Untitled

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XVIII, Issue 72, 7 September 1859, Page 3

Age of our Planet.—lt is supposed that the plants of the coal period required a temperature of 22' Reaumur ; the mean now is 8", or 14* less. By experiments on the rate of cooling lavas and melted basalt, it is calculated that 9,000,000 of years are required in the earth to lose 14* Reaumur. M. Hibberfc puts the period at 5,000,000. But, supposing the whole to have been in a molten state, the time that must have elapsed in passing from a liquid to a solid state is fixed at 350,000,000 years. —M. JBove. The Doom of otte Woeld. —What this change is to be, we dare not even conjecture; but we see in the - heavens themselves some traces of destructive elements, and some indications of their power. The fragments of broken planets —tho descent of meteoric stones npon our globe—the wheeling comets welding their loose materials at the solar furnace —the volcanic eruptions of our own satellite— the appearance of new Btars, and the disappearance of others—are all foreshadows of that impending convulsion to which the system of the world is doomed. Thus placed on a planet which is to be burnt up, and under heavens which are to pass away; thus treading, as it were, on the cemeteries, and dwelling in the mausoleums, of former worlds,—let us learn the lesson of humility and wisdom, if we have not already been taught it in the school of revolution, —North jßritith.Mw <..*