Vestiges of the Molten Globe

Abstract

IT is a pity that books of this sort are published, as they can do no good. It is one of that class which attempts to account for the general features of the earth by some extravagant hypothesis, for the proof of which some superficial observations of well-known facts and some show of quotations from well-known writers are all that, is offered. Who besides the author can believe that the shape of the earth, deprived of its oceans, would be a tetrahedron, the four angles representing the four continents? Yet the author announces himself as following in the footsteps of Elie de Beaumont in his theory of the réseau pentagonal, as the following lucid sentence on page 2 shows:—“The form (of the earth) is included in his réseau triangulaire, and is, as I propose to show, the six-faced tetrahedron; the easterly sag or twist of the southern hemisphere on a twin plane, the apparently macled form of the crystal, having caused the lines of relief and depression of the earth's surface to elude solution whilst the réseau of that crystal in its simple form alone was applied to them.” We quite agree with the author that “only the imperfection of the ideas or of the language in which they are conveyed can prevent the following pages being intelligible to every reader.” However untenable De Beaumont's theory was, it was conscientiously and laboriously worked out, and the conclusions were commensurate with the offered proof, even if they were erroneous; but Mr. Green, who would be his follower and improver, jumps to conclusions far wider on the basis of supposition only. The present short volume is only the first part of three that are promised on the figure of the earth, volcanic action, and physiography; and we must hope that the second part, at least, which is to contain “observations of the great active volcanoes and the great extinct volcanic range of the Hawaiian group,” which the author must have had good opportunities of making, will be somewhat more solid than this first. Mr. Green is plainly capable of better things than wild speculation, which anyone can make and no one can prove. There are no doubt many remarkable features in the distribution and shape of land and the direction of its coast lines, some of which are here pointed out; but the meaning of these things will only be arrived at by a wider knowledge of facts and sober induction from them. The large map that accompanies the volume shows some of these features well, and is beautifully executed.