The polar and tropical worlds : a description of man and nature in the polar and equatorial regions of the globe . 31 elled by our earth before. We come from the unknown, and phiiige into theunknown ; but so much is certain, that our solar system rolls at present througha space but tl)inly peopled with stars, and there is no reason to doubt that itmay once have wandered through one of those celestial provinces where, asthe telescope shows us, constellations are far more densely clustered. But,as every star is a blazing sun, the greater or lesser number of these heavenlybodies must evidently ha
The polar and tropical worlds : a description of man and nature in the polar and equatorial regions of the globe . 31 elled by our earth before. We come from the unknown, and phiiige into theunknown ; but so much is certain, that our solar system rolls at present througha space but tl)inly peopled with stars, and there is no reason to doubt that itmay once have wandered through one of those celestial provinces where, asthe telescope shows us, constellations are far more densely clustered. But,as every star is a blazing sun, the greater or lesser number of these heavenlybodies must evidently have a proportionate influence upon the temperature ofspace; and thus we may suppose that during the miocene period our earth,beino- at that time in a populous sidereal region, enjoyed the benefit of ahiher temperature, which clothed even its poles with verdure. In the courseof ao-es the sun conducted his herd of jjlanets into more solitary and colderregions, which caused the warm miocene times to be followed by the glacialperiod, during which the Swiss flat lands bore an Arctic character^ and finally. AURORA SEEN IN NORWAY. the sun emerged into a space of an intermediate character, wliich determinesthe present condition of the climates of our globe. Though Xature generally weais a more stern and forbidding aspect on ad-vancing toward the pole, yet the high latitudes have many beauties of their 83 THE POLAR WORLD.
Size: 1578px × 1582px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, books, booksubjectnaturalhistory
