BERKELEY 

LIBRARY 

UNIVERSITY OF 
CALIFORNIA 

EARTH 

SCIENCES 

LIBRARY 








THE LIBRARY 

OF 

THE UNIVERSITY 
OF CALIFORNIA 



PRESENTED BY 

PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 



THE 

ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 



A NEW EXPLANATION OF THE CAUSE 
OF THE ICE AGES 



BY 
JOSEPH T. WHEELER 




PHILADELPHIA 6r LONDON 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 

1908 



COPTKIQHT, 1908 

BT JOSEPH T. WHEELER 



Published November 8 1908 



Printed by J. B. Lippincott Company 
The Washington Square Press, Philadelphia, U. S. A 



Ws 



EARTH 

SCIENCES 

LIBRARY 



PREFACE 



IT is purposed in this work to show that a vast amount 
of evidence exists which proves that throughout the geolog- 
ical ages up to recent time our earth was girt with belts of 
planetesimal or gaseous matter. 

The nature of the evidence demonstrates that these belts 
were potent factors in producing' the climatic changes which 
marked the various geologic periods. They were the cause 
of the Ice ages. Primitive man saw the last remnants of 
these strange sights in the sky, and the echo of his thought 
in the form of mythology has sounded down through the 
lapse of the centuries. 

Facts cannot be ignored. Agassiz demonstrated that the 
till and boulder deposits scattered over the mantle rock of 
northern Europe and North America were the product of 
glacier action, but though the fact of the existence of great 
continental ice-sheets was established, the cause has remained 
up to the present date a scientific mystery. 

Now, in presenting the belted-canopy or zonal-ring 
hypothesis the cause or causes which brought them into exist- 
ence is of secondary importance. The all-important matter 
is to establish their actuality. Nevertheless, in order to 
present the argument in a consecutive form, the author under- 
takes in the opening chapters to show how the belts could 
have been brought into existence. This portion of the work, 
however, may be considered as merely tentative, and if he 
has failed in this particular, it in nowise compromises the 
main issue. 

This is not the first time that an hypothesis somewhat 
similar to the one about to be launched has been subjected to 



4 PREFACE 

the critical eye of the investigator. In fact, there have been 
several. Briefly, the history of the growth of the idea is 
as follows: 

To Emanuel Kant, who lived some hundred and fifty 
years ago, belongs the distinction of being the first modern 
scientist to entertain the thought that this earth was at one 
time girt about with rings or belts similar to those which 
now surround our sister planet, Saturn. Kant, however, 
after due deliberation, cast the idea from him as not worthy 
of serious consideration. 1 

There was nothing in particular new about this concep- 
tion. The Chaldeans, Egyptians, and Hebrews held that 
this earth was a flat disk canopied by a vaulted arc or water- 
sky, the firmament of the Scriptures. Not that the substance 
of the vaulted arc was actually water, but that this was the 
appearance of things to the ancients. Because the theory 
of a vaulted firmament retarded the progress of astronomy, 
it was dropped entirely. But the question is, How could such 
a theory have originated and become general throughout the 
earth without a prototype ? Certainly it must have had some 
legitimate ancestor, and the myths and hero-tales that have 
come down to us are the vibrations from this far distant age. 
The present hypothesis deals with the prehistoric. Where it 
comes into more intimate relationship with the past, it is 
because of the echo which vibrates in and through the lan- 
guage, relics, literature, etc., of the ancients. The redis- 
covery of the lost phenomena has been very gradual. 

Perhaps in this connection the theories of Ignatius 
Donnelly are deserving of mention. In his work entitled, 
"Kagnarok: The Age of Eire and Gravel," this author 
builds a superstructure of sand on a rock foundation. To 
say that the origin of drift and gravel is unknown, and 
further to suggest that they are the debris from the wreck 



Kant's Cosmology, pp. 129-131. 



PREFACE 5 

of a comet, is too radical. Yet in spite of this absurdity 
there is a fascination that arises from the residuum of truth. 
The fossil thought of the by-gone days cannot be ignored, 
and Donnelly has collected and jumbled together a large 
number of these stories from the myths of many people, 
which plainly indicate that they were witnesses of some 
strange sights in the sky. There must have been some com- 
mon source for these tales. 

Again, a similar work was published in 1885, entitled 
" Paradise Found : The Cradle of the Human Race at the 
North Pole." Its author was William F. Warren, S.T.D., 
LL.D., President of Boston University. Lenormant's tes- 
timony 2 is in the same direction, and it goes to show that the 
Chaldean, Persian, and Indian traditions all point to the 
northern mountains as the original home of the Caucasian 
race, therefore conditions in that region must have been very 
different from those now existing. Comparative religion 
indicates the same conclusions. 

The above works bring together large masses of fact and 
fable which in some cases, it must be admitted, are grotesque 
and visionary. They are mentioned in this place, however, 
as they bear on the history of the development of the present 
hypothesis. Speculations such as are introduced by these 
authors must have some foundation. The north seems to have 
been much warmer in the past. Indeed, zonal atmospheric 
temperature belts have existed up to recent times. Briefly, 
the facts of arctic paleontology have induced the belief that 
there was a primitive Eocene continent in the highest lati- 
tudes. The purely scientific aspect of the question is pre- 
sented in Gr. Hilton Scribner's monograph, " Where Did Life 
Begin ? " Professor Heer of Zurich and Baron Nordensk- 
jold both arrived at the same conclusion. J. Starkie Gardner 
has reviewed the evidence and has stated that this continuous 



Ancient History of the East and Beginnings of History." 



6 PHEFACE 

land which once united Europe with North America was 
probably submerged by the ocean along with northern Asia 
in late glacial or post-glacial time. 3 

Since the historic and mythological evidence shows that 
many minds have had an insight into some portion of the 
features connected with the zonal atmospheric climatic belts, 
it is only surprising that Emanuel Kant's suggestion was 
not followed up long ago. It is true that geologists of the 
old school, who believed that the earth cooled from a molten 
state, postulated some form of cloud-blanket. Dana men- 
tions the Astral aeon, as it was called, when a heavy, vaporous 
envelope containing the future waters of the globe or its dis- 
sociated elements, and other heavy vapors and gases, was 
supposed to compass the earth. 4 But that was in its early 
history. Isaac !N". Vail seems to have been the first to 
advance the idea that conditions somewhat similar to these 
could have continued until recent time. His argument runs 
as follows: 

" Our earth once had a Saturn-like system of rings, which 
in their progressive fall became canopies, such as the planets 
Saturn and Jupiter have now ; that these canopies, acting as 
a greenhouse roof, made all the warm ages of geologic time, 
and, gravitating to the polar regions, fell largely as snows, 
making all the glacial epochs and all the ages the earth ever 
had." 5 

In the light of modern science the suggestion of the old 
school geologists, and the further statement of Professor 
Vail, that these rings were composed of aqueous and metallic 
matter sent up from the molten earth, do not bear scrutiny. 



8 Professor G. Frederick Wright, "Geology and the Deluge," 
McClure's Magazine, June, 1901. 

* Manual of Geology, 4th ed., p. 440. 

5 Isaac 1ST. Vail, "The Waters Above the Firmament," "The Deluge 
and its Cause," "Eden's Flaming Sword," etc., etc., Pasadena, Cal. 
Captain R. Kelso Carter, C.E., a friend of Professor Vail, has pub- 
lished a work on the same subject, entitled "Alpha and Omega." 



PREFACE 7 

It has been proved that Saturn's rings would disrupt if they 
were composed of aqueous solutions, and, again, the idea 
that the earth has formed from a fire-mist or heated nebula 
has given way to Chamberlin's Planetesimal Hypothesis. 
Vail deserves great credit, however, for the vast amount of 
mythology which he has interpreted. 

All this goes to show that some form of belted canopy 
must have existed. Perhaps the next best hypothesis comes 
from Marsden Manson. 6 His is a scientific presentation of 
an atmospheric cloud canopy. If to this he had added belts 
or zones situated on the outer confines of the earth's gaseous 
envelope, the hypothesis about to be introduced might have 
used the same for a foundation, and it would have been neces- 
sary only to postulate that the said belts were visible, and 
that they continued as a feature in the heavens until recent 
time, geologically speaking. It is purposed to expand these 
ideas, and further to connect these belts with the Planetesimal 
Hypothesis. 

A brief knowledge of the ground covered by this last 
hypothesis is essential to a clear understanding of the idea 
that zonal belts once girt our planet, and the following com- 
parison of the nebular and plantesimal hypotheses will 
supply that need. 

" The old hypothesis assumes the existence of a mass of 
incandescent vapor, with or without a nucleus, which by con- 
densation and rotation was differentiated into successive 
rings ; the latter being eventually gathered up into the planets 
while still retaining intense heat. From this postulate there 
necessarily follows the conception of a cooling earth; and 
hypogeic geology has been founded on the idea of crustal 
solidification on a molten globe. The new hypothesis holds 
that the disseminated planet-forming matter had lost its heat 



e See articles in the American Geologist; also pamphlet, " The 
Evolution of Climates.'* 



8 PREFACE 

while yet existing in the loose form, as rings or zones or wisps 
of the parent nebula, and that the globular planets were 
formed by the slow accretion or infalling of cold, discrete 
bodies or particles (' planetesimals ')." 7 

The zonal belt hypothesis simply takes hold where the 
above lets go. Since Saturn still has rings of infalling par- 
ticles there is nothing startling or improbable in the assump- 
tion that our earth had the same, up to the close of the last 
Ice age. 



'Extract from the paper of Herman Leroy Fairchild, read at the 
St. Louis meeting of the Geological Society of America, January 1, 
1904, published in the American Geologist, vol. xxxiii, No. 2, by 
courtesy of the Council. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. THE HYPOTHESIS 11 

II. ATMOSPHERIC BELTS 17 

III. PLANETESIMAL RINGS 30 

IV. PHYSICAL EFFECTS GEOLOGIC 39 

V. PHYSICAL EFFECTS BIOLOGIC 52 

VI. DENSITY OF THE ATMOSPHERE AND OTHER PHYSICAL 

PHENOMENA , 65 

VII. VICISSITUDES OF CLIMATE 75 

VIII. EVOLUTION AND DISTRIBUTION 89 

IX. CAUSE OF THE ICE AGES 101 

X. SYMPATHETIC FEATURES 117 

XI. PvECENTNESS OF THE LAST STAGES OF THE ICE 124 

XII. FOSSIL THOUGHT 143 

XIII. GENESIS , 155 

XIV. HINDU MYTHS 174 

XV. BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN MYTHS 196 

XVI. EGYPTIAN MYTHS 219 

XVII. MYTHS OF GREECE AND ROME 254 

XVIII. HERCULES 276 

XIX. PLATO'S CONTRIBUTION 297 

XX. MYTHS OF THE AMERINDS 308 

XXI. RUSSIAN MYTHS 332 

XXII. SCANDINAVIAN MYTHS 358 

INDEX OF AUTHORS 387 

INDEX OF SUBJECTS . .391 



CHAPTER I 

THE HYPOTHESIS 

THE narrowness of the range to which temperatures are 
confined in order to allow life to continue on the earth has 
prevailed since the beginning of organic existence. This fact 
has to be considered by all who would investigate the genesis 
of things mundane. The geologists and biologists never lose 
sight of it, but it is difficult to reconcile their requirements 
with the maintenance of the sun's energy. The best reply 
seems to be that radiant energy is probably the reflex action 
of the perpetual motion of the ether. This means that there 
is no cause left for controversy between the mathematicians 
on the one side and the aforementioned geologists and biolo- 
gists on the other. Whether this explanation be accepted or 
not, the fact of the existence of this long time period of 
comparative slight temperature fluctuation remains. 

If it be true that the supply of radiant energy is con- 
stant, then a factor must be discovered that from time to 
time has modified the amount of energy received, a factor 
capable of punctuating the geological eras. On the other 
hand, if, as the advocates of the shrinkage hypothesis gen- 
erally contend, the sun in past ages has been giving out a 
greater flow of energy, then this same factor is needed in 
order to mitigate the results. Again, if the gravitational 
heat of the earth, due to the consolidation of the original 
planetesimal structure has entered into the question of the 
maintenance of this narrowness in the range of temperature, 
then once more this factor will be very useful, as it is neces- 
sary to conserve this dissipation. 

The factor that best answers the foregoing requirements 
is a protecting canopy, and such a one is here postulated 
a canopy floating high above the present cloud-belt, and 

11 



12 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

probably outside the existing atmosphere. The evidence 
connected with this hypothesis will be presented in the suc- 
ceeding chapters. It is now purposed to consider the nature 
of the structure and the possible source of its origin. 

The evidence will show that this atmospheric protector 
existed until recent time, and that primitive man lived under 
its beneficent roof. Furthermore, it was visible to him, for 
he has recorded the fact on his monuments, and many of the 
roots from which his archaic languages are derived have 
their origin in sky scenes. He worshipped the phenomena 
which he saw, making gods and devils of the various features, 
handing down to us the substance of his impressions in that 
form of mythology which portrays the nature myth. 

Since the sky-features were visible, it proves that a canopy 
of uniform texture spreading evenly over the whole earth 
could not have fulfilled the requirements. Such a blanket 
has been postulated by many scientists. 

Tyndall thus depicts the influence of such an atmospheric 
appendage on planetary temperature. He says: "Let us 
now consider for a moment the effect upon the earth's tem- 
perature of a shell of olefiant gas, surrounding our planet at 
a little distance above its surface. The gas would be trans- 
parent to the solar rays, allowing them, without sensible 
hindrance, to reach the earth. Here, however, the luminous 
heat of the sun would be converted into non-luminous terres- 
trial heat; at least 26 per cent, of this heat would be inter- 
cepted by a layer of gas one inch thick, and in great part 
returned to the earth. Under such a canopy, trifling as it 
may appear, and perfectly transparent to the eye, the earth's 
surface would be maintained at a stifling temperature. 

" A few years ago a work possessing great charms of style 
and ingenuity of reasoning was written to prove that the 
more distant planets of our system are uninhabitable. Apply- 
ing the law of inverse squares to their distances from the 
sun, the diminution of temperature was found to be so great 



THE HYPOTHESIS 13 

as to preclude the possibility of human life in the more 
remote members of the solar system. But in those calcula- 
tions the influence of an atmospheric envelope was over- 
looked, and this omission vitiated the entire argument. An 
atmosphere may act the part of a barb to the solar rays, per- 
mitting them to reach the earth, but preventing their escape. 
A layer of air two inches in thickness, saturated with the 
vapor of sulphuric ether, would offer very little resistance 
to the passage of the solar rays, but I find that it would cut 
off fully 35 per cent, of the planetary radiation. It would 
require no inordinate thickening of the layer of vapor to 
double this absorption ; and it is perfectly evident that, with 
a protecting envelope of this kind, permitting the heat to 
enter but preventing its escape, a comfortable temperature 
might be obtained on the surface of the most distant planet." l 

As stated above, the envelope of uniform texture does not 
fulfil the requirements which the evidence about to be pro- 
duced demands. If visible at all, the monotony of its same- 
ness would have failed to arouse the religious superstitions 
of early man, hence they would have left no records of it. 
Again, the continuance of arctic and tropic life shows that 
climate was differentiated in such a manner as to preclude 
uniformity. 

In explanation of the vagaries of climate which have 
existed in the past, two alternatives now present themselves. 
The one is Chamberlin's hypothesis, that the amount of 
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere itself is responsible for the 
physical phenomena. The other is that a fractured shell or 
envelope composed of rings or belts floated above or on the 
outer bounds of the atmosphere. This latter hypothesis not 
only accounts for the physical phenomena, but it also explains 
the origin of the myths we have so often referred to. 

The one hypothesis may be as complicated as the other. 
Chamberlin's requires a fine adjustment between the ocean 



Heat a Mode of Motion," 6th ed., pp. 417-418. 



14 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

and the atmosphere. Thus the originator of the hypothesis 
quotes Schloesing's views as follows : " The carbon dioxide 
of the atmosphere is in equilibrium, not only with the free 
carbon dioxide absorbed in the sea water, but, through dis- 
sociation, with the second equivalent of carbon dioxide in 
the oceanic bicarbonates. The sum-total of such free and 
loosely combined carbon dioxide available at present as a 
possible supply for the atmosphere may be some twenty-five 
times the present atmospheric content. Schloesing held that 
any depletion of the atmospheric content would be followed 
by emanation from the ocean, and any excess acquired by the 
atmosphere would be followed by oceanic absorption, and 
hence great changes in the atmospheric content would only 
be brought about by reducing or increasing the large sum- 
total of atmospheric and oceanic supply." 2 

RTow, the diffusion of gases in water is a slow process, 
and it would seem that the supply of carbon dioxide which 
the ocean would yield to the atmosphere might be far too 
slow to offset the consumption of the same under certain 
chemic geologic conditions. This depletion, according to 
Chamberlin's hypothesis, would bring about an ice age, the 
location of the main centres of glaciation being determined 
by the path of cyclonic storms. So far all seems well, but, 
unfortunately for the hypothesis, it is difficult to account for 
the return to normal conditions. The restocking of the 
atmospheric supply from the ocean would be very slow, and 
a question arises as to whether the evidence does not indicate 
a more rapid recession, comparatively speaking. 

Again, if the cold of the ice ages was due to depletion, 
then the warmth of the Carboniferous age was due to excess. 
This amount could not have exceeded a percentage that would 
allow of the continuance of animal life. " According to 
Berzelius, common air containing 1 / 20 of its volume of 



* Journal of Geology, vol. xiv, No. 5, p. 367. 



THE HYPOTHESIS 15 

carbon dioxide can be breathed without producing any serious 
effects ; but from Angus Smith's later experiments it appears 
that when air contains only 0.20 per cent, by volume of this 
gas, its effect in lowering the action of the pulse is rendered 
evident after the respiration has continued for about an hour. 
It seems, therefore, premature to say that the smallest 
increase of the atmospheric carbonic acid may not be pro- 
ductive of hurtful results." 3 

But let us examine one of the statements of the author 
himself. He says : " If we consider what a possible atmos- 
phere and ocean richer in carbon dioxide might do, it seems 
idle to look to the atmosphere as even a possible competent 
reservoir, consistently with the life that existed; for the 
carbon dioxide of the present atmosphere, if converted into 
limestone, would form a layer about one-thirtieth of an inch 
thick only, over the globe. To form a layer one foot thick it 
would have to be increased 360 fold, which would surely 
imperil active, air-breathing life, unless it were different 
from similar present life." 4 

Dropping this line of argument and approaching it from 
another standpoint, it seems rash to postulate a colder climate 
as a requisite to an ice age. It takes heat to evaporate water 
in order to furnish the supply of snow. Belts of carbon 
dioxide hanging above the atmosphere would have caused 
remarkable climatic contrasts, and as they would not neces- 
sarily have changed the atmospheric content, animal life 
would not have suffered. The saturated warm air drifting 
from beneath such a canopy would have been quickly con- 
gealed into snow and ice by the cold air in the open zones. 
Intense cold near the poles during the Ice age is at variance 
with the recorded facts. 

Again reverting to Chamberlin's hypothesis, we find that 
it is based on the views of Arrhenius regarding the effects 

Roscoe and Schorlemmer, "Treatise on Chemistry," vol. i, p. 
625; Angus Smith, "Air and Rain," p. 209. 

*Chamberlin and Salisbury, Geo., vol. ii, p. 661. 



16 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

on the climate of small changes in the amount of carbon 
dioxide in the air. Now, his views have been contested by 
Angstrom and Very, and are not accepted by Hann. Thus, 
since the physicists disagree, it may be that the foundation 
is itself insecure. 

The alternate hypothesis which postulates that belts or 
rings environed the earth may be presented in two forms, or 
in a combination of the two. The first assumes that their 
origin was terrestrial, the second that it was planetesimal. 
The one is atmospheric, the other rises high above it. The 
first fulfils all requirements, but a possible difficulty exists 
in connection with the flotation stability of the belts. The 
density of carbon dioxide compared to air is 1.524, therefore 
it does not seem likely that this substance entered into their 
composition. However, as there are numerous other lighter 
gases which might have answered the purpose, this objection 
is not serious. Centrifugal force undoubtedly played a con- 
spicuous part, as it was this whirling energy that broke the 
canopy up into belts. If the rings had their origin beyond 
the atmosphere, then the forces which control Saturn's system 
must have sustained ours. In other words, we are presenting 
two diametrically opposed ideas, the one working outward 
and the other inward. It may be true that both forms of 
the hypothesis are correct. There may have been a system 
of rings composed of planetesimal accretions received from 
outer space, and there may also have been belts on the outer 
confines of the atmosphere, somewhat similar to the belts now 
visible on Jupiter. These belts may have had a volcanic 
origin, or, again, they may have been derived from the rings, 
for undoubtedly in falling these became canopies, their 
substance drifting off in the direction of the poles, where 
centrifugal force was at a minimum. It is a significant 
fact that our sister planets present us with an object lesson, 
and that we do not comprehend the exact working of the, 
laws involved. 



CHAPTER II 

ATMOSPHERIC BELTS 

ACCORDING to the planetesimal hypothesis of the earth's 
origin, the hydrosphere and atmosphere were acquired 
through gravitational action driving out the internal gases. 
This process has gone on from the initial stages to the present 
time. Every volcanic eruption witnesses large additions, 
that can be measured, as in the case of explosive vents like 
that of Mount Pelee, by the standard of cubic miles. 1 

The principal gaseous product excluded by volcanoes are 
water-vapor, carbon dioxide, hydrocarbons, hydrogen, oxygen, 
and nitrogen. To these may be added chlorine, sulphur, and 
many other temporary gases, together with certain other 
light and volatile material. Even at the present day enor- 
mous quantities of these products are shot forth into very 
high altitudes. Witness the eruption of Krakatoa, the pow- 
dery dust from which was carried up at least seventeen miles, 
and the gaseous ejections may have reached still more amaz- 
ing heights. 2 Volcanic action in the past has been more 
active than at present. 3 In the case of our sun, protuber- 



1 James Furman Kemp, "Economic Geology," Dec.-Jan., vol. i, 
No. 3, pp. 219-220, 229. 

2 Joseph Le Conte, "Elements of Geology," 5th ed., revised by Her- 
man Le Roy Fairchild, p. 91. 

'Archibald Geikie describes the following basalt-plain visited on 
his return trip from the Yellowstone, which illustrates this greater 
activity of the past. He says: "The last section of our ride proved 
to be in a geological sense one of the most interesting parts of the 
whole journey. We found that the older trachytic lavas of the hills 
had been deeply trenched by lateral valleys, and that all these valleys 
had a floor of the black basalt that had been poured out as the last 
of the molten materials from the now extinct volcanoes. There were 
no visible cones or vents from which these floods of basalt could have 
17 



18 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

ances are shot out to heights of many thousands of miles. 
" The expansive potency of this prodigious elasticity," 
say Chamberlin and Salisbury, " is held in restraint 
by the equally prodigious power of the sun's gravity." 
As it is, some of these outshoots closely approach the 
controlling limit of the sun's gravity. 4 In the case of our 
moon, the expansive potency of its volcanoes has been too 
great to be controlled by its feeble gravity, hence the moon 
lacks an atmosphere. Now, gravity exerts on our own planet 
a force much less than that of the sun, and much greater 
than that of the moon. It is generally admitted that we may 
have lost a part of our atmosphere, therefore it may be log- 
ically surmised that more than one of our outer gaseous shells 
or envelopes in past time escaped. 

The joint authors above cited say in this connection that 
" the mean velocity of hydrogen is more than four times that 



proceeded. We rode for hours by the margin of a vast plain of basalt, 
stretching southward and westward as far as the eye could reach. It 
seemed as if the plain had been once a great lake or sea of molten 
rock which surged along the base of the hills, entering every valley 
and leaving there a solid floor of bare black stone. We camped on 
this basalt plain, near some springs of clear cold water which rise 
close to its edge. Wandering over the bare hummocks of rock, on many 
of which not a vestige of vegetation had yet taken root, I realized with 
vividness the truth of an assertion made first by Richthofen, but very 
generally neglected by geologists, that our modern volcanoes, such as 
Vesuvius or Etna, present us with by no means the grandest type of 
volcanic action, but rather belong to a time of failing activity. There 
have been periods of tremendous volcanic energy, when, instead of 
escaping from a local vent, like a Vesuvian cone, the lava has found 
its way to the surface by innumerable fissures opened for it in the 
solid crust of the globe over thousands of square miles. I felt that the 
structure of this and the other volcanic plains of the Far West furnish 
the true key to the history of the basaltic plateaux of Ireland and 
Scotland, which had been an enigma to me for many years." ("Geolog- 
ical Sketches at Home and Abroad," pp. 237-238.) To this we may 
add that the explosive type of volcanic eruption was also greater in 
the past than at present. 

* Chamberlin and Salisbury, Geo., vol. ii, p. 55. 



ATMOSPHERIC BELTS 19 

of oxygen, and it may be assumed that it would be at least 
four times as liable to escape from the control of the earth." 6 

If these belts, composed of gases lighter than air, were 
working outwards, all that is required of them is that they 
remained under gravitational control long enough to produce 
the pronounced climatic effects known to biology and to 
geology. 

They may have been invisible to the eye and yet have 
fulfilled all the requirements of the hero-tales left us by early 
man, for, although invisible themselves, they would have 
caused certain phenomena to be introduced into th*, atmos- 
phere beneath which would have been visible, and this sec- 
ondary class of phenomena would have given birth to the 
myths. 

The secondary phenomena referred to may be explained 
as follows: When a column of air saturated with aqueous 
vapor ascends from the earth it is invisible until radiation or 
the meeting with cooler currents condenses it. Thus cumuli 
are the heads of vaporous columns which are precipitated as 
soon as they reach a certain elevation. 6 ]STow, gaseous belts 
floating on the outer confines of the atmosphere would 
have prevented this radiation. They would have intro- 
duced greenhouse conditions, admitting the luminous heat, 
and preventing the escape of the dark heat. Aqueous 
vapor is lighter than air, and the only thing that stops its 
upward career is this condensation. Under the influence 
of such belts as are postulated, undoubtedly the present 
storm belt would have been surmounted by one immeasurably 
higher, and this stupendous belt of cloud being visible in- 
spired the ancients to worship and to build monuments that 
have along with the Scriptures perpetuated the memory of 
the crooked flying serpent. 



5 Ibid, p. 98. 

"Tyndall, "Heat a Mode of Motion," 6th ed., p. 384. 



20 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

" By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens ; his hand 
hath formed the crooked serpent." 7 The serpent portrayed 
girded the sky in an east and west direction. The storm- 
belt, postulated, not only floated at great heights, but also 
had its boundaries established by the overruling zonal extra- 
atmosphaBra belts, and it follows that it could not extend 
further north, or further south, than these boundaries. 

The greenhouse conditions are thus described by Le 
Conte : " It seems almost certain that during the whole 
recorded history of the earth, i.e., during the time it has 
been inhabited by organisms, the surface-temperature of the 
earth has been almost wholly due to external causes. Now, 
the composition of the atmosphere is an external cause, which 
greatly affects the surface-temperature, but which has hith- 
erto been almost wholly neglected. The thorough explana- 
tion of this point will require some discussion of the proper- 
ties of transparent media in relation to light and heat. 

