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172 than rock, about four and a half times as much. It has therefore by so much the more to lose, and is proportionally long in the losing. These hot seas must have produced a small universe of cloud, and as the conditions were the same all over the Earth, we can see easily with the mind's eye that we could not have seen at all with the bodily one, had we occupied the land in those very early days. To be quite shut out from curious sight without, was hardly made up for by not being able to see more than dimly within. Any one who has stood on the edge of a not-extinct crater when the wind was blowing his way, will have as good a realization of the then state of things as he probably cares for.

Now this astronomic drawing of the then Earth, which by its lack of detail allows of no doubt whatever, permits us to offer help in the elucidation of some of their phenomena to our geologic colleagues. We are the more emboldened to do so in that they have themselves appealed to astronomy for diagnosis, and accepted nostrums devised by themselves. It is always better in such cases to call in a regular practitioner. Not that he is necessarily more astute, but that he knows what will not work. It was in the matter of the paleologic climate that they were led to consult astronomy. The singular thing about paleologic times was the combination of much warmth with little light; and the not less singular fact that these conditions were roughly uniform over