A FIERY HYPOCAUST.

Otago Witness, Volume 14, Issue 2648, 14 December 1904, Page 82

A FIERY HYPOCAUST.

By a Bankeb,

A paragraph has recently been appearing in the publi press stating that it has been found necessary to suspend the boring .of tha Simplon tunnel in "consequence of the intense heat evolved, which has rendered it impossible to continue the operations, although only 250 yards remained to be pierced out of a total length of more than 12 miles. It is also stated that the engineers fear that if by any means the boring could be continued, the incandescent interior of the earth would bereached, and therefore that a furious outburst of molten lock would probably take place. If this surmise be correct, andi that only, 2 thin shell of rock now intervenes between the tunnel and the mighty furnace which is ever raging in the interior of the earth, it is possible that at seme time or other the pent-up fires will break down that feeble hairier, and that an artifical volcano on either side of the mountain will belch forth, vomiting out red-hot scorise, aoid ejecting, as .at Etna, vast quantities of volcanic missiles, stones, and molten lava. Should this happen, what a spectacle will be presented: fiery tongues and forks of livid flame issuing from the moiith of the tunnel, as from a great piece of ordnaaice, deafening explosions which discharge volley after volley of red-hot rocks, dealing out death and destruction, and devasiating the adjacent country with utter ruin; a very inferno, weird, appalling, and terrible.

"We are sometimes apt to lose sight of the fact that beneath the crust of the carth — and that crust is no thicker, relatively, and in comparison than is the shell of an egg — is a vast glowing hpyocaust, a seething furnace of molten igneous rocks and incandescent; gases about 20G,U00 million cubic miles in. volume; not, judging by the specific gravity of the earth, a solid mass of liquid rock, bvifc a vast, sealed-up cauldron, partly occupied by tempsst-tossed, fiery oceans, and partly by, steam and flaming- gases. Aid, judging fromi the eruptions from the safety valves of the carth — the volcanoes — from time to time those glowing fiery seas are lashed into fury by outbursts of steam' and gases, and we may well assume that, like as our oceans are agitated; by winds, so those flaming oceans beneath us are at times torn into foamingbillows and curling waves of incandescent liquid by the blasts and hurricanes of those gaseous tornadoes.

But by the fiat of the Almighty Creator those surging whulpoola and raging oceans of seething molten rock are securely contained! within the bonds of their prison-house, only breaking forth from time to time to convince us, as at Krakatas, how utterly helpless is proud man in the presence of the mighty forces of Nature. And yet He whose Almightypower could create this amazing wonder 1 deigned to lay aside for a time His divine majesty, and to be scourged, insulted, and put to death for us men and for our salvation. And to all who come to Him for salvation, each, one of those cruel lashes was for the punishment for their misdeeds, borne by Him in their stead.

— Every educated Russian 'knows three languages Lcsidcs his own, and many o£ them four. Knowledge of tho English, French, and German languages is considered! necessary to culture. A family having small children employs two to four governesses 1 , from whom the children learn foreign tongues before they are taught the more difficult Russian. ThU command of language makes possible the fact that Russians have a better knowledge of the world's affairs than pny other people. — Londoners are singularly well catered for in the matter of recreation. They have 53 theatres and 43 music-halls. The attention which has been paid to outdoor recreation for Londoners during th-e last few 1 years is testified by the following facts. In 1890 there wore- 40 open spaces a\ailablo for recreation. They comprised an extent oi 2656 acres, and wore maintained! at a cost of £52,677. In 1903 the sum) expended on the panic purpose was £116,772. Tho number of places had increased to 103* their acreage to 4879.