" Many bodies which are transparent to light are opaque 
to heat. Such bodies, however, will freely transmit heat, if 
the heat be accompanied with intense light. It is as if the 
light carried the heat through with it. Heat thus associated 
with light is sometimes called light heat, while that which 
is not thus associated is called dark heat. Now, the bodies 
spoken of are transparent to light heat, but opaque to dark 
heat. Glass is such a body. If a pane of glass be held 
between the face and the sun,, the heat passes freely and 
burns the face, but the same pane would act as a partial 
screen before a fire, and as a perfect screen before a hot, but 
not incandescent, cannon-ball. 

" It is in this way we explain the fact that a glass green- 
house, even in the coldest sunshiny winter's day, becomes 
insupportably warm if shut up. The sunlight and heat pass 
freely through the glass and heat the ground, the benches, 



T Job xxvi: 13. 



ATMOSPHERIC BELTS 31 

the flower-pots ; but the light-heat thereby becomes converted 
into dark heat, and thus is imprisoned within. Now, the 
earth and its atmosphere are such a greenhouse. The light- 
heat passes readily through, warms the ground, changes into 
dark heat, and is in a measure imprisoned by the partial 
opacity of the atmosphere to this kind of heat. The atmos- 
phere is a kind of blanket put about the earth to keep it 
warm. So much has long been recognized. But Tyndall has 
shown that the property of opacity to dark heat in the case 
of the atmosphere is due wholly to the small quantity of 
carbonic acid and aqueous vapor present; that oxygen and 
nitrogen are transparent to dark heat, and, therefore, if the 
atmosphere consisted only of those two gases, it would not be 
heated by radiation from the earth, and the ground would 
lose all its heat by radiation during the night, and become 
intensely cold, like space. In other words, the blanket put 
about the earth to keep it warm is woven of carbonic acid and 
aqueous vapor." 8 

The matter resolves itself into the question, What gases 
of light density would exert a similar influence? Langley 
says : " The temperature of this planet, and with it the 
existence not only of the human race but of all organized 
life on the globe, appears, in the light of the conclusions 
reached by the Mount Whitney expedition, to depend far 
less on the direct solar heat than on the hitherto too little 
regarded quality of selective absorption in our atmosphere." 9 

Geology and biology unveil the fact that in the past the 
earth has been at times a vast orchard-house blooming with a 
luxuriant vegetation that has even extended to the polar 
regions. 

" We know by experiment," remarks Sir Charles Lyell, 
" that plants which are natives of the tropics can dispense 



8 Geo., 5th ed., revised by Fairchild, pp. 395-396. 
"George F. Barker, "Physics," 4th ed., p. 393. 



22 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

more easily with the bright light of those countries than with 
the heat of the same. Few palms can live in our temperate 
latitudes without protection from the cold; but when placed 
in hot-houses they grow luxuriantly, even under a cloudy 
sky and where much light is intercepted by the glass and 
framework. At St. Petersburg, in lat. 60 1ST., many tropical 
plants have been successfully cultivated in hot-houses, 
although there they must exchange the perpetual equinox of 
their native regions for days and nights which are alternately 
protracted to nineteen hours and shortened to five. How 
much farther towards the pole even the existing species might 
continue to live, provided a due quantity of heat and moisture 
were supplied, has not yet been determined ; but St. Peters- 
burg is probably not the utmost limit, and we should expect 
that in lat. 65 at least, where they would never remain 
twenty-four hours without enjoying the sun's light, they might 
still exist." 10 

Greenhouse conditions have existed in the past all the 
way up to the pole, thus all these facts go to show that a 
canopy exerting a selective absorption must have existed. 
Pure hydrogen, though light enough to float above the atmos- 
phere, was not the material out of which this blanket was 
made, for its atoms, apparently, are quite incompetent to 
stop the calorific waves. But there are other gases, such as 
argon, krypton, neon, helium, and their combinations, which 
have to be considered. Some of the hydrocarbons likewise, 
which also are products of vulcanism, and which have a rela- 
tively high power of absorption, cannot be ignored. 

The radiation-enigmas of the boreal auroras have recently 
been identified with the spectra of some of the new atmos- 
pheric gases. This indicates that remnants of the old canopy 
still exist. This phenomenon often takes the form of an arc 
from which stream curtains of light. 



Principles of Geology," vol. i, llth ed., p. 226. 



ATMOSPHERIC BELTS 23 

There is a possibility that these rarefied belts may have 
been upheld by electrical expulsion originating in the earth, 
in which case they may have been heavier than air. Centrif- 
ugal force also was a very powerful factor, the rate of gyra- 
tion being the same or slightly slower than the earth. 

One matter is certain, the gaseous envelope could not 
have been of uniform texture. The physical evidence as 
recorded by the zonal climatic temperatures and the records 
of primitive man unite against such a supposition. In other 
words, it was broken up into belts or rings, and, furthermore, 
the laws of mathematics, mechanics, and physics demand that 
it should be. 

It is not unlikely that electricity alone would have caused 
such a break up. Biela's comet separated into two parts, 
mutually affecting each other. 11 Though this comparison 
may have but little value, it does, however, introduce a pos- 
sible factor. Yet why deal with uncertainties, since this 
feature is so clearly proved ? 

Thus it is plain to all that the power of gravity being 
at least partially neutralized by centrifugal tendency due to 
axial speed, allowed the latter to gain progressively in lift- 
ing capacity from the poles, where that speed had a zero 
value, to the equator, where it attained the maximum. Here, 
then, the gaseous materials of the rotating body were vir- 
tually lighter than elsewhere, and consequently retreated 
farther from the earth. ~Not only did this introduce strains 
into the canopy itself, which probably disrupted it, but it 
also caused an unevenness in the height to which the ascend- 
ing columns of aqueous vapor could rise. This is all impor- 
tant, for since the canopy quite probably was invisible, it 
makes little difference whether it was ruptured or not. The 
fact to grasp is that the secondary cloud uplift was visible, 



"Agnes M. Clerke, "History of Astronomy During the Nineteenth 
Century," 3d ed., p. 120. 



24 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

and this, owing to these physical conditions, must have been 
divided into serpent-like belts. 

It must not be inferred because of the use of the word 
" rupture " that the upper belt which we are considering was 
of one piece. Such a structure is impossible. Our concep- 
tion makes every individual particle independent, but liberty 
is not license, and when these individuals transgressed the 
law of their station they were to all intents and purposes 
ruptured from it. 

Even under existing conditions signs are not wanting that 
point to the existence of belts in the heights of our atmos- 
phere. Twenty miles above the earth's surface there is a 
stupendous wind blowing which completes its circuit in about 
thirteen days. The great explosion of Krakatoa, which took 
place August 27, 1883, revealed to us its existence. Through 
the medium of the dust from this eruption it was seen that 
this mighty wind circled around the earth in the vicinity of 
the Equator. Afterwards the dust dissipated as a canopy 
drifting towards the poles. Those who saw the brilliant sun- 
sets tinged by these particles will never forget them. Kraka- 
toa certainly thundered forth its voice as a witness to this 
hypothesis. 12 

This is not the only instance in recent time when the dust 
from volcanoes and from arid regions has revealed these 
upper air-currents. The following are given as illustrations : 
" This phenomenon is frequent on the northwest of Africa, 
about the Cape Verde Islands, in the Mediterranean, and 
over the bordering countries. A microscopic examination of 
this dust by Ehrenberg led him to the belief that it contains 
numerous diatoms of South American species; and he in- 
ferred that a dust-cloud must be swimming in the atmos- 
phere, carried forward by continuous currents of air in the 



12 James D. Dana, " Manual of Geo.," 4th ed., pp. 163, 291. Archibald 
Geikie, Geo., 3d ed., pp. 214, 338. 



ATMOSPHERIC BELTS 25 

region of the trade-winds and anti-trades, but suffering par- 
tial and periodical deviations. But much of the dust seems 
to come from the sandy plains and desiccated pools of the 
north of Africa. Daubree recognized in 1865 some of the 
Sahara sand which fell in the Canary Islands. On the coast 
of Italy a film of sandy clay identical with that from parts 
of the Libyan desert is occasionally found on windows after 
rain. In the middle of the last century an area of northern 
Italy, estimated at about 200 square leagues, was covered 
with a layer of dust which in some places reached a depth 
of one inch. In 1846 the Sahara dust reached Lyons, and 
it is said to have been since detected as far as Boulogne-sur- 
Mer. Should the travelling dust encounter a cooler tempera- 
ture, it may be brought to the ground by snow, as has hap- 
pened in the north of Italy, and more notably in the east and 
southeast of Kussia, where the snows are sometimes rendered 
dirty by the dust raised by winds on the Caspian steppes. It 
is easy to see how widespread deposits of dust may arise, 
mingled with the soil of the land and with the silt and sand 
of lakes, rivers, or the sea ; and how the minuter organisms 
of tropical regions may thus come to be preserved in the same 
formations with the terrestrial or marine organisms of tem- 
perate latitudes." 13 

This kind of evidence may be somewhat tiresome, but it 
is very suggestive, for since dust can be suspended in the 
atmosphere, as now constituted, and carried to such great 
distances, a little reflection shows what a potent factor it 
must have been in the by-gone ages. In those days this same 
dust must have been sucked up, along with the water-vapor, 
to very great heights, where it was held in suspension for 
correspondingly long periods. A few more instances may be 
pardoned : 

" M. Stanislas Meunier, the well-known authority upon 



"Archibald Geikie, Geo., 3d ed., p. 337. 



26 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

meteorological effects, gives an account of a phenomenon which 
occurred at Paris and which was no doubt caused by the 
eruption of Vesuvius. On the morning of the llth of April 
a dry and yellowish fog extended over the city. It was strong 
enough to interfere with the navigation on the Seine, and the 
sun appeared under a peculiar aspect. Supposing that this 
phenomenon might be caused by the eruption of Vesuvius, 
M. Meunier placed upon the roof of his dwelling a series 
of plates covered with glycerine, so as to retain the floating 
dust. These plates when treated with water gave a rather 
abundant deposit in which soot and organic matter were 
visible to the naked eye. The fine portion of the deposit, 
which was separated by the Thoulet heavy liquid, gave an 
extremely fine sand, and a microscopic examination of this 
confirmed M. Meunier's idea. 

" Comparison of this sand with the ash sent up by Vesu- 
vius in 1822, of which he had a sample, showed a complete 
identity with the latter. The main difference consists in 
the presence of some perfectly spherical globules of oxidized 
iron in the Paris dust. We may therefore admit that the 
fog seen in Paris was caused by the very fine dust sent up 
from Vesuvius." 14 

Tyndall says : " Ashes have been shot through the lower 
current by volcanoes, and, from the places where they have 
subsequently fallen, the direction of the wind which carried 
them has been inferred. Professor Dove, who has so enriched 
the knowledge of the age by his researches in meteorology, 
cites the following instance : ' On the night of April 30 
explosions like those of heavy artillery were heard at Barba- 
does, so that the garrison at Fort St. Anne remained all night 
under arms. On May 1, at daybreak, the eastern portion of 
the horizon appeared clear, while the rest of the firmament 
was covered by a black cloud, which soon extended to the 



14 Scientific American, vol. xcv, No. 13. 



ATMOSPHERIC BELTS 27 

east, quenched the light there, and at length produced a dark- 
ness so intense that the windows in the rooms could not be 
discerned. A shower of ashes descended. Whence came 
these ashes? From the direction of the wind, we should 
infer that they came from the Azores; they came, however, 
from the volcano Morne Garou in St. Vincent, which lies 
about 100 miles west of Barbadoes. The ashes had been cast 
into the current by the upper trade. A second example of 
the same kind occurred on January 20, 1835. On the 24th 
and 25th the sun was darkened in Jamaica by a shower of 
fine ashes, which had been discharged from the mountain 
Coseguina, distant 800 miles. The people learned in this 
way that the explosions previously heard were not those of 
artillery. These ashes could only have been carried by the 
upper current, as Jamaica lies northeast from the mountain. 
The same eruption gives also a beautiful proof that the 
ascending air-current divides itself above, for ashes fell upon 
the ship Conway, in the Pacific, at a distance of 700 miles 
southwest of Coseguina. ' " 15 

Another class of phenomena which points to the existence 
of belts in the upper confines of the atmosphere is the aurora 
polaris. 

It is a most interesting fact that these displays have a 
tendency to follow local time, as though they were in some 
way connected with an invisible belt whose rotation period 
was in harmony with that of the earth's. Thus in the great 
aurora of February 4, 1872, which was visible in both 
hemispheres, it had its maximum at about the same local 
time, between 8.30 and 9.30 P.M., and not at the same physi- 
cal instant. 16 

A common appearance of the aurora is that of parallel 
arches or curtains of light, always running from east to west 



"Heat a Mode of Motion," 6th ed., pp. 209-210. 
16 Frank Wilbert Stokes, Century Magazine, Feb., 1903, vol. Ixv, 



No. 4. 



28 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

or from west to east a significant fact, for as electric phe- 
nomena depend upon a material surface on which to accu- 
mulate, and as the aurora is generally acknowledged to be 
of electrical origin, it proves the existence of invisible belts 
in our modern atmosphere. 

It is said of these arcs that " in certain regions, and 
probably also at certain epochs, the polar aurora manifests 
itself simply as a very regular arc of a circle, with well- 
defined outlines and uniformly luminous in all its parts, so 
that it presents an absoutely homogeneous texture. It is 
under this form that the aurora borealis most often presented 
itself to Professor Nordenskjold in 187&-79, during the 
celebrated wintering of the Vega on the northern coast of 
Siberia, almost at the entrance to Behring Strait. In this 
station the summit of the arc rarely exceded a height of 
thirty degrees above the horizon, so that its centre remained 
well below the horizon. 

" These arcs are generally completely motionless and 
remarkably permanent: they often retain their position for 
hours and even for several days." 17 

Now, unquestionably these belts or rivers flow above the 
cloud-zone. Thus the aurora furnishes still another valuable 
idea. It gives certain data regarding the height of these 
gaseous belts. Floegel deduces the following conclusions: 
" The altitude of the base of the rays is very variable ; it is 
usually comprised between 150 and 250 kilometres (93 to 
155 miles), but its extreme limits attain perhaps 100 and 
300 kilometres (62 and 186 miles). As to the summits of 
the rays, they often reach a greater height than 500 kilo- 
metres (310 miles) ; it is even probable that they pass 750 
kilometres (565 miles) ; but they appear never to reach 
1,500 kilometres (930 miles)." 18 



"Alfred Angot, "The Aurora Borealis," The International Scien- 
tific Series, pp. 20-21. 
19 IUd, p. 59. 



ATMOSPHERIC BELTS 29 

It is said also that these displays may be in part con- 
nected with the presence of ferruginous dust derived from the 
disintegration of meteoric masses or from volcanic eruptions. 

As canopies are subject to the laws of centrifugal force, 
which becomes of zero value at the poles, it follows that 
there always has been an open place in the sky in those zones. 
In this connection any invisible series of belts existing to-day 
would also be outlawed from the far north. This feature is 
indicated by the aurora and is thus described in the Century 
article from which we have already drawn: 

" Contrary to received opinion, the auroras do not in- 
crease as we advance poleward; for in the regions where 
polar expeditions have mostly wintered, Melville Island, 
Baffin Bay, and Smith Sound, the aurora is generally less 
brilliant and also less frequent than in Iceland, Labrador, 
and South Greenland. Its maximum of frequency is at 
!N"orth Cape, Nova Zembla, and at Cape Chelyuskin, Siberia 
cutting the meridian of Behring Strait at latitude 70, 
entering America a little to the west of Barrow Strait, cross- 
ing Hudson Bay and Labrador, passing to the south of 
Greenland and Iceland, and forming an oval zone which has 
for its centre a point situated between the geographical and 
magnetic poles. The latter is situated in Boothia Felix 
Land, in. latitude 73 north and 98 west longitude from 
Paris." 19 

An objection may arise in the minds of some to the effect 
that if the arc of the aurora reveals belts in the upper atmos- 
pheric gases, then since these arcs are often elliptical rather 
than circular, the belts assume a form not reconcilable with 
the expected conditions. This may be true, but whether the 
conditions are such as we picture in our minds or not, the 
fact remains, Saturn's ring system is elliptical. 20 

"Vol. IXT, No. 4, Feb., 1903, p. 495. 

80 Agnes M. Clerke, "History of Astronomy in the Nineteenth 
Century," 3d ed., pt. ii, chap, viii, p. 364. 



CHAPTER III 

PLANETESIMAL RINGS 

IT is a vast step from Jupiter-like belts to rings such as 
circle Saturn, and yet there are features that are common to 
both. Rings composed of planetesimal bodies riding at 
immense heights may have caused a secondary cloud system 
in the atmosphere, or, again, in falling, these rings may 
have themselves formed canopies. Be this as it may, Saturn 
has Jupiter-like belts. Since these marvels exist, it will be 
well to glance at certain of the conditions which they intro- 
duce, and the laws which they are forced to obey, with the 
object of showing that it is quite possible that our earth 
once had such a system. 

To begin with, as the force exerted by gravity on our 
earth is not much greater than on Saturn, conditions similar 
to those now prevailing on that body may have existed on 
our globe. Thus a falling body on our sphere passes through 
a space of sixteen feet during the first second of its journey. 
On Saturn in the polar regions it would cover seventeen and 
five-tenths of a foot, but at the equator, owing to the increased 
velocity of rotation, the force is lessened one-sixth, therefore 
the falling body would travel only fourteen and eight-tenths 
feet in the first second. 

Mathematical calculations (Kepler's Third Law) require 
the rings in the case of our earth to have been about 2,200 
miles from the surface in order to maintain their stability. 

It is known that our sister planet has belts as well as 
rings. This is a very important point. An annular system 
such as Saturn's, taken by itself, would not have influenced 
the climate of our planet in such a way as to mark the con- 
trasts required by the geological ages. For this reason it 

30 



PLANETESIMAL RINGS 31 

is obvious that a secondary cloud system is necessary. Again, 
though it is true that the upper system itself, if it continued 
as a feature in the sky until man appeared on the earth, 
would have impressed itself upon his imagination and re- 
ligious instinct so vividly that it would have contributed 
largely to his primitive nature myths, yet the secondary 
canopy system is needed to round out this record. 

Taking the primary system into consideration, if we could 
travel over the surface of the planet Saturn to-day, we would 
find that from the pole as far as the 63d degree of latitude 
the great annular system would be invisible. Advancing 
toward the equator, the arches would begin to rise above the 
distant horizon more and more. It would be only during 
the two seasons, spring and summer, that the face of the 
rings would turn toward the hemisphere where we would be 
standing. Their appearance at night would be that of a 
bright bow reflecting the light from the sun, but in day-time 
probably only a feeble light, analogous to that of our moon 
when seen in broad daylight, would be visible. 

In mean latitudes, of say 45, the several series of nearly 
concentric rings would be viewed sideways. We would see 
three principal rings and several minor subdivisions, sepa- 
rated by certain well-defined spaces. Under the equator, 
glancing up at the zenith, we would be looking only at the 
thin interior edge. It would be ribbon-like in appearance, 
for, according to the evidence derived from the breadth of the 
shadow cast on the planet, the rings are only sixty miles thick. 

As to the height of these wonderful appendages of our 
sister planet, the inner or " crape " ring, also known as the 
" gauze " ring, begins at a distance of some 6,400 miles from 
the surface of the planet and extends upward to about 8,400 
miles. This first ring merges by imperceptible gradations 
into another circlet which is some 18,000 miles wide. Then 
comes an interval of about 1,450 miles, known as " Cassini's 
division " ; after which follows the outer ring, some 10,000 



32 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

miles wide, whose exterior edge is approximately 43,000 
miles distant from the surface of the planet. 

The substance of the crape ring is now generally admitted 
to be a cloud of cosmical dust, similar to the cloud that causes 
the phenomenon of the zodiacal light. " The disk of Saturn 
is seen through this ring in undiminished brightness, and in 
May, 1905, Saturn's satellite lapetus passed bodily through 
it. The circumstances and consequences of this passage 
proved that the gauze ring is composed of separate particles, 
which are either smaller or less closely aggregated than those 
which form the outer rings." 1 

As the rings draw nearer to the planet, increased col- 
lisions probably account for the finer character of the dust, 
the dashing together of the particles reducing them to a con- 
dition which when they finally fall into the upper strata of 
the atmosphere would result in their immediate combustion, 
the gases resulting spreading out and forming the canopy. 2 

There is a close relationship between meteoric dust and 
the aurora polaris. " According to this view, the light of 
the aurora is caused by clouds of ferruginous meteoric dust, 
which is ignited by friction with the atmosphere. Groneman 
has shown that these might be arranged along the magnetic 
curves by action of the earth's magnetic force during their 
descent, and that their influence might produce the observed 
magnetic disturbances. . . . The correspondences with 
iron lines in its spectrum are sufficiently close to favor the 
idea. Ferruginous particles have been found in the dust of 



1 Illustrirte Zeitung, and Scientific American Supplements, Nos. 192, 
1600. 

2 It is well to emphasize the fact that the gaseous nature of the 
canopy is derived from combustion, and that no part of it comes in 
the aeriform fluid condition directly from the rings. The water-sky 
of the ancients was of secondary origin, the water, or rather the vapor, 
being derived from the surface of the earth itself. As no refraction 
is visible upon the limb of the planet seen through the gauze ring, it 
follows that the ring itself is not gaseous. 



PLANETESIMAL RINGS 33 

the Polar regions, but whether they are derived from stellar 
space or from volcanic eruption is uncertain." 3 

The geographical distribution of the fall of meteorites 
indicates that they have been whirling for some time in belts 
before finally reaching the earth. This of course does not 
apply to the shooting stars, which, coming from a stationary 
radiant point in upper inter-planetary space, are usually 
consumed in our atmosphere. With regard to the former 
class, a prediction was made by Dr. Oliver C. Farrington in 
the Popular Science Monthly in February, 1904, 4 in the 
following words. He said : " It is usual to dismiss inquiries 
regarding the meaning of such groupings with the remark 
that they are mere coincidences. But it is the mission of 
science to investigate coincidences, and however long the 
task may be of determining the laws which bring about the 
particular occurrences here referred to, there can be no doubt 
that they are the result of law, and of law which will some 
day be discerned by the human mind." 

If a few meteorites can make a belt of sufficient density 
to give rise to the auroral phenomenon, naturally great things 
should result from the consumption of a ring of such material. 
Saturn's rings are falling. " Since 165 7, when Huygens 
described the interval between the ring and the planet as 
rather exceeding the width of the ring, it is all but certain 
that a growth inward has actually occurred. For the two 
bright rings together, instead of being narrower than the 
interval, are now more than one and a half times as broad. 
Hence the expressions used by Huygens, no less than most 
of the old drawings, are glaringly inconsistent with the 
planet's present appearance." 5 



8 Encyclopaedia Britannica, 9th ed., article on the aurora. 
*Vol. Ixiv, No. 4, p. 354. 

5 Agnes M. Clerke, "History of Astronomy During the Nineteenth 
Century," 3d ed., pt. ii, chap, viii, p. 366. 
3 



34 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

Inf ailing material naturally drifts towards the poles where 
centrifugal force is annulled, therefore since Saturn's rings 
to-day are falling and are forming a canopy, and it is not 
reasonable to suppose that another process of nature in the 
past originated the blankets now seen on Jupiter, Venus, 
and Mars, and that our earth was garnished by one of 
these appendages derived in some other way. 

In our last chapter a volcanic origin was suggested as a 
possibility, but the fact remains. It is altogether improbable 
that projectiles from terrestrial volcanoes ever received im- 
pulses powerful enough to enable them not only to surmount 
the earth's gravity, but also to penetrate its atmosphere. In 
order to meet this difficulty we were forced to postulate gases 
lighter than air, but the present assumption of an infalling 
ring system accounts for the heavier-than-air gases, such as 
carbon dioxide, riding on top. There is a certain class of 
meteorites that are carbonaceous. 

As to the origin of the material which formed the rings, 
the meteoric hypothesis meets with little favor, for the dis- 
tribution of meteorites through space is too sparse. The 
planetesimal hypothesis assumes a cold spiral nebula, out of 
which the solar system has evolved, but long ages ago, it is 
believed, inter-planetary space was swept clean of the dusty 
material. A question arises Could this supply in any way 
have been replenished ? 

It is generally supposed that the nebulae, from which the 
stellar systems are derived, are rendered luminous by virtue 
of the continually recurring contacts of their various par- 
ticles. It is highly probable that in space there exists a far 
larger number of invisible nebulae than visible, for the reason 
that the number of contacts in a system of lighter texture 
would be so few that their existence would not be made 
known. Our sun is continually rushing into new fields, and 
the suggestion is made that in some past age, geologically 
speaking, not so very long ago, he ran into one of these minor 



PLANETESIMAL RINGS 35 

dark nebulae. 6 This would have replenished the inter- 
planetary dust, and the velocities and distribution of such 
particles would have lent themselves to the formation of just 
such annular systems, as that which has passed away from 
our own earth, and those now visible in the final or canopy 
stage on Venus and Jupiter, and which still survives on the 
planet Saturn. These show us, not how the worlds were 
made, but how the geologic ages were separated by the 
planetesimal-ring clock. 

It must be understood that whether the nebula into which 
our finished solar system plunged was a gaseous spheroid 
or one arising from an aggregation of meteors, matters not, 
the important factor being that this newly acquired material 
conformed to the general law of such systems, revolving in 
concentric orbits about its common centre, which was no 
doubt captivated by our sun. The several constituent parts 
must have been attracted towards the different planets, around 
which they must have first revolved as a nebulous satellite, 
but, owing to their disrupted condition, they no doubt soon 
trailed out into a characteristic ring formation. 

The joint authors of Chamberlin's and Salisbury's 
Geology grant that " the rings of Saturn may have been 
satellite nuclei at the outset, and have been drawn within 
the Roche limit by the growth of Saturn, and then disinte- 
grated by tidal action and distributed into the ring form." 7 

Other methods of acquiring satellites also exist. " This 
possibility, it now seems, has been actually realized. The 
identification of Brooks's with LexelPs comet is due to the 
acumen of Dr. Chandler. He found that the former body 
had spent eight months in 1886 under Jupiter's immediate 
control had, in fact, barely escaped being reduced to the 



6 The suggestion that the sun ran into a nebulous region is somewhat 
similar to that hypothesis, advanced to account for the Ice age, which 
pictures certain regions in space as colder than others. 

7 Vol. ii, p. 63. 



36 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

position of his satellite and had issued from the proximity 
with all the elements of its motion turned, so to speak, topsy- 
turvy." 8 

If annular systems have been acquired as suggested, it 
follows that their period of rotation would not at the first 
have been likely to conform to that of their adopted primary. 
Tidal retardations would in time adjust these differences, 
but in the beginning this added initial impulse derived from 
their original system would have tended to float them high in 
the heavens of their new relative. 

Jupiter to this day furnishes us with evidence of this 
nature. " The time of rotation of the red spot is not the 
same as that of the adjacent cloud-forms. In 1890 a large 
spot was moving directly toward the red spot; but it was 
diverted from its course, and passed at one side of the spot. 
After it passed by it did not return to its original course, 
but remained at the higher latitude into which it had been 
shunted; it passed the red spot at the rate of twenty miles 
an hour. Professor Keeler has likened the great red spot to 
a sand-bank in a river, past which the flecks of foam go 
scurrying." 9 

In Jupiter's case, the true globe has never been seen, so 
the period of rotation is unknown, though the red spot may 
represent some mighty physical disturbance near the sur- 
face. But this does not seem likely, for even this wonderful 
feature is itself subject to a changing rate of rotation. With 
one or two exceptions, the vapor-cloud currents are pretty 
constant, their normal speed conforming closely to the gen- 
eral movement of the latitude in which they circle. 

