THE EARTH'S CENTRE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 14060, 15 May 1906, Page 6

THE EARTH'S CENTRE.

Tho earthquakes have set the scientists discussing again the constitution of tho earth, the

nature of its crust and the consistency of its centre. Mr F. R. Stockton, wo remember, turned one of his affecting romances on tho idea that the earth’s core was a lingo diamond. Whatever there is at tho heart of things; it is exceedingly heavy. The specific gravity of the earth as a whole is more than five times that of water, but that of granite, of which a great part of tho earth’s surface is composed, is only two and a. half. This solid centre must, therefore, it is urged, bo composed of the heavier metals, such as gold and platinum. The further suggestion has been made in this connection that the solid metallic core revolves to some ex'tent independently of the crust, and that its movements account for the wanderings of'the magnetic poles and also for the earthquakes. One scientist has imagined a layer of liquid, possibly petroleum, between the metallic core and the rock crust. If all this is true it would surely lie worth while for some nation to acquire the earth’s centre forthwith. Wealth beyond the dreams of avarice must he hidden there—a hall of rare metals, 4000 miles in diameter, in a bath, of petroleum. The Taranaki people presumably bav© the good fortune to be living over on© of the leaks. It is a simple ihatter for the creators of romantic fiction to get through the hundred miles or so of the outer crust of the eorui. Mr Stockton’s hero wont down a- shaft, and Jules Yqrno, we seem to recollect, • personally conducted one of his famous tours into the centre of .the world through the crater of an extinct volcano. In practice, however, the matter is more difficult. The Bendigo miners have recently been congratulating themselves on winning'gold from the deepest mine in the world, and the depth of it is >122-1 feet*

| A singularly., interestraee books, ing collection and other ancient manuscripts was sold at Sotheby’s in the last week of March. The collection included a precious volume which will appeal to every lover of English literature, being no less a work than. Ben Jonson’s j own copy of the Bible, with the poet’s signature on the back of the title-page. One of the very rarest volumes in the whole range of Shakespearian literature was also among the lots sold, for “ Shakespeare’s Jests ” is a hook which is more than ordinarily rare. ■lt is described as a “ quaint but very gross collection” of anecdotes which are fathered upon Shakespeare. As a matter of fact, only three copies of the book are known to ho extant, and for the benefit of the reputation of the Bard of Avon these three, it is practically certain, would be better to bo indefinitely lost. One of the most important manuscripts in thp sale was that of Sir James Mackintosh’s “ Popular History of England,” which-was formerly in the possession of Dr Lardner, the editor of the history, which covers more than on© thousand quarto pages. Another very rare volume was “Roger Bontemps, en Belle Humeur,” published in Cologne in 1670, which contains a similar version of the story of the Jew and the ’pound of flesh to that given in “ The Merchant of Venice.” Among other interesting documents are several Dickens and Thackeray writings. These include a letter from Dickens to his brother Frederick, referring to the terrible railway disaster in which \he received a severe shock, in the sum’mer of 1865. “I am just that much shaken,” ho wrote, “that I am obliged to keep quiet, and cannot yet write half & dozen notes together without being the worse for it. My impression, is that this is not owing to the beating and the dragging of the carriage, but to the terrible work afterwards of getting out the dead and dying, in which I was very active. My carriage was the only one that did not go over into the stream. It was caught among the ruins of the bridge as it turned, and seemed impossibly balanced in the act of tilting.” This casts quit© a new light upon the chances that Dickens appears to have run, and it is probably little known that the world was so near being robbed of several of his masterpieces. *