would be covered by a stratum of water more
than three hundred yards in depth. If, in
comparing the northern and the southern oceans,
the depth is taken into consideration as well as
the surface, it will result that the mass of water
constituting the latter is four times as great as
that constituting the former. Why is this?

Another question: If you look at maps of
the polar regions, you will observe that, at the
North Pole, with two or three exceptions, the ice
is far from extending down to the seventy-fifth
degree of latitude; whilst, at the South Pole it
forms a zone, or rather a circle, with a radius of
more than twenty degrees. The only open point
in this zone is where the Erebus, the immense
volcano discovered by Ross, whose flames dart
to the height of two thousand feet, explains the
existence of this unfrozen patch of sea. The
arctic regions are capped by a circle of ice
having a surface of two hundred and ninety-four
square leagues; the antarctic regions consist of a
continent of ice with a surface of seven hundred
and fifty-five thousand square leagues. What is
the reason of this disproportion? The answers to
these two questions supply the clue to past and
future deluges.

Our philosophers state, as their conviction,
that the northern hemisphere is gradually cooling;
that  arctic ice is steadily encroaching
on the yet unfrozen portions of Europe, Asia,
and America; that the summers of France and
England are not so hot as they were in olden
times. Where, for instance, are the English
vineyards now? And while the northern
hemisphere is cooling, the southern is accumulating
heat. While the ice here is gaining ground,
there it is retreating. Compare the route
followed by Captain Cook, when his orders were
to coast the ice as closely as possible, with the
limits attained by contemporary navigators,
Ross, and the unfortunate Dumont-d'Urville.
There is no need to wonder why Cook and
Desfournaux, in the last century, failed to
discover the lands which their successors
subsequently found; for, in their time, these were
beneath the ice. Why this increase of cold in
one hemisphere and of warmth in the other?
Why do both changes date from 1248? What
is the explanation of Robert Stephenson's statement
cited by Cuvier, that the level of the
North Sea and of the English Channel is rising?

The outpouring of the waters is not caused
by the uprising of any mountain-chain, as certain
geologists have supposed. Earthquakes are not
the parents of any grand deluge; they are
inadequate to the enormous results which have
occurred. There is no room here to argue the
proposition; M. Adhémar has searched for
the origin of oceanic revolutions in a source
where no one thought of looking for it before;
his theory does not rest on an hypothesis,
but on one of the laws of the system of the
world. In Germany, his book has been
admired and translated; in France, the prophet
has as yet found but little honour in his own
country. M. Le Hon, his Belgian disciple,
explains tne indifference of the French learned
public, thus: " The Academy pays no attention
to the Mémoire, because it is in print; geologists
do not read it, because it is the production
of a mathematician; and mathematicians do not
read it, because it meddles with geology."

We may safely illustrate his theory as follows:
first, the earth describes, in the course of a year,
a nearly circular ellipse, one of whose foci is
occupied by the sun. Secondly, the same season
does not reign at the same time all over the
globe; there is, on the contrary, a complete
opposition in this respect between the northern
and southern halves of the world. Our winter
answers to the summer of the southern
hemisphere, and our spring to its autumn.

Thirdly, the seasons are not of equal length,
which is the consequence of the elliptic form of
the earth's orbit. Our spring and summer take
place while the earth is describing the smaller
arc of its orbit, which is the one nearest the
sun. She has, therefore, a shorter distance to
travel during these seasons than during the
other two; and, moreover, as the sun, being
nearer, exerts at that time a greater power of
attraction, the earth's motion becomes accelerated.
Our autumn and our winter last, together,
one hundred and seventy-nine days, our spring
and summer one hundred and eighty-six:
difference, seven days. Thus, spring and summer,
in our hemisphere, are seven days longer than
autumn and winter; and the reverse takes place
in the southern hemisphere.

Fourthly, we did not always enjoy this privilege;
it falls to each hemisphere by turns.
There was a time when autumn and winter took
place for us whilst the earth was travelling
through the greater arc of her orbit, whilst she
was at her greatest distance from the sun. A
like time will return. This being the key to the
theory which we are about to state, ought to be
clearly understood.

{image: oval showing Earth as an ellipse with key following}

P A, Major axis, or apsidal line.
S, The Sun.
P, Perihelion)
                   ) apsides
A, Aphelion)
A', Autumnal Equinox.
V, Vernal Equinox.

Four remarkable points in the earth's orbit
have received the names of "solstices" and
"equinoxes;" from these points the different
seasons date their commencement. Thus there
is the vernal equinox, the summer solstice, the
autumnal equinox, and the winter solstice. We
have now to state what positions they occupied
in the year 1248 of the Christian era. This
date is mentioned for the second time; its choice
is not arbitrary.

Suppose that you have before you (or draw
upon a scrap of paper) an ellipse whose major