As regards the relative altitudes of the various markings, 
observation tends to show that the more swiftly moving 
objects are situated at a greater height than those which jour- 

8 "History of Astronomy During the Nineteenth Century," 3d ed., 
p. 445. 

8 Herbert A. Howe, "A Study of the Sky," p. 255. 



PLANETESIMAL RINGS 37 

ney more slowly. According to the conditions outlined in 
our last chapter, this is just what should be expected. In 
Jupiter's case, an invisible gaseous canopy surrounds the 
planet, the lower system of cloud-belts being lifted to heights 
far above the natural storm zone by the inability of these 
vaporous masses to radiate their heat through the greenhouse 
roof. They are aided somewhat in their upward tendency 
by two causes: first, as already mentioned, aqueous vapor, 
being lighter than air, would always reach greater heights 
than it does were it not due to condensation resulting from 
the above-mentioned radiation; second, the great ocean of 
gas, or rather planetesimals, resting above the clouds, exerts 
a certain well defined gravitational pull. 

The equatorial belts observed in Jupiter's canopy are 
probably composed of ring material not yet reduced to the 
gaseous form by the oxidizing agency of the atmosphere. 

Returning to the problem of axial rotation, we have seen 
that atmospheric retardation in the case of Jupiter's cloud- 
belts has reduced the speed of the lower members of the 
system. The opposite characteristic, however, prevails in 
the case of ring systems. Thus Keeler demonstrated by 
means of the light waves received from opposite sides of 
Saturn's rings, that they rotate, but the most marvelous part 
of his spectroscopic work is the point established, that the 
interior part of the rings rotate faster than the outside. 

The following rotation periods are very suggestive : The 
inner edge of the bright ring, 7 hours and 45 minutes. The 
inner edge of the innermost or crape ring, 5 hours 39 min- 
utes. The mean time of the rings as a whole, however, is 
10 hours and 29 minutes, which is somewhat longer than 
that of the planet itself. The atmospheric canopy of Saturn 
does not rotate as fast as the planet itself, and, moreover, 
different streams or belts have relative motion with respect 
to their surroundings. 



38 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

If satellites and annular systems have been acquired as 
postulated, we should expect to find instances where tidal 
action has not yet brought about a perfect harmony. The 
most prominent examples are found in the satellites of 
Uranus and Neptune, which have a retrograde rotation from 
east to west, a fact of which neither Kant nor Laplace had 
been aware. Another striking instance is that of Phobos, one 
of Mars' moons, which is the only known case of a satellite 
circulating faster than its primary rotates. 

" Jupiter's innermost moon conforms in its motions 
strictly, and indeed inevitably, to the plane of his equa- 
torial protuberance, following, however, a sensibly elliptical 
path. Its very insignificance raises the suspicion that it may 
not prove solitary. Possibly it belongs to a zone peopled by 
asteroidal satellites. More than fifteen thousand such small 
bodies could be furnished out of the materials of a single full- 
sized satellite spoiled in the making." 10 



10 "A Popular History of Astronomy During the Nineteenth Cen- 
tury," 3d ed., chap, viii, pp. 357-358. 



CHAPTER IV 

PHYSICAL EFFCTS GEOLOGIC 

THE new factors introduced by this hypothesis throw 
fresh light on many mooted questions. In this chapter it is 
purposed to glance at some of these; namely, tidal action, 
planetesimal deposits, and the division of the geologic periods 
by the great annular time-clock. 

Taking these up in the above order, first we have the 
matter of the earth's rotation affected by these conditions, and 
we find two very important factors diametrically opposed to 
each other. The contraction of the loosely compacted planet- 
esimal world matter, on the one hand, has increased our 
planet's rate of rotation, thus shortening the day, while on 
the other hand, the tidal brake is to be credited with the pre- 
vention of an excessive gain of this speed. 

A doubt arises as to how long the moon has been respon- 
sible for this tidal restraint. The fact is, most of the elabo- 
rate calculations of the mathematicians are based on a terres- 
trial birth and gradual withdrawal of our satellite. Yet this 
birth and withdrawal itself may be questioned. . Thus astron- 
omers tell us : " It is not unlikely that the satellites of 
Jupiter, Saturn, or Mars (we may safely add, of Uranus 
or Neptune) 'never revolved in much narrower orbits than 
those they now traverse; it is practically certain that they 
did not, like our moon, originate very near the present 
surfaces of their primaries." 1 

It is very strange if nature provided two different methods 
for the birth of these children of the planets. Plainly the 



1 Agnes M. Clerke, "A Popular History of Astronomy During the 
Nineteenth Century," 3d ed., pt. ii, chap, ix, p. 387. Phil. Trans., vol. 
clxxii, p. 530. 



40 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

trouble with this whole proposition is that it is founded on 
the old version of the nebula hypothesis. 

Now, turning to the new interpretation, the moon-zones 
or rings out of which all the satellites of the planets were 
formed according to the planetesimal hypothesis had a gravi- 
tational but not a tidal effect on their primaries. Take the 
case of our earth. In opposition to terrestrial gravity the 
contrary attraction of the annular system must have lifted 
immense bodies of water in the equatorial regions. Again, 
these rings attracted each other. As some of the inner rings 
fell they acted as a partial release to the outer or moon-zone 
ring, allowing it to drift off farther and farther into space; 
hence the late birth of the moon tends to ratify the inference 
that we had a regular annular system. The grinding down 
of axial velocity and the expanding of orbital range were 
greatly retarded by the annular system. 

In fact, the above is the only tenable hypothesis advanced 
to explain the birth of our satellite. The break-up of the 
primeval planet into two mases as a consequence of a too 
rapid rotation is open to the objection that the lesser mass 
would have been entirely disrupted. After this catastrophe 
these broken remnants necessarily had to reunite. Why 
introduce into the proposition two elements of uncertainty 
when one is more than sufficient ? 

We remarked that the above is the only tenable hypothe- 
sis advanced to explain the origin of our moon, but it may 
be well to qualify this remark with the suggestion that per- 
haps when our sun picked up the unknown system in stellar 
space, our moon was already a developed member of that 
community. According to this view, other satellites may 
have been added to our mundane system, which, however, 
became disrupted, thus forming the rings postulated. 

But to return to the proposition that our moon was not 
born from, or rather torn from, our semi-molten earth, 
which, to begin with, assumes a condition of earthly things 



PHYSICAL EFFECTS GEOLOGIC 41 

which we cannot admit ever existed, the best authorities 
concurring in this opinion. 

" Mr. James Nolan of Victoria has made it clear that the 
moon could not have subsisted as a continuous mass under 
the powerful disruptive strain which would have acted upon 
it when revolving almost in contact with the present surface 
of the earth ; and Professor Darwin, admitting the objection, 
concedes to our satellite, in its initial stage, the alternative 
form of a flock of meteorites. But such a congregation 
must have been quickly dispersed, by tidal action, into a 
meteoric ring. The same investigator fixed 6500 miles from 
centre to centre as the minimum distance at which the moon 
could have revolved in its entirety." 2 

If the moon had its origin from the terrestrial spheroid, 
then the period of critical instability that brought about its 
birth occurred long aeons before the geologic time-clock began 
to lay down its divisions of rock. Keeping this in mind, if 
the moon is to be credited with being the chief agency in 
developing oceanic tides, then it follows from these two 
propositions that the earliest geologic ages should have seen 
the highest tides. Now, the geological record shows that very 
high tides occurred in the Triassic period of Mesozoic time; 
if the moon were so close as to raise these tides during the 
Reptilian age, then the whole harmony of a gradual with- 
drawal outward on its long spiral journey is upset. The 
first part of the trip would have been unreasonably slow and 
the last portion at an unthinkable speed; therefore we are 
forced to the conclusion that the moon was born at too late 
a date to allow of the thought that it was separated intact 
from its primary. 

At first sight it would appear that there is no connection 
between gravitational action on the part of the belt system 
and geologic divisions of rock and of time, but there is. 



*llid, pt. ii, chap, viii, p. 386. 



42 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

j 

Take, for example, the fact that this pull exerted by the 
rings was uniform around the circumference of the earth. 
It follows that there was no tidal action due to this cause, 
but there must have been a great uplift of the waters of the 
ocean under these appendages. 

Astronomers and physicists claim that the earth is a 
stable body more rigid than steel, and they are extremely 
skeptical of the claims of the geologists that involve vast 
terrestrial uplifts, for they argue, if the earth were less rigid, 
the enormous united tidal influences of the sun and moon 
would cause waves of flexure to travel around the globe as 
ocean tides do, and these agencies would be powerful enough 
to have a disrupting influence. 

Now, the idea which we advance relative to the uplift of 
the waters of the ocean under the annular appendages does 
much to reconcile these views. It is not necessary to suppose 
that the earth is as plastic as is generally claimed by the 
geologists, nor on the other do we have to admit the stability 
of the rigid condition required by the astronomers and physi- 
cists. The evidence shows that as we descend from the earth's 
surface we enter a zone where owing to the augmented heat 
rocks would be in a state of flowage were it not for the in- 
creased gravitational pressure. Below this region the pres- 
sure controls the situation. Now, the critical region is rigid 
so long as it remains under control, but the shifting of the 
oceanic weights has from time to time upset these stable con- 
ditions and introduced the plastic. 

Since the annular system was subject to certain periodic 
and also perhaps to erratic oscillations, it follows that the 
heaped up waters must from time to time have been forced 
to shift. This calls to mind the old ' waves of translation.' 
In the early days of geological theory one hypothesis advanced 
the idea that in some manner a series of gigantic waves were 
propagated in the far north. These mysterious movements 
were styled e waves of translation. ' James Geikie says, " It 



PHYSICAL EFFECTS GEOLOGIC 43 

was unfortunate for this view that it violated at the very 
outset the first principles of the science, by assuming the 
former existence of a cause which there was little in nature 
to warrant." 3 

Perhaps the old hypothesis is not so bad after all, though 
the direction of the inundation should be reversed. 

Shoal water did exist at the poles, as is witnessed by the 
land bridges, by means of which the flora and fauna migrated 
from one continental plain to the other, and also by the 
buried river channels, firths, and fiords. It is generally 
admitted by all but the astronomers and physicists that the 
weight of the great continental ice sheets caused the settling 
of the land masses, and that the vast accumulation of this 
same ice also lent a gravitational pull that tended to draw 
the oceanic waters towards the north ; but in addition to these 
reasons there certainly is no objection to admitting a third 
cause which logically accompanies them. To wit, when the 
canopy passed away the uplifted waters in the equatorial 
regions sought their level. The canopy, as we shall see in a 
future chapter, was the direct cause of the ice ages. 

Le Conte is authority for the statement that " at the 
same time, partly by subsidence, and therefore slacked water- 
currents, and partly by moderated climate and melting of 
glaciers, there was a flooded condition of rivers and lakes in 
Middle Europe, France, Germany, and Switzerland. At 
the same time, also, the northern portion of Asia and the 
lake-region of that continent were submerged. The Caspian 
Sea, Lake Aral, and other lakes in that region were probably 
then united into one great inland sea, connecting either with 
the Black Sea or the then greatly-extended Arctic Ocean, or 
with both." 4 



" The Great Ice Age," 3d ed., chap, iii, p. 26. 

4 Elements of Geo., 5th ed., p. 596. Nature, vol. xiii, p. 74. Natural 
History Magazine, vol. xvii, p. 176. Archives des Science, vol. liv, 
p. 427. 



44 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

Going back in geological time to yet earlier ages, G. 
Frederick Wright says : " Coming down from the neighbor- 
hood of the White Mountains, the Adirondacks, and the 
Archaean highlands of Canada, sediment-laden streams have, 
from the earliest geological ages, been engaged in wearing 
away the hills, scooping out the valleys, and silting up the 
sea. The Alleghany Mountains were at one time the bed of 
the ocean upon which this sediment was deposited. The 
sandstones, shales, and conglomerates of the coal-measures 
attest the activity of the forces of that early period. The 
tops of the mountains in southern ~New York and northern 
and eastern Pennsylvania are covered with subcarboniferous 
conglomerates of almost incredible depth and extent, con- 
sisting largely of well-rounded quartz pebbles, of all sizes 
up to two or three inches in diameter. These are water- 
worn, and must have been rolled along by impetuous currents 
from far-distant regions." 5 

The size of these deposits is indeed incredible, and the 
tremendous currents required for their assortment are indeed 
a puzzle. The key to the situation is found in the warmth 
of the carbonic climate, and this key when turned in the 
lock reveals a greenhouse-roof-canopy that not only piled 
the waters up in a heap but also furnished the materials for 
the coal plants and the limestones of that era. 

In connection with the possible aerial origin of some of 
the above deposits, H. L. Fairchild makes the following sug- 
gestions, which show that geologists are ready to admit the 
extra-terrestrial origin of certain deposits. " With the pass- 
ing of the old hypothesis," he says, " it will be desirable to 
change the terminology of the rocks as far as this now implies 
an original molten or c igneous ' state of the earth. Some 
new name will be desirable for the sediments which were 
formed chiefly or wholly from planetesimals (the cosmic 



""The Ice Age in North America," 4th ed., chap, xii, pp. 268-269. 



PHYSICAL EFFECTS GEOLOGIC 45 

matter) in the early seas of the growing globe. Let us call 
such deposits cosmo elastics, and the primitive massive rocks, 
the cosmics. The downward succession of the rocks would thus 
be from unaltered elastics through altered elastics (meta- 
morphics) to metamorphosed cosmoclastics ; while beneath 
these, perhaps ever invisible, lie the altered cosmics, the 
primitive deposits." 6 

Naturally any ring stuff which may have been added to 
the earth as late as the Carboniferous cannot be expected to 
show forth its origin as clearly as the formations of the 
archseozoic, for the reason that decomposition of the loose 
clastic material was greatly enhanced by the luxuriant vege- 
tal growth in the former era. 

Fairchild distinctly points out that the detritus which 
formed the sandstones, shales, and conglomerates was not all 
due to the wearing away of earlier formations. He remarks : 
" The nebular hypothesis requires that the globe should have 
been fully formed before the surface or epigene agencies 
began their work, and that all the vast deposits of fragmen- 
tal origin, the clastic rocks, have been wholly derived from 
the primitive land areas by rock destruction. The new 
hypothesis allows a different view. According to this, the 
ocean began its work long before the earth and moon had 
attained full size by gathering to themselves all the particles 
of the earth-moon ring or zone. Consequently, there were 
oceanic sediments which were not wholly detrital, but were 
primitive world-stuff. The earlier ocean sediments must 
have been deeply buried under the later, and may now con- 
stitute part of the interior mass of the globe." 7 

Even archaeology testifies to strange, loosely shifting 
material which may be in part the wind blown remnants of 
cosmical world chaff. Thus in connection with BePs sanc- 



8 American Geologist, vol. xxxiii, No. 2, p. 101. 
f lUd, p. 100. 



46 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

tuary at Nippur, Herman V. Hilprecht says : " In descend- 
ing into the pre-Sargonic period below Naram-Sin's pave- 
ment, which itself lies six to eight feet above the present 
level of the desert, Haynes penetrated through more than 
thirty feet of ruins before he reached the virgin soil, or 
thirty-five feet before he was at the water level. What do 
these ruins contain? To what period of human history do 
they lead us ? How was this great accumulation beneath the 
level of the desert possible ? What geological changes have 
taken place since to explain this remarkable phenomenon? 
Such and other similar questions may have come to many 
thoughtful students when they first read these extraordinary 
facts." 8 

Ignatius Donnelly imagined the earth covered with the 
fragments from the wreck of a comet. Natural phenomena, 
however, connected with the every-day physical forces, ex- 
plain the origin of all of these deposits, but though they may 
be explained, it does not follow that some of them, in part 
at least, may not owe their origin to the ring-belt system. In 
other words, it's time to break away from the time-honored 
but antiquated principle of Charles Lyell, that geological 
evidence excludes the thought of catastrophic changes. Thus 
the late Joseph Prestwich contended for a comparatively 
recent submergence of western Europe and the Mediter- 
ranean coasts. 9 The distribution of rubble-drift was one of 
his strong lines of argument. Rubble-drift hardly answers 
the requirements, but Prestwich also mentions the wide- 
spread formations of the loess. In almost all parts of the 

""Explorations in Bible Lands During the Nineteenth Century," p. 
891. 

8 Articles on this subject may be found in the following publications : 
"On the Raised Beaches and 'Head' or Rubble-drift of the South of 
England, etc.." Quart. Journ. Geol. Society, vol. xlviii, p. 263; 
" On the Evidences of a Submergence of Western Europe and of the 
Mediterranean Coasts at the close of the Glacial Period," etc., Phil. 
Trans., for 1893. 



PHYSICAL EFFECTS GEOLOGIC 47 

world this peculiar deposit is found. Several theories have 
been proposed to account for it, but none are satisfactory. 
It appears to be associated with the ground-up materials 
from the glaciers and to have been rearranged by fluviatile 
and eolian processes. The fossil content belongs to the land. 
Bust from the belts may readily enter in part into its com- 
position. By far the largest percentage of meteoric material 
which reaches this earth is in dust form. However, we are 
not forced to accept the statement that all the material pre- 
cipitated from the belts was consumed to powder before 
reaching terra firma, for if larger bodies did fall it follows 
that they would have been quickly reduced in the mill of the 
glaciers and the extreme weather conditions to which they 
were exposed. Prestwich also remarks the red breccia which 
covers the hills of southern Europe. 

The conclusion arrived at is that no distinctive deposit 
can be found that owes its origin wholly to the belts, for the 
reason that from the beginning such material was loose and 
scattered, and therefore subjected to the most rigorous of the 
disintegrating processes. 

Though it is impossible at this time to identify any of 
the superficial debris as planetesimal dust, yet some of the 
old views regarding these depositions are in this connection 
of rare interest. For instance, Sir. J. W. Dawson says of 
them: 

" The deposits of the mammoth age, and it would seem 
of the reindeer age as well, are covered with beds of yellow 
earth, brick earth, and earth with angular stones, which ante- 
date the later stone age and bronze age. These deposits con- 
stitute the ordinary soil of the country, and at all levels, and 
they are evidently of the same nature with the superficial 
gravels, soils, and loess to be found resting on the pleistocene 
deposits everywhere in the northern hemisphere, and which 
have poured into the old caverns of the Palseocosmic age. 
They are not to be confounded with the ordinary glacial 



48 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

deposits which in northern districts underlie them. They 
are not river deposits, because no possible extension of the 
river beds could overflow the places where they lie, or bring 
the stones from very distant localities which the gravels often 
contain. They prove as Howorth, the Duke of Argyll, and 
the writer have argued, that at the close of the Palseocosmic 
age a deluge of water swept over our continents and caused 
the physical break between the earlier and later human ages. 
This great cataclysm was preceded, in Europe at least, by 
a gradual refrigeration and a progressive extinction of the 
larger animals, and was followed by a diminished size of 
the continents, and by the advent over the depopulated sur- 
face of a more limited fauna and a new race of men. That 
it must have been this great cataclysm which has fixed itself 
in the traditions of all races of men as the historical deluge, 
we can scarcely doubt." 10 

Before the facts of the stupendous work done in the ice 
ages were generally understood, certain phenomena which 
have since been attributed to this agency were given other 
interpretations. Thus the loess was called " inundation 
mud," and perhaps the idea was not so very wrong after all. 
It was known to have covered much of Europe and of Asia, 
and inasmuch as G. Frederick Wright has found evidence 
of a very extensive recent submergence in this latter con- 
tinent, 11 the old idea gains new credence. The Duke of 
Argyll says: 

" On the continent of Europe, too, we know that a large 
part of its central area is occupied by a formation (the 
' loess ') which Lyell calls ' inundation mud,' and which he 
designates as the last and latest of all the great formations 
known to geology. The difficulty of accounting for it is 
proved by the number of theories which have been pro- 



10 " Modern Science in Bible Lands," chap, in, pp. 137-138. 

n American Geologist, vol. v, No. 3, p. 182. McClure's, June, 1901. 



PHYSICAL EFFECTS GEOLOGIC 49 

pounded. The shells in this formation are not fluviatile, nor 
are they lacustrine. On the other hand, they are not marine. 
They are terrestrial. They are land shells the shells of 
damp woods or morasses in short, of a land surface which 
has been covered with this ' inundation mud.' One possible 
explanation is obvious. The sea establishes its own forms 
of life where itself is established for any length of time. 
But if its invasion of any land area be not lasting, but 
temporary, it may fail to carry its mere dead shells over 
that area, whilst its living fauna would not have had time to 
grow." 12 

Having outlined the powerful influence that the gravita- 
tional pull of the annular system exerted, it is next pur- 
posed, as set forth in the opening statement of this chapter, 
to show how these inundations and the climatic changes 
brought about by the canopy itself may be likened to a 
great annular time-clock, dividing the geological periods 
from each other. 

Every one knows that a geological clock would be a very 
convenient thing, an instrument that would assure the inves- 
tigator that the same time divisions were synchronous in 
all localities. It is manifest to a greater or less extent that 
such an instrument has existed throughout the geological 
ages. The present hypothesis reveals the clock, its work- 
ings, and the method by which we may ascertain the striking 
of the hours. 

It is a significant fact that even the subordinate groups 
of a formation are almost as definitely marked off in the 
same order, the world over, as the major terranes themselves. 
This is true not only of the stratagraphic arrangement, but 
also of the fossil content. Why, it might be asked, could 
not a migration have occurred backwards from one conti- 
nent to the other, the Silurian fauna being imposed upon the 



"Article by Argyll in the Contemporary Review. 

i 



50 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

Devonian, for instance? Clearly there was some hindering 
and controlling cause that made the conditions nearly uni- 
form throughout the world, and there can be no doubt that 
even the minor subdivisions were practically synchronous or 
contemporaneous. The singular uniformity of the litho- 
logical record, moreover, indicates that this controlling cause 
was more than physical; it was material. 

It is postulated that a separate fall marked the end of 
each geological age, and to a lesser extent subsidiary falls 
punctuated each era, period, and epoch. These falls were 
not, generally speaking, catastrophic, but were gradual. Take 
that which marked the Ice age. Large quantities of snow 
and ice, no doubt, fell from the upper cloud belt itself. Not 
only must this fall have been long drawn out, but the result- 
ing glaciers also protracted the time by locking in their icy 
chain such hordes that the heat of centuries was not sufficient 
to melt them. 

In chapter three it was stated that it was possible that the 
earth's annular system was picked up from new sweepings 
derived from the cosmical dust of a minor or dark nebula 
into whose territory our solar system had plunged. It 
is established, however, from the evidence of the time 
clock, that our system has survived from the dawn of geo- 
logical phenomena. Following inevitable law, ring after 
ring has broken away from the equatorial system, has spread 
out and formed canopies, only to be eventually claimed by 
the earth. It follows from this order that between the fall 
of each separate ring there was probably a time of clear 
skies, except for the ribbon-like edge of the disks which 
spanned the zenith at the equator. 

The fact of these clear skies is very important to the 
present hypothesis because the existence of exogenous trees, 
growing by annular rings added to the outside, as early as 
Devonian time, proves the action of alternating seasons of 
summer and winter, and hence a solar climate. Again, 



PHYSICAL EFFECTS GEOLOGIC 51 

since it is purposed to show that the last remnant of the ring 
system did not pass away until after civilized man appeared 
on the earth, it is necessary that he could have seen the clear 
sky, for otherwise the early records which he has left us 
would be violated, as they contain accurate descriptions of 
solar and stellar phenomena. 

In the American Geologist of February, 1904, 13 attention 
is called to a twisted form of stem exhibited by certain 
shallow-water monticuliporoids of the lower Silurian, which 
Sardeson interprets as possibly due to heliotropism, and 
hence an indication of direct sunlight. The article goes 
on to state that " if these indications of early solar climate 
can be explained conformably with Mr. Manson's theory, or 
a modification of it, certainly a most serious obstacle will be 
overcome." Now, in our preface Manson's theory was men- 
tioned as a scientific presentation of an atmospheric cloud- 
canopy. Here where it is lacking, the hypothesis under con- 
sideration is strong. Open skies did exist for a large part of 
the time. 



Vol. xxxiii, No. 2, p. 120; vol. xxvii, p. 388. 



CHAPTER V 

PHYSICAL EFFECTS BIOLOGIC 

" THE very limited number of generic forms that pass 
from one major formation to another is remarkable. Bar- 
rande enumerates but seven of the twenty-seven Cambrian 
genera which pass over into the Silurian, and twelve of the 
fifty-five Silurian genera which reappear in the Devonian. 
The Carboniferous genera are but three or four in number 
(Phillipsia, Griifithides, Brachymetopus, Proetus). Of the 
fifty-five Silurian genera, with three exceptions, all the forms 
are already represented in the lower division. The number 
of genera that extend through two or more formations is 
reduced to two or three (Phillipsia, Proetus)." x 

Rutherford has aptly said : " Since the different forms 
of life found in the successive geological strata indicate the 
stages of evolution, it is evident that the biological and geo- 
logical clock is the same, and that whatever time is required 
for the changes in the one science must be conceded by the 
other." 2 

As a canopy fell a geological age ended, and with it its 
life conditions. In course of time a second and originally 
a higher ring descended, forming another canopy, with its 
resultant new world environment and with its new life con- 
ditions admitting of a higher order. These in turn gave way 
to similar falls and to successive marches of still other rings 
and canopies across the ephemeral sky. Thus the record is 
written, and the facts are for our investigation. In the 
succeeding chapters it is purposed to show that the new 



1 Angelo Heilprin, " The Geographical and Geological Distribution 
of Animals," International Scientific Series, pt. iii, chap, i, p. 277. 
8 Harper's Monthly, Feb., 1905, p. 390. 
52 



PHYSICAL EFFECTS BIOLOGIC 53 

physical conditions introduced by annular phenomena are 
responsible for these deaths, and that they also are potent 
factors in causing the surviving species to mutate. Finally 
the geographical distribution of the flora and fauna will be 
shown to have taken place in accord with the new hypothesis. 

The fact of the imperfection of the geological and bio- 
logical record demonstrates the catastrophic nature of the 
end of the age changes. Had these occurred by gradual 
stages, the missing links would be wanting, that is, if life 
had developed along the lines of the Darwinian School. But 
there are missing links, as every one knows, and each one 
of these links means a catastrophe of some nature. Each 
succeeding geological age had its own development, which, 
though it was a continuation in part of the preceding age, 
nevertheless had distinctive peculiarities, due to climate, 
absorption of light and heat rays, weight of the atmosphere, 
etc. Probably also the waters were at times impregnated and 
the air vitiated. 

To begin with, as Darwin himself showed, the intervals 
that elapsed between consecutive formations were usually 
much longer than the formations themselves. Angelo Heil- 
prin says : " It must be admitted that there are certain 
anomalies connected with the occurrence of breaks which 
have not thus far received an adequate explanation. Their 
broad distribution it might, indeed, almost be said univer- 
sality in equivalent periods of time, has long been noted as 
a surprising fact, and one that still remains in the nature 
of a puzzle to the geologist. Nowhere on the surface of the 
earth has there as yet been found a distinct connection 
between the Paleozoic and Mesozoic series of deposits, and 
only at a very few points (India, New Zealand, California) 
what may be considered to be an unequivocal link between the 
Mesozoic and Cainozoic series (Cretaceous and Tertiary)." 3 



"The Geographical and Geological Distribution of Animals," p. 193. 



