward 
 in the tropics, and recedes eastwardly towards both 
 poles. This is the more strikingly analogous, from the 
 fact that the inclination of the axis of Mars is nearly 
 the same as that of the earth, being about twenty-eight 
 degrees, that of the earth being twenty-three and a 
 half degrees. 
 
 The mountains and valleys of the moon appear to be 
 formed on an entirely- different plan from these of the 
 earth. They are numerous, short, circular, rugged, and 
 precipitous. If I am correct in the reasoning by which 
 I have concluded that the waters and atmosphere of the 
 moon have been gradually absorbed by its metallic sub- 
 stances, and that the earth is undergoing the same 
 process, the hypothesis agrees with the telescopic ap- 
 pearances of the moon's surface. Suppose that the 
 earth had not possessed more than one eighth as much 
 water and atmosphere as originally it did. Instead of 
 having a few e:^tensive oceans, bounded by long ranges 
 of mountains, as we now have, we should have had a 
 large number of separated lakes, like the Caspian, the 
 Aral, and the Superior. These would have received all 
 the detritus ; and, while the crust of the earth was 
 young and yielding, the bottoms of the lakes would 
 have subsided, and carried down with them the rem- 
 nants of the water and the atmosphere ; and when they 
 finally all dried up, they would have presented an ap- 
 
COMPARATIVE GEONOMY. 165 
 
 pearance not very different from that now exliibited by 
 the valleys and mountains of the moon. Even the 
 islands in the lakes would be left standing in their 
 midst, as they appear now to stand in the deep circular 
 valleys of the moon. From this it appears that the ab- 
 sence of a perfect atmosphere and ocean from the moon, 
 while, at the same time, it possesses mountains, instead 
 of being an evidence of the insufficiency of the geonom- 
 ic theory, is but an additional argument in its favor. 
 
 It should be considered as another reason for the 
 peculiarities of the moon's surface, especially the short- 
 ness of her mountain ranges, that the inclination of her 
 axis is but about five degrees, and that she is a whole 
 month revolving upon her axis ; the consequence is, 
 that her poles must be intensely cold at all times ; and 
 her tropics alternately hot one month and cold the 
 next. Besides, the face of the moon, which is towards 
 us, never turns away, since she is just as long in revolv- 
 ing upon her axis as she is in going around the earth. 
 The tidal influence of the earth upon the moon is com- 
 puted to be more than twenty times greater than that 
 of the moon upon the earth ; and this must have a 
 peculiar effect upon that surface which is turned to- 
 wards the earth. It is a complicated question what 
 must have been the effect of the earth's attraction upon 
 the waters of the moon when they did exist and were 
 engaged in producing the mountains which remain to 
 attest the former existence and power of those lunar 
 oceans which have now ceased to circulate. 
 
 On the whole, the appearances af the moon's valleys 
 and mountains are not more peculiar, abnormal, and at 
 
166 OUTLINES OP GEONOMY. 
 
 variance with those of the earth, than are the circum- 
 stances and conditions in which she is known to be 
 placed. Besides these known conditions, it is reason- 
 able to imagine that there are others which we cannot 
 know, and may only conjecture. It is possible, for in- 
 stance, that the surface of the moon may be covered, in 
 part, by one or more fluids, entirely different from 
 water, and more analogous to mercury, which could 
 produce all the effects of an ocean, so far as the eleva- 
 tion of volcanic mountains is concerned, without ne- 
 cessarily being accompanied by any atmosphere like 
 ours ; but, while such conjectures may be indulged in 
 as mere philosophical amusements, we have no 'proper 
 mode of reasoning upon the subject except that afforded 
 by terrestrial analogies. 
 
 If I am not mistaken, the outlines of the forms seen 
 on the moon's surface are such as to indicate that the 
 forces which produced them must have moved more 
 nearly north and south than otherwise ; for few of them 
 have their long diameters east and west. This appears 
 to be in accordance with the fact that the motion of 
 the moon upon its axis, from west to east, is exceed- 
 ingly slow, and but little calculated to communicate 
 motions in that direction to the fluids on its surface ; 
 but the great difference in temperature between the 
 poles and the equator is such as to promote a circula- 
 tion in a northern and southern direction. 
 
CONCLUSION. 167 
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 That the general reader may not suppose that this 
 treatise is a mere theoretical speculation or hypothesis, 
 originating in the fancy of the author, instead of con- 
 sisting of deductions drawn from newly-discovered 
 facts, I subjoin a statement of some of the facts which 
 are independent of all theory, and which are now for 
 the first time announced to the public. 
 
 1. It is a fact that all ocean currents, as far as we 
 know, run in irregular ellipses, and that a natural law 
 has always required them to do so. 
 
 2. That all large ocean currents run on the western 
 coasts when proceeding towards the equator, and on 
 the eastern coasts when returning towards either of the 
 poles. 
 
 3. That the ocean currents run alternately towards 
 the equator on the western sides of continents, and then 
 from it on the eastern sides, as follows : towards the 
 equator on the west of Europe and Africa, then from it 
 on the east of the two Americas, then towards it on 
 the west of the two Americas, and from it on the east 
 of Asia and Australia, next towards it on the west of 
 Australia, and from it on the east of Africa. 
 
 4. That all the mountain/ ranges which run east and 
 west, are found in parts of the earth where ocean cur- 
 rents always run east and west, that is, near the tropics 
 or near the arctic seas. 
 
 5. That all the mountain ranges in any part of the 
 
168 OUTLINES OP GEONOMY. 
 
 earth, that run north and south, are in situations — 
 that is, generally in places between the tropics and the 
 arctic — where the ocean currents, if they run (or ever 
 did run) there, must pursue nearly a north and south 
 direction. 
 
 6. That the sizes, and directions, and forms of moun- 
 tain curves and ranges in all parts of the world, are 
 precisely what they would be if they were caused by 
 the ocean currents that did once, or do now, run in the 
 vicinity. 
 
 7. That the western sides of mountains generally bear 
 evidence that the ocean currents once ran from the pole 
 against them, and the eastern sides show that they 
 have been washed by currents from the tropics. 
 
 8. That the abrupt slopes of mountains are towards 
 the larger ocean. 
 
 9. That the principal ranges of mountains are nearly 
 parallel with the paths of the ocean currents. 
 
 10. That instead of the ocean being shallower in 
 those places where the most sediment is deposited, it is 
 frequently deepest in those very places ; yet the bottom 
 of the ocean is not in the least abraded by the currents. 
 
 Besides the above newly-discovered facts, which go to 
 sustain the geonomic theory, I believe that all other 
 known facts accord with it. 
 
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