[Frost and fire : natural engines, tool-marks and chips : with sketches taken at home and abroad by a traveller] . noAvn howsimilar forms are produced in this world. So it is fair toconclude that these lunar shapes, these O craters, also re-sulted from a combined action of heat, cold, and weight,which did their work, and have now ceased to work on thatsurface, though still active here. Visible forms then, whether accessible or not, mean previous inoyements, forces which caused them, and a tem-perature sufficient to make the movements possible iii thematerial moved; and similar natural forms, w
[Frost and fire : natural engines, tool-marks and chips : with sketches taken at home and abroad by a traveller] . noAvn howsimilar forms are produced in this world. So it is fair toconclude that these lunar shapes, these O craters, also re-sulted from a combined action of heat, cold, and weight,which did their work, and have now ceased to work on thatsurface, though still active here. Visible forms then, whether accessible or not, mean previous inoyements, forces which caused them, and a tem-perature sufficient to make the movements possible iii thematerial moved; and similar natural forms, wherever theymay be, probably indicate similar action and agents, move-ments and forces. A delta is a water-mark ; a romid crater a fire-mark ; andevery force which acts on a surface makes a tool-mark whichmay be learned. Each mark is like a letter. It has a form and a meaning,but only for those who learn to read. To learn the character, the language, and the meaning ofinscriptions sculptiued on the worid by fire and frost is worthsome trouble. The geological alphabet—the first lesson to belearned is— An Eamterx Symbol. CHAPTER V. ATMOSPHERIC FORMS. If ever there was a time when the solid surface of our worldwas a newly-formed hot crust of stone, there must have beenan atmosphere about it, whatever its composition may havebeen ; for our gases and fliiids, air and water, only expand byheat. Movements in any gaseous shell must have resembledthose which now take place in the air from the action of heat,cold, and gravitation, whatever the surface-temperature mayhave been ; and these atmospheric movements surely leftmarks upon the solid crust from the beginning, because theydo now. We have Init to look above us to read some of the ancientcharacters, which are and have been written in air, and tolearn their meaning. They are forms which reveal a calm clear summer evening, after a thunder shower,when the setting sun is near the horizon, and the wind isstill, great m
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