54 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

This is as it should be, for only during a period of change 
were the forces of nature fully awakened, and the general 
character of these changes was the natural result of a shift 
or alteration in a system that environed the world. Sec- 
ondary results followed immediately, and these in turn fre- 
quently followed others. Thus the violent shifting of the 
oceanic waters as pictured in our last chapter must have 
induced sympathetic volcanic action. Illustrations of all 
kinds are plentiful. The Arctic mammoth luxuriating in 
polar pastures were overwhelmed suddenly and placed in 
cold storage with undigested food in the stomach. 

Elephant Point, Alaska, is famous as the locality where 
Kotzebue found remains of the fossil elephant, ox, and other 
mammals. Its bluffs are said to be composed of tough blue 
clay, light loose soil, bones, and solid ice. These cliffs are some- 
times fifty feet thick, and extend for two miles east and west. 
" The smell of these ice cliffs," says Dr. Tarleton H. Bean, 
" resembles that of a stable or something worse." " The 
old Russians living in Siberia were of opinion that the 
mammoth was an animal of the same kind as the elephant, 
and that Siberia had been warmer before the Flood than 
now, and elephants had then lived in numbers there; that 
they had been drowned in the .Flood, and afterwards, when 
the climate became colder, had frozen in the river mud." 4 
The question as to the origin of this graveyard is easily 
explained by the present hypothesis. 

Looking back at some of the early ages, the same record 
of sudden death confronts us. Even Lvell. who always 

tj / */ 

emphasized gradual development along ultra conservative 
lines, cannot help recognizing this feature. He says : 

" It has been remarked, and truly, that many fish and 
saurians, found fossil in the Lias, must have met with sud- 
den death and immediate burial: and that the destructive 



4 Nordenskjold, "Voyage of the Vega," p. 305. 



PHYSICAL EFFECTS BIOLOGIC 55 

operation, whatever may have been its nature, was often 
repeated. 

" ( Sometimes/ says Dr. Buckland, ' scarcely a single 
bone or scale has been removed from the place it occupied 
during life ; which could not have happened had the uncov- 
ered bodies of these saurians been left, even for a few hours, 
exposed to putrefaction, and to the attacks of fishes and 
other smaller animals at the bottom of the sea.' Not only are 
the skeletons of the Ichthyosaurs entire, but sometimes the 
contents of their stomachs still remain between their ribs, 
as before remarked, so that we can discover the particular 
species of fish on which they lived, and the form of their 
excrements. Not unfrequently there are layers of these 
coprolites, at different depths in the Lias, at a distance from 
any entire skeletons of the marine lizards from which they 
were derived ; ' as if/ says Sir H. de la Beche, ' the muddy 
bottom of the sea received small sudden accessions of matter 
from time to time, covering up the coprolites and other 
exuviaa which had accumulated during the intervals.' It is 
further stated that, at Lyme Regis, those surfaces only of 
the coprolites which lay uppermost at the bottom of the sea 
have suffered partial decay, from the action of water before 
they were covered and protected by the muddy sediment that 
has afterwards permanently enveloped them. 

" Numerous specimens of the Calamary, or pen-and-ink 
fish (Geoteuthis bollensis), have also been met with in the 
Lias at Lyme, with the ink-bags still distended, containing 
the ink in a dried state, chiefly composed of carbon, and but 
slightly impregnated with carbonate of lime. These cephalo- 
poda, therefore, must, like the saurians, have been soon 
buried in sediment; for, if long exposed after death, the 
membrane containing the ink would have decayed." 5 



5 Elements of Geo., pp. 362, 363. Bridgewater Treatise, p. 115. 
Geological Researches, p. 334. Buckland, Bridgewater Treatise, p. 307. 



56 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

Hugh Miller says : " The river bull-head, when attacked 
by an enemy, or immediately as it feels the hook in its jaws, 
erects its two spines at nearly right angles with the plates of 
the head, as if to render itself as difficult of being swallowed 
as possible. The attitude is one of danger and alarm; and 
it is a curious fact * * * that in this attitude nine- 
tenths of the Pterichthys of the Lower Old Red Sandstone 
are found. We read in the stone a singularly preserved story 
of the strong instinctive love of life, and of the mingled fear 
and anger implanted for its preservation ' The champions 
in distorted postures threat. 7 It presents us, too, with a 
wonderful record of violent death falling at once, not on a 
few individuals, but on whole tribes." 6 

Again, the above author describes a scene of death which 
suggests at once the agency of pollution from the fall of 
cosmical canopy dust. He says: 

" At this period of our history, some terrible catastrophe 
involved in sudden destruction the fish of an area at least a 
hundred miles from boundary to boundary, perhaps much 
more. The same platform in Orkney as at Cromarty is 
strewed thick with remains, which exhibit unequivocally the 
marks of violent death. The figures are contorted, con- 
tracted, curved; the tail in many instances is bent round to 
the head ; the spines stick out ; the fins are spread to the full, 
as in fish that die in convulsions. The PterlchtJiys shows 
its arms extended at their stiffest angle, as if prepared for 
an enemy. The attitude of the ichthyolites on this platform 
are attitudes of fear, anger, and pain. The remains, too, 
appear to have suffered nothing from the after-attacks of 
predaceous fishes; none such seem to have survived. The 
record is one of destruction at once widely spread and total, 
so far as it extended. There are proofs that, whatever may 
have been the cause of the catastrophe, it must have taken 



" Old Red Sandstone," chap, ii, p. 48. 



PHYSICAL EFFECTS BIOLOGIC 57 

place in a sea unusually still. The scales, when scattered by 
some slight undulation, are scattered to the distance of only 
a few inches, and still exhibit their enamel entire, and their 
peculiar fineness of edge. The spines, even when separated, 
retain their original needle-like sharpness of point. Rays 
well nigh as slender as horse-hairs are enclosed unbroken in 
the mass. Whole ichthyolites occur, in which not only all 
the parts survive, but even the expression which the stiff and 
threatening attitude conveyed when the last struggle was 
over. Destruction must have come in the calm, and it must 
have been of a kind by which the calm was nothing dis- 
turbed. In what could it have originated ? By what quiet 
but potent agency of destruction were the innumerable exist- 
ences of an area perhaps ten thousand square miles in extent 
annihilated at once, and yet the medium in which they had 
lived left undisturbed by its operations ? Conjecture lacks 
footing in grappling with the enigma, and expatiates in 
uncertainty over all the known phenomena of death. Dis- 
eases of mysterious origin break out at times in the animal 
kingdom, and well nigh exterminate the tribes on which they 
fall. The present generation has seen a hundred millions 
of the human family swept away by a disease unknown to 
our fathers. Virgil describes the fatal murrain that once 
depopulated the Alps, not more as a poet than as a historian. 
The shell-fish of the rivers of North America died in such 
vast abundance during a year of the present century, that 
the animals, washed out of their shells, lay rotting in masses 
beside the banks, infecting the very air. About the close of 
the last century, the haddock well nigh disappeared, for 
several seasons together, from the eastern coasts of Scotland ; 
and it is related by Creech that a Scotch shipmaster of the 
period sailed for several leagues on the coast of Norway, 
about the time the scarcity began, through a floating shoal 
of dead haddocks. But the ravages of no such disease, how- 
ever excessive, could well account for some of the phenomena 



68 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

of this platform of death. It is rarely that disease falls 
equally on many different tribes at once, and never does it 
fall with instantaneous suddenness; whereas in the ruin of 
this platform from ten to twelve distinct genera seem to have 
been equally involved; and so suddenly did it perform its 
work that its victims were fixed in their first attitude of terror 
and surprise. I have observed, too, that groups of adjoining 
nodules are charged frequently with fragments of the same 
variety of ichthyolite; and the circumstance seems fraught 
with evidence regarding both the original habits of the 
creatures and the instantaneous suddenness of the destruc- 
tion by which they were overtaken. They seem, like many 
of our existing fish, to have been gregarious, and to have 
perished together ere their crowds had time to break up and 
disperse. 

" Fish have been found floating dead in shoals beside 
submarine volcanoes killed either by the heated water or by 
mephitic gases. There are, however, no marks of volcanic 
activity in connection with the ichthyolite beds no marks, 
at least, which belong to nearly the same age with the fossils. 
The disturbing granite of the neighboring eminences was 
not upheaved until after the times of the Oolite. But the 
volcano, if such was the destroying agent, might have been 
distant; nay, from some of the points in an area of such 
immense extent, it must have been distant. The beds abound, 
as has been said, in lime; and the thought has often struck 
me that calcined lime, cast out as ashes from some distant 
crater, and carried by the winds, might have been the cause 
of the widely spread destruction to which their organisms 
testify. I have seen the fish of a small trouting stream, over 
which a bridge was in the course of building, destroyed in 
a single hour, for a full mile below the erection, by the 
few troughfuls of lime that fell into the water when the 
centring was removed." 7 

, pp. 221-225. 



PHYSICAL EFFECTS BIOLOGIC 59 

It was stated above that during the periods of canopy 
change sympathetic earth movements occurred. James D. 
Dana illustrates this point in the following language: 
" Prominent among the events influencing the rock-structure 
and life of a continent is that of mountain-making. The 
Appalachian Mountains stand as a grand time-boundary 
between the Paleozoic seon and the Mesozoic; and contem- 
poraneous orographic movements make a like limit in Euro- 
pean geology. Moreover, it was attended by the most re- 
markable of organic breaks. The Taconic Mountains mark 
the close of the Lower Silurian, an epoch of abrupt change in 
North America; and parallel disturbances occurred in 
Britain and Europe. The Laramide or post-Cretaceous 
mountain system along the Rocky Mountains is another such 
boundary for America, separating Mesozoic and Cenozoic 
time, though not as complete in the attendant organic break 
as in the physical. But it so happens that no corresponding 
event occurred at this time in Europe, the orographic move- 
ments most nearly synchronous taking place after the com- 
mencement of Cenozoic time. Nevertheless, the organic 
break at the close of the Cretaceous period is even greater 
for Europe than for America. Such a fact seems to show 
that there was some other catastrophic event concerned; but 
its nature is yet to be studied out." 8 

Again Dana says : " Paleozoic time is naturally divided 
into two sections at the break between the Lower and Upper 
Silurian. This boundary line is marked in the history by 
an epoch of mountain-making in eastern North America and 
western Europe, and by a somewhat abrupt transition in 
animal life of the seas." 9 

We need not stop to point to the drift and meaning of 
all this testimony. In the last hundred years geology, like 
biology, has tossed from the cataclysms of Cuvier and his 

'Manual of Geo., 4th ed., pt. iv, p. 406. 
9 Ibid, p. 460. 



60 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

geological revelations to the slow principle of the Doctrine of 
Uniformity as advocated by Sir Charles Lyell. The latter 
is antiquated, and at the present time the best thought of 
the age is swinging back under the leadership of Suess to 
recognize sudden transformations. 

The late Joseph Le Conte is one of those who have recog- 
nized the fact that " the present condition of geological evi- 
dence is undoubtedly in favor of some degree of suddenness." 
He adds further on in the same work from which the above 
is cited : "In the evolution of the organic kingdom, as in 
the evolution of the earth, in the evolution of society, in the 
evolution of the egg, in fact, as in all evolution, there have 
been periods of comparative quiet and periods of rapid 
change." 10 

The doctrine of evolution by distinct and abrupt muta- 
tions, as advanced by De Vries, 11 which is now claiming the 
closest attention of the biological world, clearly recognizes 
this fact. The present hypothesis presents the causes which 
stimulated the individual or perhaps whole colonies to become 
mutants. 

Closely related to the suddenness is the fact of periodicity 
in the introduction of species. They come in by bursts or 
flood tides at particular points of time. These periods are 
followed and preceded by times of ebb in which little that 
is new is evolved. It is a significant fact that since the 
Glacial age no new species of mammal has originated. 

" A great number of zoologists, botanists, and paleon- 
tologists are inclined to adopt this notion of sudden changes 
as consonant with the teachings of experience. We may cite 
in this connection the well-known argument of Agassiz. This 
celebrated naturalist called attention to the simultaneous 
appearance, in the first fossiliferous strata, of a mixed fauna 



10 " Keligion and Science," pp. 22, 25. 
"Die Mutationstheorie, 1903. 



PHYSICAL EFFECTS BIOLOGIC 61 

comprising representations of all the grand divisions of the 
animal kingdom. This is shown in the Upper Silurian or 
Devonian horizon in which the vertebrates make their appear- 
ance in the form of fish. In the most ancient fauna, and 
that which has become known most recently (that of the 
Lower Silurian or Cambrian), all the grand divisions are 
still found, except that of vertebrates, each represented by 
quite high types. It is a question to be decided whether, 
lower down, in the sedimentary rocks hitherto considered as 
azoic, there is really a living population, more scattered, and 
reduced to the most rudimentary animals and plants that 
is to say, to protophytes and protozones, as appears from the 
researches of MM. Barrois, Bertrand, and Cayeux. Yet 
it is none the less certain that the very important remark 
of Agassiz is true, and that, in the Cambrian horizon, all 
the principal types appear simultaneously. We recognize 
here a sort of explosion of universal life. 

" In consequence of this the transformists are obliged 
to admit that in the short space of time that corresponds to 
the deposit of the most ancient fossiliferous rocks the first 
living beings must have undergone all the evolutions neces- 
sary for passing from the state of a simple mass of proto- 
plasm to that of types characteristic of all the grand divi- 
sions, the vertebrates only excepted. We are authorized to 
conclude that the time during which the most ancient fos- 
siliferous rocks were deposited was short, because we can 
judge of it from their thickness, which is much inferior to 
that of the subsequent strata. Therefore, but a comparatively 
short space of time was required for the modifications by 
virtue of which the first living forms produced the principal 
grand divisions. The Lower Silurian epoch was one of rapid 
transformations, of active morphogenesis, of intensive muta- 
tions. If we wished to suppose that these were caused by 
the Darwinian mechanism of slow accumulations of minute 
variations, we would be obliged to throw back the origin of 



62 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

life into an epoch inconceivably beyond the most ancient 
geologic epoch now known. 

" In the same way, as other paleontologists have ob- 
served, among whom is Dr. Charles A. White, the extraor- 
dinary flora of the carboniferous epoch developed abruptly. 
We know nothing or but very little of the floras that pre- 
ceded it. Its appearance and its extinction were sudden. 

''' We might multiply these remarks relative to the abrupt 
explosions of creation in living things. Here is another. 
The dinosaurian lizards that abounded throughout the sec- 
ondary epoch, forming, indeed, the dominant animal type, 
show an extreme variety taken from any point of view. 
There were some gigantic ones, like Brontosaurus, having 
a mass that was certainly equal to that of four or five ele- 
phants; others of small stature, not larger than a domestic 
fowl. The group included carnivora and herbivora, aquatic 
species and terrestrial species, quadrupeds, and bipeds quite 
similar to birds, except as to the faculty of flight. By the 
variety of their types of organization, they form, as aptly 
stated by Frederick A. Lucas, a sort of epitome of the class of 
reptiles. Now, their appearance and differentiation were com- 
paratively abrupt and sudden phenomena. It does not seem 
probable that they were formed by the mechanism of natural 
selection, and that they were destroyed because of their 
inferiority to other species in the struggle for existence. 

" We arrive at similar conclusions from an examination 
of the first placental mammals. They appeared abruptly at 
the beginning of the Tertiary period ; they assumed a variety 
of forms almost as numerous as those of the mammals of 
to-day, and they finally disappeared." 12 

L. P. Gratacap, in a paper on " Biological Crises," says : 
" Assuming a great age for this development [reference is 
to the faunal basins of the Lower Carboniferous], the expres- 



u A. Dastre, Article on the New Theory of the Origin of the Species, 
Scientific American Supplement, No. 1510. 



PHYSICAL EFFECTS BIOLOGIC 63 

sion of suddenness is not unwarranted in referring to them. 
There is certainly slender suggestion in the Devonian of 
such large and opulent supplies of crinoidal life. The 
' biological crisis ' they present is not simply apparent. It 
is real." 13 

New species arise from an old stock, not by continuous 
and slow changes, but suddenly. The genius of evolution 
seems to be seeking that mystic cause ; the modifying effects 
of external circumstances due to the various phenomena con- 
nected with this belted canopy hypothesis rounds out the 
whole scheme. 

In a manner never dreamt of in the philosophy of 
Lamarck, physical conditions enter into the problem of evo- 
lution, evolving, as it were, a new evolution. As stated above, 
the present hypothesis presents the causes which stimulated 
the individual, or perhaps whole colonies, to become mutants. 

According to De Yries' hypothesis, the degree of muta- 
bility is dependent upon external life conditions. Our new 
hypothesis presents the greatest variety of these. As each 
canopy overspread the earth, the whole environment was 
changed. Climate was changed and food supply. The qual- 
ity of the light was altered. Absorption of the red rays 
of the solar spectrum took place. The content of the air and 
its density were altered. The pull of gravity from above 
caused a loss of weight. Waters were impregnated. Sym- 
pathetic volcanic action caused by the disarrangement of the 
tidal uplift occurred. Land connections or land bridges in 
the polar regions partially laid bare by the rush of waters 
towards the equator facilitated geographical migration, etc., 
etc. All these and many more disturbances went to make up 
quite a budget of altered external conditions. These produced 
great changes in life already existent, and when a canopy 
system fell, extermination in whole or in part, and readap- 



18 American Geologist, vol. xxviii, No. 4, p. 234. 



64 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

tation of the survivors, followed. Mutation under such con- 
ditions was necessary; it meant natural preservation. In 
this way the single steps of evolution were brought about. 
The survival of the fittest meant the survival of those indi- 
viduals or species best fitted to adapt themselves to the new 
conditions. Evolution is at a comparative standstill since the 
Glacial age, for the reason that physical nature has been in 
a like quiescent state. 



CHAPTER VI 

DENSITY OF THE ATMOSPHERE AND OTHER 
PHYSICAL PHENOMENA 

LAM ABC K gives the following as a definition of species: 
" A species is a collection of similar individuals which are 
perpetuated by generation in the same condition as long as 
their environment has not changed sufficiently to bring about 
variation in their habits, their character, and their forms." 

Herbert Spencer says : " The direct action of the medium 
was the primordial factor of organic evolution." 

The botanist Sachs asserts : " A far greater portion of 
the phenomena of life is called forth by external influences 
than one formerly ventured to assume. Every phenomenon 
of life arises from two factors : on the one hand from the 
structure transmitted from the mother organism, and on the 
other from external forces working on this structure." 

This truth is aptly illustrated by the following experi- 
ment : If a radium tube of proper strength be suspended in 
water containing tadpoles, this first stage of the common 
frog is prolonged, but eccentricities of growth occur and 
monsters are produced. 1 

Another striking demonstration is found in the external 
anatomy of the celebrated trout which was introduced into 
New Zealand. In this case the number of pyloric appendages 
about the stomach augmented rapidly, and even the form 
and the size of the animal changed. This all took place 
quickly, and it shows the potent effects of environment. 
When Nature is stimulated by sufficient causes it is capable 
of transforming animals, we might say, suddenly. 



1 Robert H. Bradbury, "Radium and Radio- Activity in General," 
The Franklin Institute Journal, vol. clix, No. 3, March, 1905. 

5 65 



66 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

But in this age Nature is not stimulated to this degree, 
hence it is an age of quiescence. Yet this is the age which, 
according to the Doctrine of Uniformity, should show the 
greatest changes, for it is an age of complex organisms. The 
possibilities for a complex or old form to undergo changes 
cannot be questioned. The complex is more easily deranged 
than the simple. Why, then, do forms not change in this 
present age ? Plainly, Nature is not stimulated by sufficient 
causes. 

It will not do to say that variation was at one time more 
active with each species because forms were younger. In 
fact, such an argument only strengthens our position, for 
the above reasoning shows us that the further we get away 
from simple forms, the greater are the varieties, hence, 
plainly, the causes which stimulated Nature when she was 
young must have been very pronounced. 

Natural selection is always ready to make use of adapted 
variations. Thus, the gull fed on corn will develop a gizzard. 
The wild duck when tamed will differ from the same species 
in the length of wing. The green frogs taken from the 
forest and placed in colorless surroundings become sombre 
gray. But these examples do not become " fixed " that is, 
their biological associations have not been sufficiently changed 
to cause them to develop into new animals and the sombre 
frog replaced in the bright green foliage soon regains his 
former color. Changes resulting from age-producing canopy 
falls were of a more serious and permanent character. 

Nature apparently has some pretty large blanks, and it 
must have taken correspondingly great physical changes to 
bridge these chasms. The present hypothesis reveals the 
most powerful physical agencies ever dreamt of in the philos- 
ophy of man, therefore it is best fitted to cope with the 
conditions. 

James D. Dana says, speaking of these blanks : 

" One of these is the apparently sudden appearance of 



DENSITY OF THE ATMOSPHERE 67 

plants of the tribe of Angiosperms, the most common kind of 
Kecent time, in the Lower Cretaceous ; another, the still more 
remarkably abrupt introduction of ordinary or placental 
Mammals as successors to the Marsupials at the commence- 
ment of the Tertiary; another, the introduction of well- 
characterized Fishes, without the discovery of their pre- 
cursors." 2 Such gaps are of course every day being lessened 
by the discoveries of intermediate links, but if correctly 
balanced, there is still a very wide interval in the chain of 
life that physical environment alone can account for. 

Again, the destruction of vast horizons at the end of the 
ages speaks volumes. Dana describes the fact in these words : 

" This sweeping from the world of so large a part of its 
life, and especially that of Mesozoic characteristics, was a 
much-needed preparation for the era of the ' Reign of Mam- 
mals.' It was an opportunity for the ' survival of the 
fittest ' on a grand scale ; that is, the survival of those species 
that could withstand the special causes of destruction, and of 
the many that were out of harm's way. The exterminations 
were the removals of hindrances to progress. The survival of 
the fittest and of the lucky ones, while not directly species- 
making, was the origin of new associations in continental 
and oceanic life ; that is, of new faunas and new floras over 
the world, in which, under the modified geographical and 
physical conditions, the elements existed for further change 
and progress," 3 

One of the potent physical changes which would have 
caused a general extermination at the end of an age would 
have been a fluctuation in the density of the atmosphere. 
It has been facetiously said that the Dinosaur of the species 
of Triceratops died of its big head. Many a true word has 
been spoken in jest, and this is not one of the least of the 



2 Manual of Geology, 4th ed., p. 1031. 
8 Ibid., p. 878. 



68 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

many. " A head of one of these has been found more than 
six feet long and four feet wide, and another over eight feet 
long.' 7 4 Every skeleton is the solution of a problem in 
mechanics, to wit, the problem of carrying a given weight 
and of adaptation to a given mode of life. Thus often a 
variation in condition has proved fatal to a whole race. 
Elephas ganesa, a species of mammoth found in Pliocene 
deposits of the Sidwalik Hills, India, had tusks twelve feet 
nine inches long and two feet two inches in circumference. 
It is a mystery how these animals ever carried them, owing 
to their enormous size and leverage. 

Another one of the creatures that came to its end through 
its big head was Dinotherium giganteum. This animal was 
of elephantine proportions, and lived in the Miocene. It 
was characterized by an enormous head, over six feet long, 
and unquestionably it labored under great mechanical dis- 
advantage in lifting its immense weight in the process of 
mastication. It can be seen, then, how any change in the 
density of the atmosphere directly influenced its chances in 
the struggle for life. 

Again, such great and necessarily sluggish brutes as 
Brontosaurus and Diplodocus, with their tons of flesh to 
carry, and their small heads and feeble teeth, were obviously 
reared in circumstances that must have been easy for them, 
as they were unfitted to serve in any strenuous struggle for 
existence. The peculiar make-up of these animals has a 
meaning that may now be understood. The great ground 
sloths, the Mylodons, Megatheres, and their allies, are another 
case in point; they became extinct when the conditions 
changed. 

These are only instances taken at random. Geology 
reveals the fact that in the past our earth has been peopled 
with huge creatures. Plant life also was very different then 



4 Le Conte, Geo., 5th ed., p. 518. 



DENSITY OF THE ATMOSPHERE 69 

from now. Grasses and ferns were as large as our trees. 
Everything was so gigantic that plant and animal life seemed 
fairly to vie with each other in the production of monstrous 
growths. There was a reason for all this. Was it not the 
greater density of the atmosphere ? Geologists say that dur- 
ing certain ages, especially the Carboniferous, the air was 
very heavy and excessively damp. But why was it heavy 
and damp? 

Explanations are not necessary. It is understood that 
the belts as they descended formed canopies which in turn 
pressed downward on the upper air, materially increasing the 
density and weight of the atmosphere itself. One of the 
secondary results was that oxygenation was freer. A candle 
burns brighter in a condensed atmosphere, as seen in the 
caissons where the laborer works under pressure. The effect 
of all this upon life was to foster gigantic growths. 5 

The increased buoyant power of the atmosphere was also 
derived from another cause, to wit: In opposition to ter- 
restrial gravity the contrary attraction of the annular system 
diminished the weight in a notable proportion. There must 
have been a zone where bodies were attracted equally from 
above and below. 

It has been claimed that since the fossil impress of rain- 
drops in the past geological ages are such as would be made 
by our modern storms, therefore the atmosphere of these 
periods must have been of a like density to our own. This 
argument seems to overlook the increased buoyancy. Prob- 
ably these drops were heavier and therefore had a greater 
penetrating power, yet on the whole why should we say this ? 
There was nothing in the conditions to cause their form to 
differ radically from those of to-day, and if they were 
heavier the increased buoyancy of the atmosphere would 
have neutralized the results. 



'"Alpha and Omega," pp. 144, 145. 



70 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

The increased buoyancy must have been specially favor- 
able at times to large bird and insect life, and the conditions 
in general to a cryptogamic and gymnospermous flora. But 
these same conditions must have been alike adverse to the 
well-being of the higher order of flowering plants, and of the 
quick-breathing animals. Of course birds come under this 
last capitation, but the winged denizens of the air in the 
early paleontologic ages were of a different character from 
their posterity, and then it must not be forgotten that during 
certain geological periods the condensed oxygen of the atmos- 
phere took the place of the miasmatic influence of other 
periods. 

The dragons of the air which soared in ancient times, 
like the Roc of Arabian romance, were not able to survive 
the changes, which were to them of vital moment. Ptero- 
dactyles, computed to have had a spread of wing of over 
twenty feet, perished in great numbers. Their battered and 
broken bones are found in the graveyard of the rocks. " At 
least two Pterodactyles are found in the Oxford clay, known 
from more or less fragmentary remains or isolated bones; 
just as they occur in the Kimeridge clay, Purbeck limestone, 
Wealden sandstones, and especially in newer Secondary 
rocks, named Gault, Upper GTreensand, and Chalk, in the 
southeast of England.'' 6 A thousand of these bones taken 
from the Cambridge Greensand are now in the Woodwardian 
Museum of the University of Cambridge. Seeley draws 
attention to the fact that these were mostly all gathered dur- 
ing two or three years. 

This gives us some idea of their abundance in the days 
when their outstretched pinions enabled them to seek the air 
for their safety. But how long did this safety endure ? 
When the canopy disintegrated the atmosphere was released 
from the superincumbent burden and the sustaining power 



e H. G. Seeley, " Dragons of the Air," p. 33. 



DENSITY OF THE ATMOSPHERE 71 

of the air was gone. 7 Thus the chapter of these great birds 
was closed forever. The ostrich and the recently extinct 
moas of New Zealand are survivors of a late annular or 
canopy fall that have been able to adapt themselves to a 
terrestrial existence. Deprived of their power of flight, 
they have become the fleet-footed creature which " scorneth 
the horse and his rider." Nature flung away the wings, as 
she always does with every part of a skeleton which is not 
vital. In New Zealand the skeleton of the Dinornis ele- 
phantopus from the Post-Pliocene, and in Madagascar the 
bones of another huge wingless bird, the ^Epiornis maximus, 
are but instances taken at random, which show how this class 
of beings existed for a time and then perished. Nature 
changed their organisms, but as the altered conditions of 
Kfe were too radical, she could not save them from ultimate 
extinction. 

The great size of some of the Devonian and Carbonifer- 
ous insects is another indication of the denser atmosphere. 
Dana says : " A spread of wing exceeding two feet is a 
size now existing only in large bats and birds." 8 The infer- 
ence is obvious. 

The consensus of geological opinion is that the atmos- 
phere must originally have differed in its constituents from 
its present condition. Planetesimal dust and gaseous emana- 
tions entering the air belt would largely account for this 
phenomenon. Canopy formation and decline produced at 
different times and in different ways divers conditions. 
These conditions are at the root of the process of evolution. 
De Vries' theory is the key; the lock in which it turns is 
set forth in this present hypothesis. Little and great physi- 
cal differences, little and great changes, simply meant adap- 
tion, adjustment, or extinction. 



7 A calamity of this nature appears from the evidence to have oc- 
curred in the Cretaceous era of Mesozoic time. 
"Manual of Geo., 4th ed., p. 721. 



72 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

As an illustration of the influence of a very slight change 
in the atmospheric content, it is remarked that ferns and 
monocotyledons are scarce in comparison with dicotyledons 
in the Rocky Mountains. Dryness and rarity of the atmos- 
phere, less pressure, heat, and carbon dioxide, being the 
assigned cause. 

An important result of Langley's bolometric investiga- 
tion is the discovery that the earth's atmosphere exerts a 
selective absorption to a remarkable degree, keeping back 
an immense proportion of blue and green. It is postulated 
that our atmosphere has varied a great deal in the past, and 
so must have exerted a great effect on the flora and fauna 
of these bygone ages. The fact is, the unveiled sun is blue. 9 
Our atmosphere now stops the shortest wave-lengths, the 
ultra-violet, and it is said that scarcely sixty per cent, of 
the solar rays penetrate to the earth's surface. Has it always 
been so ? Probably yea, we can almost say with certainty 
there have been ages in the past when the selective absorption 
was even more pronounced than now. 

The spectra of Saturn, and Jupiter show the distinctive 
dark line in the red (wave-length 618). This is an unmis- 
takable indication of aqueous absorption. 10 Tyndall says 
that, " regarding the earth as a source of heat, I estimate 
that at. least 10 per cent, of its heat is intercepted within 
ten feet of the surface. This single fact suggests the enor- 
mous influence which this newly-developed property of aque- 
ous vapor must have in the phenomena of meteorology." n 

Experiments have been made at the laboratory in the 
Catacombs on the effect of darkness upon animals. The 
crustaceans ( Gammarus Huviatilis) changed as follows : 
The gray pigment disappeared entirely. The organs of 



9 A. M. Clerke, " History of Astronomy During the Nineteenth Cen- 
tury," 3d ed., pt. ii, chap, v, p. 278. 

10 Ibid., pt. ii, chap, viii, p. 368. 

11 " Heat a Mode of Motion," 6th ed., Lect. xiii, pp. 380-381. 



DENSITY OF THE ATMOSPHERE 73 

smell, touch, and taste showed a marked hypertrophy at the 
end of a few months, and their length increased gradually 
until their dimensions tripled. Again, in the aquarium 
building in the Jardin des Plantes just over the laboratory 
in the Catacombs, experiments were made of a reverse nature, 
and the Proteus commenced to assume a color; at first this 
was light, but it ended in a violet black, with occasional small 
yellow patches. 12 

Most of the dinosaurs, owing to their great eye-sockets, 
are thought to have had nocturnal habits, yet possibly this 
was a result of physical conditions. The Reptilian age may 
have been characterized by a dense dark canopy that admitted 
the passage of only a little light. The flora of the period also 
points to this conclusion. Instances such as these could be 
added indefinitely, but all that is required is to show that 
variation in the quality and quantity of light would have 
exerted a great influence on life in general. It may be well 
to add that at times of darkness, like the ones we have just 
pictured, open zones existed at the poles, where no doubt 
certain species that could not have existed without light sur- 
vived the ordeal. 

Clouds are more translucent than transcalent, hence light 
rays, in the days of the canopy, reached the earth's surface 
to a far greater degree than the heat rays, though those which 
did come through were boxed in, as it were, since radiation 
into space was largely intercepted. Thus to a great extent 
there was a complete reversal of present conditions. 

The effects of heat and cold on the process of evolution 
cannot be questioned; however, a few illustrations will not 
be out of place. " It has been suspected," says the Scientific 
American, "that temperature changes and new environments 
might have something to do with the origin of species, and the 
experiment has been tried of breeding butterflies at various 



32 Scientific American, vol. xc, No. 17. 



74 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

degrees of heat. Dr. M. Standfuss, of Zurich, has done some 
very extensive work along this line, producing arctic and 
tropical varieties as well as intermediate forms by raising 
the butterflies in heated or cooled boxes. It is claimed that 
butterflies thus reared are not fixed species and will not 
breed true. In one case, however, Standfuss has apparently 
succeeded in obtaining a fixed species by this treatment." 13 

Another article in a later number of the same paper 
contains the following notice : " Prof. Max Standfuss has 
for years been propagating butterflies and moths under arti- 
ficial temperature conditions. He has taken the eggs of 
middle European moths, for example, and bred them at very 
low temperatures, and obtained varieties of that same middle 
European moth found only in Arctic regions. Similarly, 
eggs of the middle European moths, hatched at very high 
temperatures, produce varieties that are to be found only in 
tropical countries. Furthermore, by changing the tempera- 
tures he has obtained varieties which have existed but are 
now extinct.' 7 14 

Climatic influences may have also been largely aided in 
their work by secondary causes. Thus it is well known that 
the gorilla does not thrive when removed from his native 
miasmatic swamps. The effluvia of decaying vegetation and 
the humid reeking atmosphere seem necessary to his very 
existence. Again, in certain localities in our American 
tropics a rich gray moss is found growing luxuriously; it 
is an aerial plant, and yet it does not thrive if removed into 
a region of pure air; indeed, it seems to imbibe something 
from the surrounding swamps. It is not carbonic acid gas, 
the chief food of plants, nor is it nitrogen; all we know is 
that the element which this plant requires is found in that 
murky atmosphere, and that it is deadly to human life. 
Moisture and heat alone will not account for it. 

13 Vol. xcv, No. 10, Sept. 8, 1906. 

14 Ibid., vol. xcv, No. 15, Oct. 13, 1906. 



CHAPTER VII 

VICISSITUDES OF CLIMATE 

ALL who possess any knowledge whatever of geology 
know that in the past eras meteorological conditions differed 
radically from those extant. However, as this work is for 
the general reader as well as the specialist, and as all have 
not been schooled in the workings of nature, a few facts 
relative to what is really known of the past climates will 
be in order. Consideration of these same facts naturally 
stimulates the mind to inquire as to the cause of these won- 
derful variations, and every little detail that helps is wel- 
comed. Thus, even though the hypothesis that the earth has 
cooled from a molten condition is thoroughly discredited, it 
would seem natural if the records of the past showed that 
from age to age the climate was gradually cooling, for the 
planetesimal hypothesis, now generally accepted, postulates 
a condition of heat brought about by gravitational settling. 
Probably, however, this was in the remote 'days before 
geological time dawned, for the fact remains, the records of 
the science do not show this gradual cooling. While it is not 
purposed to arrange the quotations which follow in their 
geological sequence, still they may be read with this point in 
mind. The reader's attention is called to the fact that glacial 
ages frequently followed periods of luxuriant growth. 

James D. Dana says : " Using the facts from the rela- 
tions of existing plants to climate that Ferns and Lycopods 
thrive best in tropical and temperate latitudes, and Equiseta 
in temperate it is inferred from the occurrence of coal- 
plants of each of these groups in all latitudes to the Arctic 
regions that the climate of the globe in the Carbonic era 
was nowhere colder than the modern temperate zone, or 

75 



76 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

below a mean temperature of 60 F. Similarly, the occur- 
rence in Spitzbergen of Corals of the genera Ltthostrotion, 
Cyathophyttunij and Syringopora, and of some species of 
Brachiopods of twice the size they have in Europe, seems to 
show that the waters of the ocean were equally temperate 
throughout. As to excessive heat in the tropics, we have 
no evidence, since the common Carboniferous Brachiopods, 
Productus semireticulaius, P. longispinus, Athyris subtilita, 
and a Bellerophon near B. Urii, are found in the Bolivian 
Andes." * 

Again, our author states : " During the Cretaceous 
period a warm climate still prevailed over the earth even to 
the poles, but with some cooling during the closing part of 
the period; and in North America with a great Central 
Interior Sea, to the end of the period, the climate- was moist. 
The Cycads and associated species of plants, in the lower 
Cretaceous beds of Greenland indicate, according to Heer, 
a mean temperature of 21 C. to 22 C., or about 70 F. to 
72 F. This temperature is that of Cuba. The facts prove 
that a somewhat similar temperature prevailed at the same 
time over Spitzbergen and Alaska, where the same flora 
existed; even along the Atlantic border, at least as far 
north as Long Island; in the region of the Kootanie beds 
in Montana, and the neighboring part of British America; 
and over more western North America to Alaska." 2 

Professor Arthur Lake's testimony may be added as 
follows : " The recent discoveries of fields of lignitic and 
bituminous coal in Alaska, besides their great economic 
importance in that partially treeless and much besnowed 
region, point to some well-known and interesting geological 
facts ; viz., that there were periods in the world's history when, 
instead of the present ice cap and treelessness, the Arctics 



1 Manual of Geo., 4th ed., p. 711. 
*IUd., p. 872. 



VICISSITUDES OF CLIMATE 77 

were a region clad with a luxuriant, temperate, if not 
tropical, vegetation, and enjoying a temperate, if not a warm, 
climate. There may or may not have been an open Polar 
sea, but it needed no Arctic hardships to explore it, and there 
certainly was no ice cap." 3 

T. C. Chamberlin says : " It appears necessary now 
to accept as demonstrative the evidences of extensive glacia- 
tion in India, Australia, and South Africa in the midst of 
the later coal-forming stages of the Paleozoic era. The 
glacial beds lie even between coal beds of Permian or Permo- 
Carboniferous age; while, strangely enough, the areas of 
glaciation approach, and even overlap, the tropics of Cancer 
and Capricorn. And yet figs and magnolias have grown in 
Greenland since, and mild polar climates are as well authen- 
ticated after as before this climacteric glaciation. Less com- 
plete evidences from China and Norway imply a very much 
earlier glaciation, falling in the oldest Cambrian, or perhaps 
even pre-Cambrian, times. Still more recently, similar 
evidences of early Paleozoic glaciation in South Africa have 
been announced. 

" The climatic student seems therefore compelled to 
face oscillations within the known geologic periods, ranging 
from sub-tropical congeniality within the polar circles, on 
the one hand, to glacial conditions in low latitudes, on the 
other, and these in alternating succession; while neither of 
these oscillations was permitted to swim across the narrow 
limital lines of organic endurance." 4 

Again turning to Professor Dana, we find that " the 
cold that followed the Champlain period, or that of the 
Reindeer era of Lartet, appears to have brought destruction 
among the northern tribes of Europe and Asia, and, at the 
same time, to have driven southward the more active sur- 



8 " Mines and Minerals," vol. xxvi, No. 9, p. 401. 
4 Journal of Geology, vol. xiv, No. 5, p. 366. 



78 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

vivors, or those which had the best chance for escape. The 
encasing in ice of huge Elephants, and the perfect preserva- 
tion of the flesh, shows that the cold finally became suddenly 
extreme, as of a single winter's night, and knew no relenting 
afterward. The existence of remains of the Reindeer in 
southern France, of the Marmot, also a northern species, 
and of the Ibex and Chamois, now Alpine species, is at- 
tributed by Lartet to the forced migration thus occasioned. 
In the caves of Perigord (Dordogne, etc.) the bones of the 
Reindeer, far the most abundant kind, lie along with those 
of the Cave Hyena, Cave Bear, Cave Lion, Elephant, and 
Rhinoceros, as well as Horse and Aurochs." 5 

In the Monograph on the Geology of the Narragansett 
Basin the following remarks are made by the authors: 
" We may first note that the deposits formed during the 
times represented by the conglomerates of the Carboniferous 
series have a character which warrants the hypothesis that 
they are to a considerable extent the products of glacial 
action. * * * 

"Although there are instances in which a torrent may 
accumulate a large detrital cone composed of boulders and 
pebbles, I know of no geological machinery now at work on 
the earth's surface, or which can reasonably be supposed to 
have operated in the past, except glaciation, that is competent 
to produce such immense masses of coarse detritus as are 
contained in these conglomerates, or bring them into position 
where water action can effect their arrangement into beds. 
The area of the deposits lying on the two sides of the old 
Appalachian axis probably now exceeds 60,000 square miles ; 
the average thickness of the section is certainly not less than 
2,500 feet; so that the amount of matter of a prevailingly 
coarse nature which was laid down along the old Appalachian 
ridge in a period apparently of no great duration was not 



5 Man. of Geo., 4th ed., pp. 1007, 1008. 



VICISSITUDES OF CLIMATE 79 

less than 20,000 cubic miles, and probably was far more than 
that amount. * * * 

" It should be noted that the pebbles of the Carboniferous 
conglomerates, especially in the Narragansett district, show 
no trace of glacial scratches; moreover, they generally have 
a rather rounded form and are of less varied size than those 
in any of the till deposits formed during the last Glacial 
period. In some cases, however, they seem to me to retain 
the faceted shape which is so characteristic of ice-made 
pebbles. When compared with the pebbles of the last Glacial 
period, which, in a measure, have been subjected to marine 
or stream action, they are found to correspond with them 
in all essential features, except when, as is often the case, 
the old fragments have been deformed by stresses which came 
upon them since they were built into the Carboniferous 
strata. * * * 

" In no way save by glacial work does it seem to me 
possible to account for the rapid formation of the great mass 
of pebbly detritus which is contained in these beds. It 
therefore may fairly be held that the Carboniferous period, 
in this district at least, was one of extensive and long-con- 
tinued glacial action, and that the greater part of the section 
exhibited in the basin is made up of rocks which owe their 
more important features to the action of glaciation." 6 

Ernest H. L. Schwartz, who made a geological survey of 
Cape Colony in 1896, says: " "No matter how good the 
specimens of glaciated boulders and the photographs of ice- 
scored floors, that came home from India, Australia, or 
South Africa, no one would believe in the Permian Ice age. 
I was myself skeptical when I first came to South Africa, 
and at a meeting in Cape Town, when some of the glaciated 
Dwyka Conglomerate pebbles were exhibited, assisted in 
recording the belief that there was in these scratches no 
satisfactory evidence of ice-action. * ' 

Mono, xxxiii, pp. 64-67. 



80 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

" In the field it is different ; there the evidence is over- 
whelming, as I was soon to see when I joined the Geological 
Survey. * * * 

" The Dwyka Conglomerate, and its equivalent in Aus- 
tralia and India, is too well known now to require description 
here, but I have introduced the account of the part which 
Mr. Rogers and myself played in the elucidation of the 
problem in order to show the credentials with which we offer 
evidence of two more glacial periods in South Africa. The 
evidence of each was discovered by Mr. Rogers ; the evidence 
of one, probably Devonian in age, I have examined in the 
field; the other is probably Archean, and although I have 
not seen the glacial beds in place, the specimens which Mr. 
Rogers has sent me form ample material for confirming his 
interpretation. * * * 

" At some future date it will perhaps be established that 
there is a rhythmic recurrence of glacial conditions in sub- 
tropical and even tropical countries, and we shall be able to 
date the rock strata according to the positions of these tills. 
In Australia they have two the Permian or Carbo-Permian, 
and the so-called Cambrian one, which is, at any rate, older 
than the Ordovician, and possibly Algonkian. We have 
three in South Africa, the oldest of which may be equivalent 
to the older of the two Australian ones. * * * 

" Sir Andrew Ramsay's evidence as to the European 
Paleozoic Ice age, and the character of the striations on the 
stones, is admitted, even by those who do not accept his 
explanation, to be strongly suggestive." 7 

Alexander Winchell records like facts in the following. 
He says: " Some of the most salient phenomena attributed 
to the reign of glacier ice are smoothed and striated rock- 
surfaces, and accumulations of rounded pebbles. Precisely 
these phenomena have been detected among the rocks of re- 



' Journal of Geology, vol. xiv, No. 8, pp. 683, 684, 689, 690, 



VICISSITUDES OF CLIMATE 81 

moter ages of the world's history. More than thirty years ago 
the New York geologists called attention to the smoothed 
surfaces of the Medina Sandstone in the western part of that 
State. They did not then dare to utter the conjecture that 
these are glaciated surfaces; though recent opinion strongly 
inclines in that direction. Foreign geologists have made 
similar observations in numerous other formations. In the 
Miocene System, that vast Swiss formation known as the 
Molasse, seems to be but an older bed of glacier pebbles, 
extremely similar to those accumulated upon the existing 
surface along the slopes and flanks of the Alps." 8 

Le Conte states : " The Permo-Carbonif erous of Aus- 
tralia, India, South Africa, and Brazil all contain enormous 
glacial deposits and other evidences of glaciation. Appar- 
ently Permian glaciation was on a vaster scale than that of 
the Pleistocene in the northern hemisphere." 9 He also says, 
speaking of the late period : " Of alternations of colder and 
warmer periods during the Glacial epoch there are evidences 
both in Europe and America." 10 

Again William North Rice says : " The Quaternary 
period, instead of being brief and comparatively simple, has 
been shown to be of long duration and great complexity. It 
has been analyzed into a succession of glacial and inter- 
glacial epochs; and, from the vast amount of erosion in 
some of the inter-glacial epochs, it has been inferred that post- 
Glacial time is very short in comparison with inter-Glacial 
time." n 

The flora and fauna of a region show how the climate 
has changed ; thus G. Frederick Wright says : " On both 
continents, at the close of the Tertiary period, there occurred 
a remarkable extinction of animals which is doubtless con- 



8 " Sparks from a Geologist's Hammer," 3d ed., pp. 177-178. 
9 Geo., 5th ed., p. 430. 

10 Ibid., p. 615. 

11 Scientific American Supplement, No. 1648. 

6 



82 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

nected with the advance of the continental ice-sheet. Among 
these we may mention two species of the cat family as large 
as lions ; four species of the dog family, some of them larger 
than wolves; two species of bears; a walrus, found in Vir- 
ginia ; three species of dolphins found in the Eastern States ; 
two species of the sea-cow, found in Florida and South Caro- 
lina; six species of the horse; the existing South American 
tapir ; a species of the South American llama ; a camel ; two 
species of bison; three species of sheep; two species of ele- 
phants and two of mastodons; a species of Megatherium, 
three of Megalonyx, and one of Mylodon huge terrestrial 
sloths as large as the rhinoceros, or even as large as elephants, 
which ranged over the Southern States to Pennsylvania, and 
the Mylodon as far as the Great Lakes and Oregon. 

" This wondrous assemblage of animals became extinct 
upon the approach of the Glacial period, as their remains 
are all found in post-Pliocene deposits. The intermingling 
of forms is remarkable." 12 

Alexander Winchell tells us that " it is impossible to 
refrain from speculating on the nature of the events which 
resulted in the burial of entire mammoths in glacier-ice. 
That the climate in which they had lived was not tropical, 
like that of Africa or India, may be regarded as proved by 
the presence of the fur in which these animals were clothed. 
That it was not similar to the existing climate of northern 
Siberia is apparent from the consideration that such a climate 
would not yield the requisite supply of vegetation to sustain 
their existence. More especially would forest vegetation be 
wanting, which seems to have been designed as the main 
reliance for proboscidians. Northern Siberia must, therefore,' 
have possessed a temperate climate." 13 



""The Ice Age in North America," 4th ed., p. 386. "The Geo- 
graphical Distribution of Animals," vol. i, p. 129. 

11 "Sparks from a Geologist's Hammer," 3d ed., pp. 243-244. 



VICISSITUDES OF CLIMATE 83 

On the same line as all this testimony the great Agassiz 
has left the following record : " It is my belief/' he says, 
" founded upon the tropical character of the Fauna, that a 
much milder climate then prevailed over the whole northern 
hemisphere than is now known to it. Some naturalists have 
supposed that the presence of the tropical Mammalia in the 
Northern Temperate Zone might be otherwise accounted for, 
that they might have been endowed with warmer covering, 
with thicker hair or fur. But I think the simpler and more 
natural reason for their existence throughout the North is 
to be found in the difference of climate ; and I am the more 
inclined to this opinion because the Tertiary animals gener- 
ally, the Fishes, Shells, etc., in the same regions, are more 
closely allied in character to those now living in the Tropics 
than to those of the Temperate Zones. The Tertiary age 
may be called the geological summer ; we shall see, hereafter, 
how abruptly it was brought to a close. * * * 

" The long summer was over. For ages a tropical climate 
had prevailed over a great part of the earth, and animals 
whose home is now beneath the Equator roamed over the 
world from the far south to the very borders of the Arctics. 
The gigantic quadrupeds, the Mastodons, Elephants, Tigers, 
Lions, Hyenas, Bears, whose remains are found in Europe 
from its southern promontories to the northernmost limits of 
Siberia and Scandinavia, and in America from the Southern 
States to Greenland and the Melville Islands, may indeed be 
said to have possessed the earth in those days. But their 
reign was over. A sudden intense winter, that was also to 
last for ages, fell upon the globe; it spread over the very 
countries where these tropical animals had their homes, and 
so suddenly did it come upon them that they were embalmed 
beneath masses of snow and ice, without time even for the 
decay which follows death." 14 



""Geological Sketches," pp. 205-206, 208. 



84 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

Professor Wright quotes from the Scientific Papers of 
Asa Gray 15 and records his own views of the past climatic 
conditions in the far north as follows: 

" Geologically the coal beds of Greenland are much later 
than the Carboniferous period. The accompanying plants 
indicate that some of them belong to the Upper Cretaceous 
and others to the Middle Tertiary (Miocene). * * * 

" The Tertiary beds in this region bear striking witness 
to the changes of climate which the region has experienced, 
and to the fact that there is a lineal connection between the 
present flora of the north temperate zone and the ancient 
arctic flora of Greenland. During the middle portion of the 
Tertiary period the climate of north Greenland corresponded 
closely with that which now exists in Virginia and North 
Carolina. As enumerated by Asa Gray, the familiar plants 
found in these beds comprise ' magnolias, sassafras, hickories, 
gum trees, our identical southern cypress (for all we can see 
of difference), and especially sequoias not only the two 
which obviously answer to the two big trees now peculiar to 
California, but several others; they equally comprise trees 
now peculiar to Japan and China three kinds of gingko 
trees, for instance, one of them not evidently distinguishable 
from the Japan species which alone survives. We have evi- 
dence not merely of pines and maples, birches, lindens, and 
whatever characterize the temperate-zone forests of our era, 
but also of particular species of these so like those of our own 
time and country that we may fairly reckon them as ancestors 
of several of ours.' " 16 

Sir Archibald Geikie's testimony of the vicissitudes of 
climate is that " in Europe and North America a tolerably 
sharp demarcation can usually be made between the Pliocene 
formations and those now to be described. The Crag deposits 



15 Vol. ii, p. 227. 

"Greenland Icefields and Life in the North Atlantic," pp. 113-114. 



VICISSITUDES OF CLIMATE 85 

of the southeast of England, as we have seen, show traces of 
a gradual lowering of the temperature during later Pliocene 
times, and the same fact is indicated by the Pliocene fauna 
and flora on the Continent even in the Mediterranean basin. 
This change of climate continued until at last thoroughly 
Arctic conditions prevailed, under which the oldest of the 
Post-Tertiary or Pleistocene deposits were accumulated in 
northern and central Europe, and in Canada and the northern 
part of the United States." 17 

In a foot-note the same author remarks : " That a glacial 
period occurred at the close of the Cretaceous period, again 
at the end of the Eocene and in the Miocene (erratics of 
Superga, near Turin), has been regarded by some geologists 
as probable." ls 

Chamberlin and Salisbury tell us that : " In the upper 
division of the Old Red sandstone of Great Britain there 
are conglomerates of such a character as to have raised a 
question concerning the existence of glaciers in this region in 
Devonian times. The conglomerates contain boulders of all 
sizes, up to eight feet in diameter. While the smaller stones 
are usually well worn, the larger ones are often distinctly 
subangular. All sorts of durable rock are represented. The 
large boulders seem not to have come in from distant regions, 
but some of the smaller stones may have come from greater 
distances, since no local source for them is known. Further- 
more, some of the boulders are said to be striated, and it is 
believed by some geologists at least that the strisG are glacial. 
The matrix of the conglomerate is in keeping with the 
hypothesis that ice cooperated in its making. It has been 
suggested that the Highlands of Scotland were then much 
higher than now, that they harbored glaciers, and that the 



"Text Book of Geo., 3d. ed., pp. 1023-1024. 

Ibid., note 3, p. 979. A. V6zian, Rev. Sci. xi (1877), p. 171; 
Schardt, "Etudes G6ologiques sur le pays d'Enhaut Vaudois," Bull. 
Soc. Vaud. 1884. 



86 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

bergs to which the glaciers gave origin made, or helped to 
make, the conglomerates here referred to. The conglomerate 
is to be seen in the Lammermuir Hills, and in the Silurian 
hills of Cumberland and Westmoreland, in northern 
England." 19 

Heat and cold certainly seem to have followed each other 
very closely. The same authors say : " Taking the phe- 
nomena of India, Australia, and South Africa together, they 
make a puzzling combination. If the chief coal-beds be re- 
ferred to the Carboniferous proper, it introduces glacial beds, 
and a great floral break, into the midst of a system which has 
usually been held to be marked by great uniformity the world 
over." 20 

Again, these authors say : a Unwilling as geologists were 
to believe that there was a glacial period at this early stage 
of the earth's history, the evidence now in hand is over- 
whelming, and a glacial period in Australia in the late 
Carboniferous or Permian period must be regarded as a 
demonstrated fact." * * * The recurrence of the boulder 
beds points to the repeated recurrence of glacial conditions, 
and the great thickness both of clastic beds and of the in- 
cluded coal point to the great duration of the period through 
which the several glacial epochs were distributed. 

" These remarkable phenomena are not local. Counting 
Tasmania, where glacial deposits are also found, the Paleo- 
zoic glaciation of Australia had a known range of nearly 22 
in latitude (42 in Tasmania to 20 30' in Queensland), and 
about 35 in longitude (west from 137 30'), though it is 
not known, nor perhaps probable, that all the area within 
these limits was glaciated. On the other hand, it is not to 
be understood that the phenomena here described are re- 
stricted to high altitudes; rather are they known chiefly at 
low levels, descending in some places nearly to the sea. The 



19 Geo., vol. ii, p. 446. 
id., p. 602. 



VICISSITUDES OF CLIMATE 87 

altitude of this region is not only low now, but it was prob- 
ably low during glaciation, as shown by the relation of the 
glacial deposits to the marine beds. Whatever the difficulties 
in the way of its explanation, therefore, the fact of a long 
period during which glacial conditions recurred many times 
must be accepted." 21 

James Geikie sums up in a few paragraphs the general 
results obtained by a review of the British deposits. His 
summary shows in the clearest manner the remarkable fluctu- 
ations of climate in a single period. It is as follows: 

" 1. Weybourn Crag. The North Sea occupied by an 
Arctic fauna. 

" 2. Forest-Bed of Cromer. Wider extent of land-sur- 
face, the southern portion of the North Sea a broad plain 
traversed by the Rhine. Climate temperate. 

" 3. Leda-Myalis Bed. Passage from temperate to boreal 
and arctic conditions. Submergence of the Rhenish alluvial 
plain. 

" 4. Arctic Fresh-water Bed. Arctic flora in England. 

" 5. Lower Boulder-clays. Maximum glaciation of the 
British Islands: mer de glace flows south to valley of the 
Thames ; is confluent with the inland ice of Scandinavia. 

" 6. Interglacial Beds. (Fresh-water alluvia, peat, etc., 
cave-deposits, marine beds.) Britain probably continental; 
climate at first cold, then temperate. Submergence ensued 
towards close of the period, with conditions passing from 
temperate to arctic. 

" 1. Upper Boulder-clay. General mer de glace, con- 
fluent with that of Scandinavia ; it did not flow so far south 
as that of preceding glacial epoch. 

" 8. Interglacial Beds. (Fresh-water alluvia, peat, etc. ; 
marine deposits.) Britain probably again continental: 
climate at first temperate and insular; submergence ensues 



n H>id., pp. 632-634. 



88 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

with cold climatic conditions Scotland depressed for 130 
feet or thereabout. 

" 9. Ground-Moraines and Terminal Moraines. Major 
portion of Scottish Highlands covered by ice-sheet ; local ice- 
sheets and district glaciers in Southern Uplands of Scotland, 
and in mountainous parts of England, Wales, and Ireland. 
Icebergs are calved at mouths of Highland sea-lochs ; terminal 
moraines dropped upon marine deposits, then forming (100- 
ft. beach in Scotland). 

" 10. Interglacial Beds. (Fresh-water alluvia with 
arctic plants ; lower buried forest and peat ; Coarse-clays and 
raised beaches. ) Britain again continental ; climate at first 
cold, subsequently becoming temperate; great forests. 
Eventual insulation of Britain ; climate humid, and probably 
colder than now. 

"11. Mountain-\ 7 alley Moraines; Corrie Moraines. In 
Scotland these in some places rest on raised beaches (45-50 
ft. above sea) ; snow-line at 2,500 ft. 

"12. Upper Buried Forest ; Alluvia, etc. He-elevation 
of land, to what extent is not known ; climate temperate. 

"13. Peat overlying ' upper buried forest 7 ; low-level 
Raised Beaches; high-level Corrie Glaciers, snow-line at 
3,500 ft. ; climate colder and more humid than now. 

" 14. Final retreat of sea to present level; decay of peat- 
bogs; disappearance of permanent snow; climate drier than 
during preceding stage (13)." 22 



22 "The Great Ice Age," 3d ed., pp. 421-422. 



CHAPTER VIII 

EVOLUTION AND DISTRIBUTION 

DE VRIES' doctrine of evolution advances physical 
environment and conditions to first place in the chain of 
cause and effect. The great accelerations noticed in the de- 
velopment of life, spasmodically as it were, indicate that these 
conditions were radical, and it is imperative that the source 
should be adequate. The first cause must have been some- 
thing out of the ordinary. 

It is postulated that the canopy at times belted the earth, 
even as far north as the Arctic circle. This introduces into 
the polar regions three powerful factors, light, heat, and land 
connections. Archibald Geikie says: 

" The climate during Tertiary time underwent in the 
northern hemisphere some remarkable changes. Judging 
from the terrestrial vegetation preserved in the strata, we may 
infer that in England the climate of the oldest Tertiary 
periods was of a temperate character, but that it became 
during Eocene time tropical and subtropical, even in the 
centre of Europe and North America. It then gradually 
grew more temperate, but flowering plants and shrubs con- 
tinued to live even far within the Arctic circle, where, then 
as now, unless the axis of the earth has meanwhile shifted, 
there must have been six sunless months every year. Grow- 
ing still cooler, the climate passed eventually into a phase of 
extreme cold, when snow and ice extended from the Arctic 
regions far south into Europe and North America. Since 
that time the cold has again diminished, until the present 
thermal distribution has been reached." 1 

Again, speaking of Greenland, he says : " One of the 



'Geo., 3d ed., p. 964. 

89 



90 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

most remarkable geological discoveries of modern times has 
been that of Tertiary plant-beds in North Greenland. Heer 
has described a flora extending at least up to 70 N. lat., 
containing 137 species, of which 46 are found also in the 
central European Miocene basins. More than half of the 
plants are trees, including 30 species of conifers (Sequoia, 
Thujopsis, tSalisburia, etc.), besides beeches, oaks, planes, 
poplars, maples, walnuts, limes, magnolias, and many more. 
These plants grew on the spot, for their fruits in various 
stages of growth have been obtained from the deposits. From 
Spitzbergen (78 56' K lat.) 136 species of fossil plants 
have been named by Heer. But the latest English Arctic 
expedition brought to light a bed of coal, black and lustrous 
like one of the Paleozoic fuels, from 31 45' E". lat. It is 
from 25 to 30 feet thick, and is covered with black shales 
and sandstones full of land-plants. Heer notices 30 species, 
12 of which had already been found in the Arctic Miocene 
zone. As in Spitzbergen, the conifers are most numerous 
(pines, firs, spruces, and cypresses), but there occur also the 
Arctic poplar, two species of birch, two of hazel, an elm, and 
a viburnum. In addition to these terrestrial trees and 
shrubs, the lacustrine waters of the time bore water-lilies, 
while their banks were clothed with reeds and sedges. When 
we remember that this vegetation grew luxuriantly within 
8 15' of the North Pole, in a region which is now in darkness 
for half of the year, and almost continuously buried under 
snow and ice, we can realize the difficulty of the problem in 
the distribution of climate which these facts present to the- 
geologist." 2 

The difficulty has been thoroughly appreciated. J. W- 
Dawson makes this acknowledgment of it. He says : " It 
is difficult to account for these vicissitudes of climate, and 
much controversy. exists on the subject; but it seems certain 



d., pp. 1001-1002. 



EVOLUTION AND DISTRIBUTION 91 

that in the earlier Tertiary and Cretaceous periods, for ex- 
ample, the supplies of heat and light were so diffused over 
the earth as to permit the growth of a temperate vegetation in 
Greenland, and even Spitzbergen." 3 

The polar regions now have unremitted light for six 
months in the year, but, owing to the climate, this energy is 
wasted. When the canopy induced greenhouse conditions 
clear up to the Arctic circle, this heat was wafted over the 
clear space of the north. But this is not all of the good 
which it did, for when the sun sank in the southern sky this 
marvellous roof caught its slant-wise rays. Holding these 
in its embrace, it reflected them back on the land, which 
otherwise was a land of darkness. Sunlight and twilight 
must therefore have endured the whole twelve months. 

Next to light, the importance of the electric stimulus 
should be considered. Electricity must have a material con- 
ductor. When the canopy extended to the Arctic circle, the 
conductor was spread out as a curtain, and the frequency and 
intensity of the auroras may be imagined. Their effect as 
a stimulant to plant-growth cannot be questioned. The 
Scientific American says : 

" The flora of the north polar region is remarkable for 
rapid growth, fertility, and brilliancy of coloring, phenomena 
which seem incompatible with the climate. For the Arctic 
summer, though nightless, is very short, the sun is low, and 
its rays are often intercepted by fog and clouds, so that it 
cannot furnish an amount of light and heat favorable to very 
rapid growth. 

" The investigations of Prof. Lemstrom, of Helsingfors, 
and others, tend to show that electricity exerts a great influ- 
ence on the growth of plants, and this view is confirmed by 
the luxuriant vegetation of the zone of action of that violent 
electrical manifestation, the aurora borealis. Furthermore, 



8 " Origin of the World," p. 395. 



92 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

a close connection has been found, in Finland, between fruit- 
fulness and frequency of auroras. Finally, Lemstrom was 
led to attribute to the sharp points of plants, such as the beard 
of grains, the function of i lightning rods/ which collect 
atmospheric electricity and facilitate the exchange of the 
charges of the air and the ground. 

" Thereupon he proceeded to submit the suspected effect 
of electricity upon vegetable growth to the test of experiment, 
beginning in 1885 with a number of flower-pots containing 
similar soil and seed. Some of the pots were subjected to 
the action of an influence or inductive statical machine, one 
pole of which was connected with the soil in the pot, and the 
other with a wire netting stretched over it. The other pots 
were left to nature. The electric machine was driven 
several hours daily. Within a week the electrified plants 
showed a more vigorous growth than the others, and in eight 
weeks the disparity in weight, of grain and straw alike, 
amounted to forty per cent." 4 

A continent is said to have existed in these far northern 
latitudes in the primitive Eocene, and this same canopy-like 
structure which had its origin from equatorial rings points 
us back to the southern oceans, where the waters were held 
up in a heap by the gravitational pull. In after ages, when 
these waters were released, they not only sought their level, 
but they were also attracted toward the north by the weight 
of the ice itself. 

H. W. Pearson has recently come out with a new idea as 
to the cause of the raised beaches, which were once necessarily 
near the water's level, but which have now acquired consider- 
able elevation. The correlation of his facts relative to the 
uniformities of elevation and gradient of these old markings 
are germane to our own hypothesis. We cannot admit, how- 
ever, the cause which he assigns for their origin, namely the 



4 Vol. xcii, No. 23, June 10, 1905. 



EVOLUTION AND DISTRIBUTION 93 

Adhemar-Croll hypothesis, of which we will have more to say 
hereafter. Oscillations of such long duration will not fit in 
with facts such as those introduced at the end of our last 
chapter, which showed fourteen vicissitudes of climate, some 
of them of a sudden nature, and all within one geological 
period. Pearson, however, has done a very good work in 
revealing the wide scope and the symmetrical character of 
the remains left by the inundations of the past. He says: 

" Now, then, if glacial dams and chance upheaval of the 
crust are both to fail us when we seek for explanation of 
these strange facts in the raised beaches, it is our duty to 
look elsewhere, and in such a search it is soon discovered 
that there is but one physical cause that can be considered 
adequate to our needs, and this may be stated as the displace- 
ment of the earth's centre of gravity by the accumulated ice 
of the last glacial epoch, and the consequent submergence of 
all northern shore lines/' 5 

This brings us back to the point we were discussing: 
the disappearance of the primitive Eocene Arctic Continent. 
Pearson has found that the inclination of the beaches shows 
a raised gradient toward the north. Starting at sea level 
at the equator, they rise approximately as the sine of the 
latitude, until, as estimated, they would reach an altitude of 
1,467 feet above present sea level at the pole. No doubt this 
great weight of water was the cause of the permanent depres- 
sion of the land surface. Pearson believes that the shifting 
of the waters as indicated could have taken place only at the 
expense of the waters of the southern hemisphere, and while 
it may be true that the north claimed more than its rightful 
share from that region, still it seems to us more probable that 
it was the equatorial waters alone that were transferred. 

Other authorities have likewise recognized the potent in- 
fluence of the great mass of ice in causing a shifting of the 
waters. James Geikie says: 



5 Scientific American Supplement, No. 1682, March 28, 1908. 



94 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

" The view set forth by Mr. Jamieson, 6 that the apparent 
rise of the sea-level in glacial times was induced by sub- 
sidence of the earth's crust under the weight of the ice-sheets, 
has been received with considerable favor by geologists. His 
leading idea is ' that the ice-covered regions were depressed by 
reason of the great weight of ice placed upon them, and that 
when the ice disappeared they rose again with extreme slow- 
ness, and may have eventually attained nearly their former 
level ; but in most cases/ he believes, e some amount of perma- 
nent depression probably occurred.' This hypothesis appears 
to explain so many facts, that geologists are naturally inclined 
to accept it. It accounts for the striking association of 
glaciation and submergence." 7 

It is suggested that the subsidence that followed this gen- 
eral movement was only started by these influences. It is a 
matter of geological record that once a land begins to rise or 
to sink the movement usually continues through long 
successive ages. 

Even now the waters are not deep in the north polar 
region. Dr. Tarleton H. Bean, in his journal of the voyage 
of the Yukon, writes under date of August 24 : " The water 
is quite shoal here, and generally in the Arctic, 32 fathoms 
being the deepest sounding on my chart so that while an 
ugly sea rises quickly, it also subsides quickly with a change 
of wind, and does not make life miserable for days and days 
after a storm, as is the case in the deep sea." 8 

These thoughts lead to a consideration of the conditions 
which existed before the Ice age set in. G. Frederick Wright 
says : " From Maine and Puget Sound to the arctic archi- 
pelago and Greenland, the abundant long and branching fiords 
of these northern regions, and the wide and deep channels 



8 Geological Magazine, 1882, p. 400. 
T "The Great Ice Age," 3d ed., p. 786. 
8 "The White World," p. 254. 



EVOLUTION AND DISTRIBUTION 95 

dividing their islands, attest a very long time of pre-glacial 
high elevation there." 9 

The same author says of this flooded continent, in con- 
nection with its bearing on the distribution of species, that 
" the polar projection of the earth down to the northern tropic 
shows to the eye as our maps do not how all the lands 
come together into one region, and how natural it may be 
for the same species, under homogeneous conditions, to spread 
over it. When we know, moreover, that sea and land have 
varied greatly since these species existed, we may well believe 
that any ocean-gaps, now in the way of equable distribution, 
may have been bridged over. There is now only one 
considerable gap." 10 

Again our author remarks : " Asa Gray and others have 
shown that the affinity of the plants of southern Greenland 
with those of Europe is such as to make it probable that they 
emigrated directly from Europe, rather than by the longer 
route across Asia and North America. Davis Strait seems 
to have been a more effectual barrier to the emigration of 
plants than was the North Atlantic on the east of Greenland. 
This would imply that the elevation of the bed of the North 
Atlantic is more certainly proved, or that it was longer con- 
tinued than that of Davis Strait or Baffin Bay ; or possibly it 
may prove simply that, from being freer of ice, it was more 
available for the passage of plants and animals." u 

Yet one more citation from this great glacialist may be 
pardoned. He says : " From the geographic distribution 
of animals, not less than of plants, abundant evidence is 
found that in a late geologic time, probably comprising the 
closing stage of the Tertiary era and the early part of the 
Quaternary until the Ice age, an extensive land area occupied 
the present place of Behring Strait and Sea, upon which the 



9 " Greenland Icefields and Life in the North Atlantic," p. 320. 
10 "The Ice Age in North America," 4th ed., p. 379. 
""Greenland Icefields and Life in the North Atlantic," p. 369. 



96 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

fauna and flora of the northern lands freely migrated from 
Europe and Asia to America, and the reverse, becoming 
nearly alike in these two great continental regions. Over all 
the circumpolar land expanse the mammoth, mastodon, and 
many other large animals roamed from the United States to 
Alaska, Siberia, Continental Europe, and the British Isles 
during late Tertiary times." 12 

In an editorial comment on " Where Did Life Begin ? " 
E". H. Winchell says : " In several of his chapters Dr. 
Warren directs attention to the conditions favoring the com- 
mencement of life at the pole. See p. 59. Wallace (quoted 
by Warren) shows that i the facts of arctic paleontology call 
for the supposition of a primitive Eocene continent in the 
highest latitudes/ Professor Heer of Zurich noted the same. 
Baron Nordenskjb'ld arrived at the same conclusion. J. 
Starkie Gardner argued from the facts known then (1878) 
that continuous land once united Europe and North America. 
This arctic continent, whether it was that which was sub- 
merged by the ocean that covered northern Asia, as shown by 
Professor G. F. Wright, in late Glacial or post-Glacial time, 
or was that which gave birth to the great glaciers of the Glacial 
epoch, subsisted through the Tertiary, since fossil Tertiary 
land plants, indicating warm and moist climates, have been 
found at numerous points within the Arctic circle. Given 
this continent and the tropical warmth that its fossils denote, 
the great preponderance of light over darkness, the intensity 
of direct, continued sun's rays, and the conditions were 
favorable for the most luxuriant, if not for spontaneous, life. 
It is now a well-known doctrine of fossil botanists that the 
oldest land plants of the earth originated in the region of 
the North Pole and from there spread southwardly. This 
evolution toward the south continued. That the Arctic 
region was the birth place of plants and continued to send 



Ibid., p. 215. 



EVOLUTION AND DISTRIBUTION 97 

her progeny southward until the close of the Tertiary has 
been demonstrated by Gray, Heer, Hooker, Kuntze, Saporta, 
and others. 

" With the existence of such a continent at the North Pole, 
and with the demonstrated stream of migratory plant life 
emerging from it, the author does not fail to inquire as to the 
evidence of animal origin in the same region. He quotes 
Orton (1876) and Wallace (1876) to the effect that the 
north temperate and Arctic regions have been the starting- 
points of long continued migrations, and concludes this 
branch of his inquiry in the following words : ' From all the 
facts, but one conclusion is possible, and that is that like as 
the Arctic pole is the mother region of all plants, so it is 
the mother region of all animals the region where in the 
beginning God created every beast of the earth after its kind, 
and cattle after their kind. And this is the conclusion now 
being reached and announced by all comparative zoologists 
who busy themselves with the problem of the origin and 
prehistoric distribution of the animal world. 7 " 13 

It is not assumed in our hypothesis that the origin of life 
was at the pole, but simply that the canopy introduced condi- 
tions favorable to development and distribution from that 
point. It gives a reason for the many apparent anomalies 
in the distribution of living beings in time and space. The 
facts show this much, and the greenhouse roof explains the 
facts. The conditions were recurrent with the appearance of 
each successive canopy. 

Warren's central idea of sun-controlled climates is all 
wrong. Manson's theory of earth-controlled or canopy- 
controlled climates approaches the truth, but this roof must 
be broken up into separate belts, otherwise the whole earth 
was encompassed by a mantle of cloud, a separate cause has 

18 American Geologist, vol. xxxiii, No. 3, March, 1904; Wm. F. 
Warren, "Paradise Found"; G. Hilton Scribner, "Where Did Life 
Begin?" 
7 



98 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

to be found to account for the subsidence of the Arctic con- 
tinent, the evolution of exogens remains unexplained, and 
finally the recurrence of similar polar conditions in different 
geological ages makes the idea untenable. For these reasons 
the content of the atmosphere could not have formed the 
blanket. 

In this connection Chamberlin and Salisbury have put 
the following on record : " An atmosphere so heavily sur- 
charged with carbon dioxide and water-vapor must have been 
rich in heat-absorbing power, and should have given a very 
warm, equable climate to the earth, as has been rightly 
assumed. Warm equable climates did indeed prevail in 
a portion of the earlier history of the earth, as also in the 
later ; but the investigations of the past two decades in India, 
Australia, and South Africa have forced the recognition of 
extensive glaciation on the very border of the tropics, at a 
period as early as the closing Paleozoic. Evidences of glacia- 
tion in northwestern Europe, and also in China in about 30 
N". lat, at or near the base of the Cambrian, has recently 
been presented. Less striking but perhaps not less sig- 
nificant is the occurrence in the early Paleozoic, of extensive 
salt and gypsum beds in rather high latitudes. These de- 
posits seem to imply severe and protracted aridity, and such 
aridity, especially where north of the 30 belt, is not readily 
reconcilable with an enormous equalizing atmospheric 
envelope. 

u There seem, therefore, to have been, in Paleozoic times, 
much the same alternations of very uniform with very 
diversified climates that marked the Mesozoic and Cenozoic 
eras ; in other words, the alternations of climate seem to have 
been of much the same order throughout the known eras. 
The hypothesis of an enormous original atmosphere suffering 
gradual depletion finds, therefore, but scant and uncertain 
support in a critical study of either the biological or the 
physical history of the earth." 14 

"Geo., vol. ii, pp. 87-88. 



EVOLUTION AND DISTRIBUTION 99 

It is hardly necessary to state that like conditions existed 
at the South pole, and that this section also testifies that the 
atmospheric content could not have been the controlling 
factor of the climates. The zoogeographical distributions 
establish the fact of the land connection, and science has even 
gone so far as to name this Antarctic continent. In the 
Permic it was known as Gondwana Land, and it is said to 
have embraced Brazil, India, South Africa, and Australia. 
~No doubt the causes- which brought about the .destruction of 
the North polar continent were the -same that brought about 
its destruction. In a future chapter we will show that the 
action in both hemispheres was contemporaneous. This co- 
incidence of time, and the fact of equatorial glaciation. 
exclude the Adhemar-Croll hypothesis. 15 

During the Cretaceous, Australia and South America 
were united. 16 In the Quaternary the continent appears to 
have again been enlarged to the wide limits it had in Permian 
time. 17 

" If the land extensions and connections in the Southern 
Hemisphere in the Permian period be made as slight as 
biological data permit," say the joint authors of Chamber- 
lin and Salisbury's Geology, " they would probably at least 
consist of a connection from India, via Australia and the 
old submerged land, to New Zealand, and thence to Antarc- 
tica, and through this to South America. Other and more 
northerly connections between India and South Africa, and 
between the latter and South America, have usually been 
postulated." ls 



15 Charles Schuchert, Journal of Geology, vol. xiv, No. 8, p. 725. See 
also vol. xiv, No. 2, pp. 81-90; Dana, "Manual of Geology," 4th ed., 
pp. 737, 873, 937. 

16 Dr. W. D. Matthew, "Outlines of the Continents in Tertiary 
Times," Map No. 1. 

"James D. Dana, "Man. of Geo.," 4th ed., p. 1019. 

18 Vol. ii, pp. 675-676. 



100 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

These conditions were followed by periftds of cold just the 
same as in the Northern Hemisphere. The records as re- 
vealed to date are as follows : " In New Zealand the marks 
of the Glacial period are unequivocal. The glaciers which 
now come down from the lofty mountains upon the South 
Island of New Zealand to within a few hundred feet of the 
sea then descended to the sea-level. The longest existing 
glacier in New Zealand is sixteen miles. One of the ancient 
moraines contains a boulder from thirty to forty feet in 
diameter, and the amount of glacial debris covering the 
mountain-sides is said to be enormous. Reports have 
also been recently brought of signs of ancient glaciers in 
Australia. 

" According to Darwin, there are distinct signs of glacia- 
tion upon the plains of Patagonia, sixty or seventy miles east 
of the foot of the mountains, and in the Straits of Magellan 
he found great masses of unstratified glacial material con- 
taining boulders which were at least one hundred and thirty 
miles away from their parent rock; while upon the island of 
Chiloe he found embedded in ' hardened mud ' boulders 
which must have come from the mountain-chains of the 
continent. Agassiz also observed unquestionable glacial 
phenomena on various parts of the Fuegian coast, and indeed 
everywhere on the continent south of latitude 37. Between 
Concepcion and Arauco, in latitude 37, Agaseiz observed, 
near sea-level, a glacial surface well marked with furrows 
and scratches, and as well preserved, he says, ' as any he had 
seen under the glaciers of the present day.' " 19 



M G. Frederick Wright, "Man and the Glacial Period," 2d ed., pp. 
126-128. 



CHAPTER IX 

CAUSE OF THE ICE AGES 

THE cause of the ice inundations, up to this time, has 
remained locked in the bosom of nature. Nearly all the 
hypotheses advanced in explanation of the phenomena may 
be grouped under the following heads: (1) the astronomic, 
which call upon influences from outside the earth; (2) the 
hypsometric, those which appeal to continental elevation; 
(3) the atmospheric, those depending upon the constitution 
and movements of the earth's gaseous envelopes. 

Croll's semi-astronomic hypothesis, 1 founded on the -vari- 
ations in the eccentricity of the earth's orbit and the preces- 
sion of the equinoxes, is dead. The greatly exaggerated 
estimate of the time element kills it. Croll placed the close 
of the last glacial epoch as 80,000 years ago, which, in the 
light of modern discovery, is simply preposterous. Later 
modifications which bring the last stages of the ice down to 
within ten thousand years are also open to question. 

The phenomena connected with the ice invasion seem to 
have been practically universal, even the elevated areas in 
the tropics being glaciated. Here once more CrolFs theory, 
that the glacial epochs in one hemisphere coincided with the 
interglacial epochs in the other, and vice versa, is sadly want- 
ing. This same reason also rules out the epeirogenic or 
elevation theory, 2 and Sir Charles Lyell's oscillations between 
the continents and oceans, and all other hypotheses founded 



1 " Climate and Time in Their Geological Relations," also " Climate 
and Cosmology," by James Croll; "The Cause of the Ice Age," Sir 
Robert Ball; and "The Great Ice Age," James Geikie. 

2 G. Frederick Wright, " The Ice Age in North America," p. 573 ff. 
James D. Dana, Man. of Geo., 4th ed., p. 978. 

101 



102 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

on changes in the distribution of land and water, together 
with the hypothesis of a shifting polar axis. In this connec- 
tion the following citation from Le Conte is to the point. He 
says: 

" The more important element in the glacial problem is 
the cause of the lower temperature. The fact of Permian 
glaciation in low latitudes, either side of the equator, rules 
out the astronomic hypothesis, and continental elevation alone 
is insufficient. But a sufficient cause of secular changes of 
temperature, affecting the whole earth alike, is found in 
the variation in amount of the carbon dioxide of the 
atmosphere/' 3 

The true cause, then, should be sought in or above the 
atmosphere, but, as already intimated, a uniform blanket 
will not do, and to this we may add, neither will variation 
in the amount of carbon dioxide answer, for if depletion 
brought on the cold, then evaporation would have been less. 
Cyclonic action and precipitation would have been at a 
minimum. In other words, the idea that cold alone is 
responsible for bringing about glacial conditions is like killing 
the goose which lays the golden eggs. " It is perfectly mani- 
fest," remarks Tyndall, " that by weakening the sun's action, 
either through a defect of emission or by steeping of the 
entire solar system in space of a low temperature, we shall 
be cutting off the glaciers at their source." 4 

Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere makes a uniform 
blanket, depletion makes the air more transparent to re- 
flected heat (dark heat). The blanket once thinned, the 
temperature falls, the moisture decreases, and for this reason 
conditions are not good for an ice age; but nevertheless, as 
stated above, the true cause should be sought in the 
atmosphere, or, more correctly, in the regions immediately 
above the atmosphere. 

'Elements of Geo., 5th ed., p. 617. 

4 " Heat Considered as a Mode of Motion." 



CAUSE OF THE ICE AGES . 103 

Step by step now let us follow the on-coming of the 
Glacial epoch and its explanation as revealed by the present 
hypothesis. Previous to the period of cold, we have seen 
that the warm climates did actually exist everywhere north 
of the Arctic circle, and a canopy was postulated as existing 
up to the boundaries of the polar regions. The warm tem- 
peratures originating under this roof are further supposed 
to have drifted out over the open space of the north, carrying 
with them a temperate climate almost to the pole itself. At 
this time the vegetation of central Europe and of the Middle 
Atlantic States of America flourished in northern Greenland 
and in Spitzbergen. 

It is not assumed that the blanket which existed outside 
or above the atmosphere was of any great degree of thickness ; 
on the contrary, it was probably exceedingly thin. Yet its 
influence was such that it prevented the free radiation of 
heat, and thus it caused the secondary belts of vapor to be 
raised in the atmosphere itself. ISTow, since the primary 
canopy was upheld by centrifugal force, and since this force 
was at a minimum at the axis of rotation, it follows that, as 
it spread beyond the point of stability, its northern edge must 
have been subjected to a continual depletion. 

It is postulated on the strongest scientific grounds that 
as the canopy aged it lost energy, hence this point of stability 
retreated further and further south, and the great secondary 
vapor belts withdrew with it. IsTatural sun-controlled 
climatic conditions then began to appear in its wake, and the 
average temperature became cooler and cooler. 

Picture now the descent and dispersal of the forests 
adjusted to a temperate climate. The tropical forms were 
forced to migrate southward, and this made room for the 
downward march of the inhabitants of Greenland and Spitz- 
bergen to more hospitable latitudes. A single tree is helpless 
before such a change in environment, since a tree alone cannot 
migrate. But a forest of trees can, hence they followed the 



104 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

retreating canopy, keeping under it or just beyond its con- 
fines, according to the conditions to which they were best 
suited. As the favorable conditions near the pole were dis- 
turbed, the individual trees on that side of the forest-belt 
gradually perished, but at the same time new territory was 
continually being invaded southward. 

The first changes in the climate, then, were not of a 
sudden nature. But conditions were rapidly ripening for 
an ice age. On the one hand vast belts of vapor circled in 
the lower atmosphere of the middle zones; on the other the 
open space of the north had expanded to such an extent that 
the warm currents from the south could no longer maintain 
an even temperature. In other words, the north was becom- 
ing a condensing area, and the arctic flora and fauna began 
to descend into the cloudy debatable region. 

Charles Darwin says : " The identity of many plants 
and animals on mountain-summits, separated from each other 
by hundreds of miles of low-lands, where Alpine species could 
not possibly exist, is one of the most striking cases known of 
the same species living at distant points, without the apparent 
possibility of their having migrated from one point to the 
other. It is indeed a remarkable fact to see so many plants 
of the same species living on the snowy regions of the Alps or 
Pyrenees, and in the extreme northern parts of Europe ; but 
it is far more remarkable that the plants on the White 
Mountains, in the United States of America, are all the 
same with those of Labrador, and nearly all the same, as we 
hear from Asa Gray, with those on the loftiest mountains 
of Europe." 5 

Sir Charles Lyell gave as an explanation of the com- 
mingling of arctic and southern forms of animal life his 
opinion that the periods of summer and winter were more 
strongly contrasted. The fact of this commingling must have 



" Origin of Species," vol. ii, p. 92. 



CAUSE OF THE ICE AGES 105 



greatly troubled Sir Charles, as he was the great exponent of 
the doctrine of uniformity. 

But let us take up once more the thread of the on-coming 
of the Ice age. When the northern limit of the canopy had 
retreated to, say, the 35 of north latitude, and the cor- 
responding edge in the south had withdrawn to the 35 of 
south latitude, the condensing area as portrayed above was 
represented by the middle ground between the pole and the 
canopy belt. 

The great masses of cloud undoubtedly reduced the aver- 
age summer temperature. Chamberlin and Salisbury recog- 
nize the potent influence of such persistent cloud and wind 
factors, but to account for these same factors is as difficult a 
problem to them as the original puzzle. Having shown how 
these originated under the influence of the canopy, it is inter- 
esting to see what the joint authors have to say about what 
they call the Proximate hypotheses. We therefore quote 
them as follows: 

" In the atmospheric class of hypotheses are to be 
reckoned two that are proximate but not ultimate hypotheses : 
namely, the cloud hypothesis and the wind hypothesis. With- 
out doubt, clouds and wind are important factors in the 
development of glaciation, but if clouds are made the essential 
factor, the problem is only shifted to the cause of such 
persistent clouds covering such large areas for tens of thou- 
sands of years consecutively, with a cooling potency compe- 
tent to develop the great ice-sheets. The solution of this seems 
as formidable as the problem in its usual form." 6 

The united effect of persistent cloud and wind conditions 
was the lowering of the snow line, probably some several 
thousand feet, and thus all the conditions became favorable 
to the rapid accumulation of the ice. It has been estimated 
that a lowering of the average temperature of the globe from 



6 Geo., vol. iii, p. 445. 



106 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

5 to 8 C. below the present temperature would be sufficient 
to produce general conditions of glaciation. 7 

" Prof. Shaler has warned us that New England at the 
present time barely escapes glacial conditions. The rudi- 
ments of a glacier still remain in Tuckermann's Ravine upon 
Mount Washington. A slight lowering of temperature or a 
slight increase of snowfall would again start the glaciers of 
the White Mountains out upon their career, and when once 
started, it is difficult to tell where they would stop ; for glaciers 
intensify the conditions to which they owe their origin, and 
would seem to have almost unlimited power when once the 
forces producing them have come fully into play. Equally 
close is the approach to glacial conditions in Norway and 
Alaska." 8 

The circumstances, then, preeminently favoring the intro- 
duction of the Ice age, were all present when the canopy had 
receded to say the 35 of lat., abundant moisture was in the 
atmosphere, and climatic conditions favorable to the precipi- 
tation of this moisture as snow rather than as rain prevailed. 
Once these heavy falls exceeded the melting capacity of the 
sun's rays, there arose an annual addition to the ice-sheet 
" Snow locks up, as it were, the capital upon dry land, where, 
like all other capital, it becomes conservative, and resists with 
great tenacity both the action of gravity and heat." Profes- 
sor Wright analyzes these cumulative effects and he further 
says: 

" Under the influence of heat ice melts, but in melting it 
consumes an enormous amount of force. In order to melt 
one cubic foot of ice, as much heat is required as would heat 
a cubic foot of water from the freezing-point to 176 Fahr., 
or two cubic feet to 88 Fahr. To melt a layer of ice a foot 
thick will therefore use up as much heat as would raise a 

'Mid., p. 444. 

8 G. Frederick Wright, "Greenland Icefields and Life in the North 
Atlantic," p. 377. 



CAUSE OF THE ICE AGES 107 

layer of water two feet thick to the temperature of 88 Eahr. ; 
and the effect becomes still more easily understood if we esti- 
mate it as applied to air, for to melt a layer of ice only one 
and a half inches thick would require as much heat as would 
raise a stratum of air eight hundred feet thick from the freez- 
ing-point to the tropical heat of 88 Fahr. We thus obtain a 
good idea both of the wonderful power of snow and ice in 
keeping down temperature and also the reason why it takes 
so long a time to melt away, and is able to go on accumulating 
to such an extent as to become permanent." 9 

The importance of the cold polar currents, furnishing, as 
they did, the cold dry air necessary to cause precipitation, 
must not be overlooked. The path which these currents took 
was established by the same laws that exist to-day, hence the 
cyclonic areas cover the same ground. Persistent clouds 
and fog, habitual to such conditions, formed and shielded the 
glacial surface by their high reflecting powers, hence all the 
auxiliary forces of nature may be said to have fallen into 
line, doing their share to promote the general glacial 
conditions. 

The next point that attracts our attention is the centres 
of distribution. The localization of these show that they 
occupied areas of permanent atmospheric depression. There 
is a remarkable correspondence between the border of the 
ice-sheets and the course of the movement of storms to-day. 
In other language, the atmospheric conditions were simply 
exaggerated. The extremes were greater, but the cyclonic 
paths of the storms were the same. It is notable that the 
great ice-lobes converged toward the area where storm- 
frequency is now greatest. The canopy established the 
mechanical factor which produced the vapor, and as this was 
fixed geographically the cyclonic area also became fixed, in- 
stead of moving with the atmosphere as the familiar stray 



" The Ice Age in North America," 4th ed., p. 406. 



108 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

cyclones do. It seems natural, therefore, that their paths 
should have been approximately the same then as now. 

This conception provides for the precipitation of the 
vapors brought into existence by a fixed mechanical agency, 
and it gives a reason for the low temperature that caused 
this precipitation to be in the form of snow. In Siberia, as 
at present, the average precipitation should have been rela- 
tively low, therefore the conditions never quite reached the 
glacial stage; nevertheless, it is probable that great floods 
swept over that land. A glance at the map of North America 
shows that the glacial centres were somewhere in the vicinity 
of Lake Superior and Labrador. Chamberlin and Salisbury 
remark that: 

"It is not a little remarkable that the ice-sheets after 
their several retreats, and perhaps entire disappearances, 
should have advanced repeatedly in nearly the same forms 
and to nearly the same extents, though in some particulars 
their habits otherwise were noticeably unlike. All these and 
many minor facts are associated in theory with these perma- 
nent ' lows ' and the related storm-tracks. These features are 
presumed to have been extended and intensified during the 
glacial stages, but to have retained the general relations and 
configurations they now possess." 10 

From the standpoint of the present hypothesis, it does not 
appear remarkable that the several ice-sheets should have 
occupied nearly the same identical region. A machine turns 
out the same results simply because it is mechanical, and the 
canopy was to all intents and purposes a fixed feature. 
Fluctuations in the declining edge of the canopy, causing it 
to advance further north or retreat further south, are prob- 
ably answerable for like advances and retreats of the ice- 
sheets. The recognition of these recessions and advances is 
of much more importance than the question whether they 
are to be regarded as distinct glacial epochs. 

10 Geo., vol. iii. p. 433. 



CAUSE OF THE ICE AGES 109 

Here is another feature. Wright says : " It must be 
confessed that Professor Dana's estimates of the size of the 
Connecticut River floods at that time are somewhat startling, 
even with all the changes of level for which he provides in his 
theory. For, after reducing, by reason of the Champlain 
depression, the gradient of the stream during the close of the 
Ice period by one third, the slope of the surface of the Con- 
necticut would still have been more than one foot per mile. 
This, in a torrent 2,500 feet wide, with a depth of 140 feet, 
would produce a current of eight miles per hour on the surface 
and of six miles on the bottom. With this size of the flood, 
the rate of discharge would be about four hundred cubic miles 
of water per annum; whereas, at the present time the total 
discharge of a year is only about five cubic miles. To cause 
this enormous rate, Professor Dana supposes that, for a short 
period, the Connecticut glacier melted at the rate of more 
than a cubic mile per day. As he estimates the area of this 
drainage-basin to be about 8,500 square miles, this would 
imply that at times as much as eight inches per day melted 
from this surface. This rapid rate of removal in summer is 
not, however, supposed to continue for a long period 
probably less than five years." n 

James Geikie, speaking of certain interglacial beds, tells 
us that they " are of the very highest interest, since their 
evidence amounts to a demonstration that the Ice age was 
not one long uninterrupted period of cold conditions." 12 

Vegetation sometimes grew up to the edge of the ice. Re- 
mains are found in the drift. The mere presence of this 
material in situ between beds of drift is no proof of distinct 
glacial epochs, for this growth may have occurred during a 
temporary retreat, and a slight advance of the ice may have 
buried it beneath more drift. It is proof, however, that the 

11 " The Ice Age in North America," 4th ed., pp. 306-307. American 
Journal of Science, vol. cxxiii, 1882, p. 198. 
""The Great Ice Age," 3d ed., p. 129. 



110 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

climate on the border of the ice was not so cold after all. 
A slight advance of the canopy bringing this perpetual sum- 
mer warmth over the edge of the glacier caused floods such 
as that pictured by Dana. 

Forest remains, found under like conditions as those above 
portrayed, not only show the presence of this warmth, but also 
that the periods of fluctuation were sometimes of considerable 
length. 

" Among the most remarkable of the interglacial forest 
beds are those near Toronto. Among the identifiable plant 
remains are those of the pawpaw, the ash, the elm, the oak, 
and the yew. Most of these species now range as far north 
as Toronto, but most of them have their greatest development 
farther south. The pawpaw is not known so far north. It 
flourishes in the latitude of the Ohio River, ranging thence 
north to Lake Erie. At the present time these species as a 
whole seem to belong to the climate of a latitude somewhat 
lower than that of Toronto. Their testimony is that the 
climate of Toronto, during the interval of deglaciation when 
they grew, was somewhat warmer than that of the present 
time in the same locality. Toronto is 800 miles or more 
from the centre of the Labrador ice sheet." 13 

Because of this evidence of heat, the joint authors of the 
!N"ew Jersey publication arrive at the following conclusion: 
" The temperate climate which the plant remains prove makes 
it clear that the ice sheet which existed north of Toronto at 
that time must have been small, for with no ice sheet there 
at the present time, the climate is less warm than during the 
interval of deglaciation when the plants grew. 

" It is of significance to note that the phenomena of 
America are in keeping with those of Europe on this point. 
# * * "j"]^ r emains of land animals are often found in the 
forest beds or at corresponding horizons. Their significance 

13 "Glacial Geology of New Jersey," vol. v, Final Report, pp. 
171-172. 



CAUSE OF THE ICE AGES 111 

is similar. At Toronto, for example, animal remains are 
found, and, like the plants, they indicate a temperature 
warmer than that of the same region at the present time." 14 

It has been shown by the migrations of the plants and 
animals that the on-coming of the Ice age was gradual, but 
there are likewise features of suddenness. Thus the burial 
of entire mammoths by a mighty storm, and just such storms 
must have taken place. The swirling power of the canopy 
may at times have set the atmospheric belts themselves in 
motion, and the latter carrying the moisture laden vapors 
must have caused deluges and snows that at times were of 
cataclysmal magnitude. Winchell says: 

" If the change to an arctic climate had been gradual, the 
herds of mammoths would probably have slowly migrated 
southward ; or, if no actual migration occurred, the extinction 
of the mammoth population would have been distributed over 
many years, and the destruction of individuals would have 
taken place at temperatures which were still insufficiently 
rigorous to preserve their carcasses for a hundred ages. 
Whole herds of mammoths must have been overwhelmed by 
a sudden invasion of arctic weather. Some secular change 
produced an unprecedented precipitation of snow. We may 
imagine elephantine communities huddled together in the 
sheltering valleys and in the deep defiles of the rivers, where, 
on previous occasions, they had found that protection which 
carried them safely through wintry storms. But now the 
snow-fall found no pause. Like cattle overwhelmed in the 
gorges of Montana, the mammoths were rapidly buried. By 
precipitation and by drifting, fifty feet of snow, perhaps, 
accumulated above them. They must perish; and with the 
sudden change in the climate, their shroud of snow would 
remain wrapped about them through all the mildness of the 
ensuing summer. The fleecy snow would become granular; 



14 IUd., p. 172. 



112 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

it would be neve or firn, as in the glacier sources of the Alps. 
It would finally become solid ice, compact, clear and sea- 
green in its limpid depths. It would be a glacier ; and so it 
would travel down the gorges, down the valleys toward the 
frozen ocean, sweeping buried mammoths bodily in its resist- 
less stream. Thus, in the course of ages, their mummied 
forms would reach a latitude more northern than that in 
which they had been inhumed." 15 

The mammoth may have found the physical conditions 
under the canopy insupportable, or, again, it may be that the 
extinction of this great beast may best be accounted for by 
saying, it was his intelligence that killed him. Elephants are 
acknowledged to be the most knowing animals, and the mam- 
moth belongs to this family. Looking at the lowering skies 
to the south, perhaps he feared to explore the only region 
which would have meant safety, whereas other creatures, of 
less intelligence, rushed blindly in and so came into posses- 
sion of the garden-land. The mammoths' stay in the de- 
batable land resulted in their being overcome " suddenly." 

One of the difficult problems in connection with the cause 
of the Ice age has always been to account for the remarkable 
fact that the greater part of Alaska, the extreme North, and 
also portions of Greenland, were not extensively glaciated 
during Pleistocene time. 16 Our explanation is that the 
gradual withdrawal of the canopy did not allow of the forma- 
tion of ice-sheets in the far north. The area of precipitation 
followed the outer rim of the canopy, and until this had 
descended into the lower latitudes the clear space of the 
north was not large enough to allow of the radiation of suf- 



13 " Sparks from a Geologist's Hammer/' pp. 244-245. 

"Israel C. Russell, "Glaciers of North America," pp. 139, 144-145. 
James D. Dana, " Man. of Geo.," 4th ed., p. 977. G. Frederick Wright, 
"Greenland Icefields and Life in the North Atlantic," pp. 206-207, 
369-370. Chamberlin and Salisbury, Geo., vol. iii, pp. 329-330, 
336-337. 



CAUSE OF THE ICE AGES 113 

ficient hea^t to cause, the vapors from the south to turn to 
snow. When this point was finally reached the area of 
precipitation was south of the arctic circle. The fact here 
clearly stated proves conclusively that the cause of the Ice 
age was some other than the gradual lowering of temperature, 
such as might have been brought about by a depletion of the 
carbon dioxide of the atmosphere, or by elevation of the con- 
tinental masses. The distribution of the ice during the 
Glacial period was not such as to indicate a gradual exten- 
sion of it from the north pole, but rather its accumulation 
upon centres many degrees to the south. 

There was a northern limitation and there was a southern 
limitation. The continental ice belts reached 40 of lati- 
tude. If no influence existed to prevent the cold from this 
region descending southward, it would seem certain that it 
would have done so. Sympathetic glaciation would surely 
have reached the equator. All tropical vegetation would 
have been exterminated. Since it was not, it follows that a 
preventive cause must have existed. The survival of in- 
numerable tropical plants shows that the Glacial age was not 
a period of universal cold. 

JSFow, the preventive cause of southern invasion was the belt 
of tropical or semi-tropical heat girding the earth under the 
greenhouse roof at about the 35 of latitude. At first this 
canopy formed one blanket from the 35 of south latitude 
to a like latitude in the north, but as time went on it is 
further postulated that the sky cleared at the equator, leaving 
a northern and a southern belt. Under these conditions the 
high lands between the belts also became somewhat glaciated. 
Thus the hypothesis we are considering accounts for a vast 
storehouse of heat, where vapor was formed, which in turn 
furnished the material for deluges of rain and great storms 
of snow. Accumulation of ice north of the protected belt 
established the ice-sheets, and at a much later period local 
glaciation began to appear on the mountains to the south. 
8 



114 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

The cold and warm zones, brought thus into juxtaposition, 
gave rise to cyclonic convulsions upon a scale which the 
ordinary operations of nature cannot begin to parallel. 

The final breaking up of the belt caused the sympathetic 
glaciation above referred to to invade the whole earth. As 
an illustration of how this would have occurred, it is inter- 
esting to know that "the small precipitation in Greenland 
commonly stated to be only about ten inches annually on and 
near the coast renders it quite probable that if the ice were 
once melted away, it would not, under present conditions, 
accumulate* again." 17 We have already quoted the same 
author as saying: 

" Under the influence of heat ice melts, but in melting 
it consumes an enormous amount of force. In order to melt 
one cubic foot of ice as much heat is required as would heat a 
cubic foot of water from the freezing-point to 176 Fahr., 
or two cubic feet to 88 Fahr. To melt a layer of ice a 
foot thick will therefore use up as much heat as would raise 
a layer of water two feet thick to the temperature of 88 
Fahr. ; and the effect becomes still more easily understood if 
we estimate it as applied to air, for to melt a layer of ice only 
one and a half inch thick would require as much heat as would 
raise a stratum of air eight hundred feet thick from the 
freezing-point to the tropical heat of 88 Fahr. We thus 
obtain a good idea both of the wonderful power of snow and 
ice in keeping down temperature, and also the reason why 
it takes so long a time to melt away, and is able to go on 
accumulating to such an extent as to become permanent." 18 

James Geikie says : " Every one, indeed, has heard of 
the heat of the arctic sun, which shines day and night during 
the whole summer-tide. But despite the sun's power the 



" Wright, " Greenland Icefields and Life in the North Atlantic," 
p. 367. 

18 " The Ice Age in North America," 4th ed., p. 406. 



CAUSE OF THE ICE AGES 115 

mean temperature of summer in North Greenland does not 
exceed one or two degrees above freezing-point, and this is 
entirely owing to the presence of snow and ice." 19 

We can understand from these citations how it was that 
glaciation reached the tropics. When the canopy finally 
dispersed it was like removing a wall or dam which had 
stopped or held in check the cooling currents which obtained 
their low degree of temperature from the vast accumulations 
of ice to the north, and which had already invaded the lower 
latitudes. The duration of this southern glaciation, how- 
ever, was short-lived. The sun got in its work . in time to 
save the tropical forms of life, but not in time to prevent 
the migration of certain arctic species from the one zone to 
the other. 

In connection with the fact of the migration of arctic 
species, Sir Robert Ball tells us that " we have the high 
authority of Sir J. Hooker for the remarkable fact that a 
great number of the flowering plants in Patagonia are either 
identical with or closely allied to plants in temperate North 
America and Europe. To realize the significance of this 
fact, consider not so much that Patagonia and Northern 
Europe are separated by thousands of miles of land and sea, 
as that between them lies the torrid zone, in which these 
plants adapted to temperate regions could not live. There is 
no continuity between the flora of Patagonia and that of 
North America, for equatorial America is a barrier through 
which such organisms could not pass. How, then, are we to 
explain the community of botanical forms in two regions so 
remote ? It is impossible to believe that these separate floras 
can have sprung independently into being, for all analogies 
of nature demonstrate that they must have had some common 
source. The glacial theory is at hand to render an explana- 
tion of the facts." 20 



"The Great Ice Age," 3d ed., p. 800. 
20 "The Cause of an Ice Age," p. 146. 



116 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

Ball supported the Crollian hypothesis, and his explana- 
tion of these facts is not very satisfactory. T. G. Bonney, 
along with many others, tells us that " the extension of the 
glaciers on Mount Kenya (19,500) is specially interesting, 
because its position (almost on the equator) suggests a pos- 
sible refrigeration of the earth as a whole rather than of 
its hemispheres alternately. Formerly its glaciers de- 
scended to a height of about 9,800 feet above sea-level, or 
their end was about 9,700 feet vertical beneath the summit, 
instead of about 4,000 feet, as at present. Kenya, in those 
days, must have presented conditions generally corresponding 
with those of a peak in the Alps rising to a height of about 
14,000 feet (where the snow-line is about 8,000 feet, or 6,000 
below the summit). On Kenya formerly this line should 
have been not far from 13,500 feet above the sea, and its 
present level must be about 15,000 feet; a difference which 
roughly corresponds with a lowering of temperature 
amounting to 5." 

That which is true of the recent Pleistocene glaciation 
is likewise true of those which occurred in remote geological 
ages. " Evidence has been adduced from the Carboniferous 
times," says Archibald Geikie, " to support the view that in 
spite of the genial temperature indicated by the vegetation 
there were glaciers even in tropical and sub-tropical regions. 
Coarse boulder-conglomerates and striated stones have been 
cited from various parts of India, South Africa, and eastern 
Australia, as evidence of ice-action." 21 



., 3d ed., p. 809. 



CHAPTER X 

SYMPATHETIC FEATURES 

THEEE were a great many other sympathetic features 
connected with the Ice age upon which the present hypothesis 
throws light. II. W. Pearson's views relative to the drift- 
wood origin of coal, accounting for, as they do, the remains 
of the plants grown in situ, might be transferred bodily into 
this volume. 1 Both hypotheses, though they are as far apart 
as the east is from the west, in their primary conceptions, 
recognize the fact that the ice caused the inundations re- 
quired to accumulate the vast deposits of the Carboniferous, 
and is responsible also for the phenomenon of the raised 
beaches of the several geological ages involved. 

These views have been held more or less definitely by 
'many others. Thus, Professor Penck " thinks it likely that 
the pluvial periods, of which there is evidence in many of 
the deserts of the world, were contemporaneous with ice- 
advances, and that desiccation phenomena accompanied inter- 
glacial epochs." 2 

The phenomena of desiccation seem to have been first 
cousins of the pluvial manifestations. We would point out 
that no other hypothesis than the one now before us can 
explain how it is that within a range of a few hundred miles 
these two extremes should be contrasted, and yet there is 
geological evidence to show that such were the actual 
conditions. 

Frederick S. Dellenbaugh says of the Grand Canyon of 
the Colorado that " the inner gorge appears to have been cut 
far more rapidly than the outer one, and at a much later 

" * Scientific American Supplement, No. 1683, April 4, 1908. 

2 Geographical Journal, Feb. 1906, pp. 182-187. The Journal of 
Geology, vol. xiv, No. 6, Sept.-Oct., 1906, p. 570. 

117 



118 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

period. Were this not the case, there would be no inner 
gorge. It is a singular fact that some side canyons the 
Kanab, for example while now possessing no running water, 
or at best a puny rivulet, and depending for their corrasion 
on intermittent floods, meet on equal terms the great Colo- 
rado, the giant that never for a second ceases its ferocious 
attack. * * * A suspicion arises, on contemplating some of 
these apparent discrepancies, that the prevailing conditions 
of corrasion are not what they were at some earlier period, 
when they were such that it was rendered more rapid and 
violent ; that there was perhaps an epoch when these deep-cut 
tributary canyons carried perennial streams, and when the 
volume of the Colorado itself was many times greater, pos- 
sessing a multiplied corrasive power, while the adjacent areas 
were about as arid as now." 3 Dellenbaugh, who was one 
of the members of Major J. W. Powell's second expedition, 
undoubtedly correctly surmises that the cause of the addi- 
tional corrasive power was increased precipitation on the 
mountain summits during the Glacial epoch. We might add, 
the result of the sympathetic glaciation. The significant 
point is that the region of the canyons, according to the evi- 
dence, was then as arid as at present. The inference is 
obvious : the region in question lay under the protecting belt, 
hence, though great quantities of moisture were in the air, 
geologically speaking the area was one of desiccation. 

Like conditions naturally prevailed in the remote geolog- 
ical ages when other belts caused other glaciations. Thus 
the problems of the Permian are summed up by Chamberlin 
and Salisbury, and we would point out that desiccation under 
the canopy belt existed then just as it existed in the Pleisto- 
cene. The joint authors say: 

"Between a marvelous deployment of glaciation, a 
strangely dispersed deposition of salt and gypsum, an extra- 



8 "The Romance of the Colorado River," pp. 46-47. 



SYMPATHETIC FEATURES 119 

ordinary development of red beds, a decided change in ter- 
restrial vegetation, a great depletion of marine life, a 
remarkable shifting of geographic outlines, and a pronounced 
stage of crustal folding, the events of the Permian period 
constitute a climacteric combination. Each of these phe- 
nomena brings its own unsolved questions, while their 
combination presents a plexus of problems of unparalleled 
difficulty. More than any other period since the Cambrian, 
the Permian is the period of problems. With little doubt 
these marked phenomena were related to one another, and 
their elucidation is quite sure to be found in a common 
group of cooperative agencies. While it is too much to hope 
for a full elucidation at once, there is no occasion to blink the 
facts or evade the issues they raise." 4 

Evaporation is akin to desiccation, and this took place 
under the zonal belts. Precipitation occurred in the open 
zones, outside the influence of the protecting canopy. Under 
these conditions salt deposits could be formed in one region 
while in an adjacent territory torrential floods were accom- 
plishing their work. 

As this hypothesis has no occasion to evade an issue raised, 
the phenomena of crustal folding and kindred questions next 
attract attention. Undoubtedly they were of a sympathetic 
nature, elucidation of the one great cause opening the way for 
a discussion of the cooperative agencies. 

According to Professor G. Pozzi, the principal volcanic 
outbreaks of Italy are of the Glacial period. 5 Professor 
Wright says : " The connection of lava-flows on the Pacific 
coast with the Glacial period is unquestionably close. For 
some reason which we do not fully understand, the vast ac- 
cumulation of ice in North America during the Glacial 
period is correlated with enormous eruptions of lava west of 
the Rocky Mountains, and, in connection with these events, 

4 Geo., vol. ii, pp. 655-656. 

5 Atti Linci, 3d ser., vol. ii (1878), p. 35. 



120 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

there took place on the Pacific coast an almost entire change 
in the plants and animals occupying the regions." 6 

The same author says of the columnar outflows of basalt of 
Disco Island and contiguous and more northern islands along 
the Greenland coast : " The date of these lava outflows was 
approximately the same with similar or even grander volcanic 
action in the Faroe Islands, Iceland, and the region of the 
Cascade Mountains in Oregon and Washington." 7 

Chamber] in and Salisbury give the following summary 
of the evidence in America : " There are lava-flows and 
cinder cones of Quaternary age in ~New Mexico, Colorado, 
Utah, Nevada, Oregon, Idaho, Washington, and at various 
points in the Sierras. On many of them vegetation has 
hardly begun to gain a foothold. Gilbert estimates that of 
250 lava fields observed in these states 15 per cent, are of 
Pleistocene age, and of the 350 volcanic cones in the same 
States, 60 per cent, are considered to be Pleistocene. Vol- 
canic ash is* interbedded with loess at various points in 
eastern Washington and Oregon, and overlies glacial 
moraines in some parts of Alaska. Glacier Peak, Washing- 
ton, is the remnant of a volcano formed after the elevation 
of the base-leveled tract. Mount Eainier dates from about 
the same time." 8 

Associated as these instances were with the Glacial 
period, there can be no doubt that the redistribution of the 
land, caused by the heaping up of the ice, was the proximate 
cause. 9 The ice depressed the Champlain valley about 200 



6 "Man and the Glacial Period/' 2d ed., p. 301. 

7 " Greenland Icefields and Life in the North Atlantic," p. 208. 

8 Geo., vol. iii, p. 479. 

9 N. S. Shaler, "Depression of the Terrestrial Surface Caused by 
Accumulation of Ice-Sheets." Proc. Boston Nat. Hist. Soc., xvii, p. 
288. T. F. Jamieson, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., 1882, and Geol. Mag., 
1882, pp. 400, 526. Fisher, "Physics of Earth's Crust," p. 223. A. 
Geikie, Geo., 3d ed., p. 295. G. Frederick Wright, "The Ice Age in 
North America," 4th ed., pp. 368, 369, 573, 576, 586, 595, 616, 618. 



SYMPATHETIC FEATURES 121 

feet, and it is generally conceded that the whole St. Lawrence 
region must have stood some hundreds of feet lower than now. 
Where did the crushed out or displaced strata go ? 

" These relations between the amount of post-glacial ele- 
vation and the centre of the icefield have led to the hypothesis 
'(1) that the low altitude of the land at the close of the last 
glacial epoch was the result of sinking caused by the great 
load of ice, and that the sinking was greatest where the ice 
was thickest; and (2) that the rise of the land since the 
glacial period is the result of the removal of the load of ice, 
and that the resilience was greatest where the depression 
was greatest, namely, where the ice was thickest. This 
hypothesis, which makes the crust of the earth responsive to 
]oad, is the doctrine of isostasy. 

" Attempts have been made to test this hypothesis in 
various ways. The result of all investigations thus far 
carried out seems to point to the conclusion that it contains 
a truth, and that load, or the removal of load, affecting a 
great area, is a real cause of crustal movement. It is not to 
be inferred, however, that this responds promptly or uni- 
formly to it. It is probable that other forces originate crustal 
oscillation, or may limit, delay, or defeat the movement which 
load or its removal would tend to produce." 10 

After the ice disappeared the ocean invaded the Cham- 
plain depression, but, the load having been removed, the land 
began to return to its normal elevation. " The conclusion 
that the northern lands were lower than now when the ice 
melted carries with it the farther conclusion that the land 
has since risen, relative to the sea level. Much other evi- 
dence, gathered from a wide range of territory, points to the 
same conclusion. Not only this, but the post-glacial rise of 
the land seems to have been greater, as the centre of the 
icefield is approached, and amounts to as much as 1,000 feet 



10 " Glacial Gteo. of N. J., vol. v, Final Report, pp. 200, 201. 



122 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

or more near the centre of the field." n The time factor of 
this dynamic oscillation was certainly much faster than is 
generally realized. 12 

Load was only one of the proximate factors resulting 
from the atmospheric belts, that caused plutonic and other 
terrestrial disturbances. All the most pronounced mani- 
festations of vulcanism occurred at periods when the belted 
canopy was undergoing some form of change. Thus during 
the Tertiary vast floods of lava were poured out in both the 
Old and the ISTew Worlds. Going still further back, like 
phenomena mark the later parts of the Cretaceous, and it is 
the same story in the still more remote ages. 13 The immedi- 
ate cause of these outbreaks was undoubtedly the weight of 
ice and the pressure of the atmosphere. But these factors 
only acted on the critical region (anamorphic zone) of rock 
flowage. Be it remembered we advocate a rigid earth. 

Archibald Geikie, in this connection, says : " Leaving 
for the present the general question of the cause of volcanic 
action, it may be here remarked that the conditions determin- 
ing any particular eruption are still unknown. The explo- 
sions of a volcano may be to some extent regulated by the 
conditions of atmospheric pressure over the area at the time. 
In the case of a volcanic funnel like Stromboli, where, as 
Scrope pointed out, the expansive subterranean force within, 
and the repressive effect of atmospheric pressure without, just 
balance each other, any serious disturbance of that pressure 
might be expected to make itself evident by a change in the 
condition of the volcano. Accordingly, it has long been 
remarked by fishermen of the Lipari Islands that in stormy 



11 Ibid., p. 200. 

12 For figures relative to this interesting phenomenon, see New York 
State Museum, Bui. 84, Geo. 8, pp. 236-238. 

13 A. Geikie, Geo., 3d ed., pp. 258, 973. James D. Dana, Manual 
of Geo., 4th ed., pp. 299-300, 365-366, 392. Joseph Le Conte, Geo., 5th 
ed., p. 525. 



SYMPATHETIC FEATURES 123 

weather there is at Stromboli a more copious discharge of 
steam and stones than in fine weather. They make use of 
the cone as a weather-glass, the increase of its activity indi- 
cating a falling, and the diminution a rising, barometer. In 
like manner, Etna, according to Sartorius von Waltershausen, 
is more active in the winter months. Mr. Coan has indicated 
a relation between the eruptions of Kilauea and the rainy 
seasons of Hawaii, most of the discharges of that crater 
taking place within the four months from March to June. 

" When we remember the connection, now indubitably 
established, between a more copious discharge of fire-damp in 
mines and a lowering of atmospheric pressure, we may be 
prepared to find a similar influence affecting the escape of 
vapors from the upper surface of the lava-column of a vol- 
cano ; for it is not so much to the lava itself as to the expan- 
sive vapors impregnating it that the manifestations of 
volcanic activity are due. Among the Yesuvian eruptions 
since the middle of the seventeenth century, the number which 
took place in winter and spring has been to that of those 
which broke out in summer and autumn as 7 to 4. In Japan 
also the greater number of recorded eruptions have taken 
place during the cold months of the year, February to 
April. * * * 

" The greater frequency of Japanese volcanic eruptions 
and earthquakes in winter has been referred in explanation 
to the fact that the average barometric gradient across Japan 
is steeper in winter than in summer, while the piling up of 
snow in the northern regions gives rise to long-continued 
stresses, in consequence of which certain lines of weakness in 
the earth's crust are more prepared to give way during the 
winter months than they are in summer." 14 



14 Geo., 3d ed., pp. 205-206. 



CHAPTER XI 

RECENTNESS OF THE LAST STAGES OF THE ICE 

THIS chapter is introduced to show that the last stages 
of the ice invasion were of such recent date that man, includ- 
ing even civilized man, was a witness of the grand phenomena 
of the belted canopy. The demonstration of this point is 
very important, as its establishment admits before the court 
the evidence locked up in the mythological tales, the fossil 
thought of those ancient days, which has come down to us as 
an echo. It is generally admitted by the scientists that man 
lived on the earth during the Pleistocene, therefore in a 
measure this chapter is unnecessary, but that the lay mind 
may find it easier to follow the argument, and that no link 
may be wanting, especially at such an important junction, it 
seems best to present a general outline of the evidence. 
Further, it may be well to state that remnants of the belts 
probably survived in the heavens long after the ice disap- 
peared. Now, since man lived in the Pleistocene, he saw 
the system in its glory, and as it is assumed that remnants 
remained until a much later period, he saw the decline and 
fall of the same, the Ragnarok of his gods. 

The popular idea that the Ice age occurred at a very 
remote date, humanly speaking, lives on in spite of the fact 
that science has controverted the data on which it was orig- 
inally founded. Estimates of this character are based more 
or less on three worn-out theories: (1) Ly ell's principle of 
uniformity in Nature's operations, which has led to an 
exaggerated estimate of the Glacial age, in order to proportion 
it to the other events in geologic time; (2) Croll's hypothesis 
of the precession of the equinoxes (now generally dis- 
credited) ; (3) Darwin's system of evolution, which requires 

124 



RECENTNESS OF THE LAST STAGES OF THE ICE 125 

long periods of time for the development of new species from 
a parent stem. De Vries removes this difficulty, as his 
" mutants " fulfil all requirements for the shortening of the 
time element. 

The data we are now after are those of the withdrawal of 
the last of the ice from the centre of glaciation. In one 
sense the age is not yet over; the glaciers, especially those 
of Alaska, are still receding. But this slow recession, while 
it shows that the date of heavy glaciation was recent, is of 
little value in the present connection, for it only demonstrates 
the tenacity with which cold stored up in the past has en- 
dured. It does not show that the cause itself still existed 
until recent time. In order to find out what this date may 
be, we want to determine the approximate date of the first 
withdrawal of ice from the southern border of the ice sheet. 
To that end we introduce the following testimony. 

Prestwich places a rough estimate within the limits of 
6,000 to 12,000 years as necessary for the wearing back along 
the coast-line of certain cliffs since the glacial submergence in 
the soft Cretaceous, Oolitic, and Liassic strata in the South 
of England. 1 The evidence from weathering in America 
confirms this. T. C. Chamberlin, State Geologist of Wis- 
consin, says : " ~No sensible denudation had taken place there 
since glacial times." 2 

H. Carville Lewis says in connection with the striae on 
Cannon Hill, Kerry, Ireland : " At the present day the 
northwest winds are the wet winds. The winds were the 
same in the time of the local glaciers. The marks are so 
fresh that they may not be over 5,000 years old." 3 " In 
Europe, likewise, numerous estimates of the lapse of time 



ia On Certain Phenomena Belonging to the Close of the Last 
Geological Period, etc.," p. 71. 
*Geo. of Wis., vol. ii, p. 632. 
8 "The Glacial Geo. of Great Britain and Ireland," pp. 93, 94. 



126 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

since the Glacial period, as collated by Hansew, are found 
to be comprised between the limits of 5,000 and 12,000 
years." 4 

Material comprising deposits of the Glacial age is very 
slightly oxidized and disintegration is very slightly advanced, 
even when said deposits occupy exposed positions. All this 
indicates that the lapse of time has not been long. fce late 
Professor White,^of the Pennsylvania Geological Survey, de- 
scribes freshly preserved leaves at great depths which he 
found in terraces on the Monongahela River. He also de- 
scribes a certain pebble which he found near the Big Sandy, 
and which is peculiarly liable to disintegration, nevertheless 
his specimens were in good condition. " There is not space 
to mention the many other places where wood is reported in 
the modified drift filling what are perhaps preglacial torrents, 
and which may therefore have been transported a long dis- 
tance from their native place. One such was reported to 
me in the valley of Raccoon Creek, in Granville, Licking 
County, Ohio, and but a few miles from the glaciated border. 
This was found ninety-four feet below the surface of the 
terrace, which would bring it about forty feet below the 
present bed of the stream. A few miles farther up in this 
same valley so many red-cedar logs were formerly found 
beneath the glacial terraces along the valley, and the wood was 
so fresh, that a flourishing business was for a while carried 
on in manufacturing household utensils from them. Red 
cedar is not found in that region now, and these logs are 
probably of the same period with those described as found 
in true glacial till in Butler County, and which are so fresh 
as to preserve still the peculiar odor of the wood. 

" Professor Collett reports that all through that portion 
of southwestern Indiana included within the glacial boundary 
there are found, from sixty to a hundred and twenty feet 



4 American Geologist, vol. xxviii, No. 4, p. 243. 



RECENTNESS OF THE LAST STAGES OF THE ICE 127 

below the surface, peat, muck, rotted stumps, branches and 
leaves of trees, and that these accumulations sometimes occur 
through a thickness of from two to twenty feet. 

" We may mention also, as probably connected with the 
period of the ice-dam at Cincinnati, the well-preserved 
organic remains found in the high-level terraces of various 
tributaries of the upper Ohio. In the vicinity of Morgan- 
town, Professor I. C. White, as already noted, reports that 
in the terraces which he connects with the period of the Cin- 
cinnati ice-dam the leaves of our common forest-trees are 
most beautifully preserved some distance below the surface, 
and that logs of wood in a semi-rotted condition were encoun- 
tered seventy feet below the surface." 5 

Very little erosion has taken place since the Kames of 
Scotland or America were deposited, and in both these locali- 
ties these peculiar relics of the Glacial period retain their 
sharpness of outline. " When, also, one considers the 
chemical agencies at work to decompose the rocks everywhere 
protected by a covering of till, the freshness of the glaciated 
surfaces never ceases to be a cause of astonishment. * * * 

" Closely connected with the preceding class of facts are 
the observations made upon the extent to which the lakes, 
dating from the Glacial period, have been filled with sedi- 
ment. Little reflection is required to make it evident that 
our present lake-basins could not always have existed; for, 
except where counteracting agencies are at work, the ' wash ? 
of the hills will in due time fill to the brim all inclosed areas 
of depression. Mr. Upham, of the Minnesota Geological 
Survey, expresses surprise at the small extent to which the 
numerous lakes of that State have been filled with the sedi- 
ment continually washing into them. e The lapse of time 
since the Ice age has been insufficient for rains and streams 
to fill these basins with sediment, or to cut outlets low enough 



B " The Ice Age in North America," 4th ed., p. 493. 



128 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

to drain them, though in many instances we can see such 
changes going forward.' 6 

" Dr. E. Andrews, of Chicago, has made calculations, 
deserving of more attention than they have had, concerning 
the rate at which the waters of Lake Michigan are eating 
into the shores and washing the sediment into deeper water 
or toward the southern end of the lake. 7 The United States 
Coast Survey have carefully sounded the lake in all its parts, 
and have ascertained the width of the area of shallow water 
extending inward from the shores. It is well known that 
waves are limited in their downward action, so that there will 
be a surrounding shelf, or shoulder of shallow water, in cases 
where the waves of a deep lake are eroding its banks. This 
fringe of shallow water encircling Lake Michigan is only a 
few miles wide; and from such data as have been gathered, 
the average rate of erosion is found to be as much as five or 
six feet per annum ; which would indicate that the lake-basins 
had not been in existence more than seventy-five hundred 
years." 3 

The author from whom we have just quoted enters into a 
lengthy discussion of the date of the Glacial period, 9 from 
which we cite the following : 

" Seven thousand years may, with a good deal of confi- 
dence, be taken as the age of the lower part of the Niagara 
gorge. This, of course, does not take us back to the period 
when the front of the glacier lay in the headwaters of the 
Delaware and the Little Miami River, and when glacial floods 
were depositing the gravel at Trenton, 'New Jersey, and at 
Loveland and Madisonville, Ohio, and where Drs. Abbott and 
Metz have found paleolithic implements ; but it does bring us 
back to within a comparatively short distance of that period, 



"Minnesota Geological Report for 1879, p. 73. 
1 'American Journal of Science, vol. xcviii, 1869, pp. 172 et seq. 
"Wright, "The Ice Age in North America," 4th ed., pp. 470-471. 
*IUd., pp. 448-505. 



RECENTNESS OF THE LAST STAGES OF THE ICE 129 

the difference being merely the time necessary for the melting 
back of the ice from the summit of the Gatskills to the 
southern flanks of the Adirondacks, and from the water- 
partings of the Ohio to the north shore of Lake Erie. 

" A second typical place for the study of the recession of 
post-glacial waterfalls is presented in the gorge of the Mis- 
sissippi River below the Falls of St. Anthony at Minneapolis. 
The problem here presented has been carefully studied by 
Professor N. li. Winchell, the State Geologist of Minnesota, 
who thinks he can pretty closely approximate to the truth 
concerning its antiquity." The average arrived at for these 
calculations is 7,803 years. 10 

" The .Falls of St. Anthony," says Le Conte, " recedes 
about five feet per annum, and has made its gorge in about 
8,000 years." 1X 

Warren Upham arrives at a somewhat earlier date, 
though the region on which he founds his conclusion is farther 
north. He writes : " Likewise probably the uprise of the 
St. Lawrence basin was at first relatively rapid, so that it all 
might take place within the period of about 7,000 or 6,000 
years which is indicated for Postglacial time in that part of 
the northern United States and Canada by Prof. N. li. 
Winchell, in his studies of the recession of the Falls of St. 
Anthony, with which my studies of the Niagara falls and 
gorge well coincide. The former estimate of the period since 
the Ice age as tens of thousands of years, still advocated by 
Gilbert and Woodworth, is opposed by a great range of well 
accordant evidence on the glacial areas of both North America 
and Europe." 12 

" These calculations concerning the age of Niagara and 
the Falls of St. Anthony are amply sustained by the study of 
various minor waterfalls and gorges in Ohio, to which I have 

IMd., pp. 458, 464. 

"Elements, 5th ed., p. 15. 

18 American Geologist, November, 1905, vol. xxxvi, No. 5, p. 288. 



130 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

myself given special attention/' says Wright. " For ex- 
ample, at Elyria, twenty-five miles west of Cleveland, Black 
River plunges over the outcropping Waverly sandstone, and 
flows onward to the lake through a wide valley in the Erie 
shale, which was doubtless preglacial, though no buried chan- 
nel above has yet been discovered. The gorge below the falls/ 
which has been eroded since glacial times, and which approxi- 
mately represents the work done by Black River during that 
time, is only a trifle over two thousand feet long. The water 
flowing over the falls represents the drainage of about four 
hundred square miles, and the sandstone which forms the 
precipice over which the water plunges is underlaid by soft 
shale very favorable to rapid erosion." 13 

Warren Upham in " Popular Astronomy " gives the fol- 
lowing data, which ably summarize what has already been 
said. He remarks : " In various localities we are able to 
measure the present rate of erosion of gorges below water- 
falls, and the length of the postglacial gorge divided by the 
rate of recession of the falls gives approximately the time 
since the Ice age. Such measurements of the gorge and 
falls of St. Anthony by Prof. ~N. H. Winchell show the length 
of the Postglacial or Recent period to have been about 8,000 
years; and from the surveys of Niagara Falls, Prof. G. F. 
Wright and the present writer believe it to have been 7,000 
years, more or less. From the rates of wave-cutting along 
the side of Lake Michigan and the consequent accumulation 
of sand around the south end of the lake, Dr. E. Andrews 
estimates that the land there became uncovered from the 
ice-sheet not more than 7,500 years ago. Prof. Wright ob- 
tains a similar result from the rate of filling of kettle-holes 
among the gravel knolls and ridges called kames and eskers, 
and likewise from the erosion of valleys by streams tributary 
to Lake Erie; and Prof. B. K. Emerson, from the rate of 



13 " The Ice Age in North America," 4th ed., p. 466. 



RECENTNESS OF THE LAST STAGES OF THE ICE 131 

deposition of modified drift in the Connecticut Valley at 
Northampton, Mass., thinks that the time since the Glacial 
period cannot exceed 10,000 years. An equally small estimate 
is also indicated by the studies of Gilbert and Russell for the 
time since the highest rise of the Quaternary lakes, Bonne- 
ville and Lahontan, lying in Utah and Nevada, within the 
arid Great Basin of interior drainage, which are believed to 
have been contemporaneous with the great extension of ice- 
sheets upon the northern part pf our continent. * * * 

" In Wales and Yorkshire the amount of denudation of 
limestone rocks on which boulders lie has been regarded by 
Mr. D. Mackintosh as proof that a period of not more than 
6,000 years has elapsed since the boulders were left in their 
positions. The vertical extent of this denudation, averaging 
about six inches, is nearly the same with that observed in the 
southwest part of the Province of Quebec by Sir William 
Logan and Dr. Robert Bell, where veins of quartz marked 
with glacial stria3 stand out to various heights not exceeding 
one foot above the weathered surface of the inclosing lime- 
stone. 

" Another indication that the final melting of the ice- 
sheet upon British America was separated by only a very 
short interval, geologically speaking, from the present time, 
is seen in the wonderfully perfect preservation of the glacial 
striation and polishing on the surfaces of the more enduring 
rocks. Of their character in one noteworthy district, Dr. 
Bell writes as follows : ' On Portland promontory on the 
east coast of Hudson's Bay, in latitude 58 and southward, 
the high rocky hills are completely glaciated and bare. The 
striae are as fresh-looking as if the ice had left them only 
yesterday. When the sun bursts upon these hills after they 
have been wet by the rain, they glitter and shine like the 
tinned roofs of the city of Montreal.' 

" From this wide range of concurrent but independent 
testimonies, we may accept it as practically demonstrated that 



133 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

the ice-sheets disappeared from North America and Europe 
some 6,000 to 10,000 years ago." 14 Upham also remarks: 
" Niagara history may be placed in round numbers between 
5,000 and 10,000 years." 15 

In the Final Report of the State Geologist of New Jersey 
the following concise statement occurs : " The date and 
duration of the glacial period are matters of the greatest 
interest, but neither has been determined with numerical 
exactness. Many lines of calculation, all of them confessedly 
more or less uncertain, point to the retreat of the last ice-sheet 
from the northern part of the United States 6,000 years to 
10,000 years ago. While these figures are to be looked upon 
as estimates only, there are so many lines of evidence pointing 
in the same direction that the recency (geologically speaking) 
of the last glaciation must be looked on as established." 16 

Humphreys and Abbot estimated that the whole delta of 
the Mississippi had been laid down in 5,000 years. 17 De 
Lanoye gives but 6,350 years for the making of the delta of 
the Nile. 18 

The recentness of the date of the waning of the ice having 
been established, a few citations are now given to show that 
man's relics have been found in widely dispersed regions in 
formations of said period, and also that deductions founded 
on this assumption are borne out by the facts of ethnology. 

" Geologic archeology in Europe demonstrates," says 
Warren Upham, " man's existence there before the culmina- 
tion of the Glacial period, and indeed, I think, before its be- 
ginning. From my examination of the implement-bearing 
gravel deposits of the Somme valley in northern France, 
where the proofs of man's great geologic antiquity were first 



14 Scientific American Supplement, No. 1588. 
18 American Geologist, vol. xxviii, No. 4, p. 243. 
"Vol. v, Glacial Geo., p. 194. 

"Humphreys and Abbot, Report on the Mississippi River, 1861. 
"De Lanoye, Ramsts le Grand ou I'Egypt il y a 3300 ans, trans., 
New York, 1870. 



RECENTNESS OF THE LAST STAGES OF THE ICE 133 

recognized and published, I conclude that Paleolithic men 
began their occupation of that country before the epoch of 
great elevation of the lands which became glaciated, probably 
contemporaneously, in both Europe and North America." 19 

Frederick S. Dellenbaugh says : " There has been an 
error, I believe, in considering the Glacial period as of the 
remote past. It does not seem to have yet closed. It influ- 
ences our climate now, and probably a thousand years ago 
its meteorological effects were marked as far south as Yuca- 
tan. The glaciers of the Northern Hemisphere everywhere 
appear to be slowly disappearing, and not so slowly either, if 
the Muir can be taken as a gauge, for it has been for twenty 
years receding at the rate of 500 feet per annum, and prob- 
ably at the same rate before that. However this may be, it is 
probably less than 5,000 years since the ice front was at Lake 
Erie. Eminent geologists have estimated it at less than 
7,000, based on the erosion at Niagara; but as the erosion 
immediately following the disappearance of the ice is ex- 
tremely rapid, it seems safe to cut down the estimate." 20 

Dellenbaugh is so sure of the recentness of the Ice age 
that he advances the following argument on that stone for 
a foundation. He reasons : " That the continent was en- 
tirely peopled by way of Behring Strait within the last 
thousand years, by migration through a zone of ice, is 
improbable. To assume that a population came over and 
passed down to Mexico and Yucatan and even South Amer- 
ica, carrying with them their arts, but not exercising them 
on their interminable journey, is ridiculous. No pottery has 
yet been found between the Yukon and the Humboldt, or 
even farther south, probably because the Eskimo learned what 
little they knew about it while in the St. Lawrence Valley or 
the Atlantic region." 21 



19 American Geologist, vol. xxii, pp. 350-363; Yol. xxviii, p. 251. 
20 " The North Americans of Yesterday," Preface, p. xi. 

p. 428. 



134 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

Our author again says : " How the Amerinds came 
here, I explain by a theory that there was before, or perhaps 
during the early part of, the Glacial period, a wider distribu- 
tion of land surfaces on latitudinal lines, which invited 
migrations. These land surfaces may have been no more 
than groups of larger or smaller islands which have been 
since wholly submerged or have left only their highest parts 
above the sea. Before the beginning of the glacial cold a 
mild climate extended to the North Pole, facilitating migra- 
tions also in that region. Changes in the ocean's bottom 
were probably greater in preglacial time than now, but they 
have not altogether ceased. It is little more than fifteen 
years since a new island appeared off the Aleutian chain, and 
I think it is doubtful if any of that group existed above water 
six or eight hundred years ago. I am also of the opinion 
that no human life was in Alaska or in northeast Siberia 
five hundred years back. 

" Races not being all of an even grade of culture before 
the beginning of the cold period any more than now, the 
tribes that found themselves isolated on this continent by 
changes in the land levels and by the southward extension of 
the glaciation, were unevenly developed, some being in ad- 
vance of others in various ways, though none, of course, had 
passed beyond the use of stone tools, a condition in which 
they practically continued down to the Discovery. In this 
respect the term ' Stone Age, 7 as indicating a condition, is 
applicable, but it would not be possible to differentiate it into 
e Paleolithic ' and ' Neolithic ? periods. The cold pushed 
them all southward, whether they came by northlands or by 
latitudinal lands, or both, towards the narrow, funnel-like 
part of the continent, and also to the lower levels, as there 
was no chance for latitudinal expansion as in the Eastern 
Hemisphere, the most advanced tribes being the most south- 
erly, if not from original position, because they were able to 
choose. Eventually communication with Asia and Europe 



RECENTNESS OF THE LAST STAGES OF THE ICE 135 

by the north was by the glaciation severed completely, as it 
had previously been latitudinally by the disappearance of 
favorable land surfaces, and communication by the north 
remained closed till within three or four hundred years. The 
most crowded tribes developed most rapidly, because such 
development was imperative for self-preservation, and their 
culture filtered through in diminishing ratio, according to 
distance, to the less crowded regions that is, to the climatic- 
ally less favorable regions ; but all who were closely crowded 
in the e funnel ' progressed along similar lines and in much 
the same degree, without regard to relationships, so that we 
find in the narrow part of the continent, where the largest 
number found refuge from the cold, many different stocks in 
parallel ' areas of characterization/ as in the latitudinally 
broader lands of the Eastern Hemisphere, though in some 
cases there were slight barriers tending to produce or maintain 
slight variations. The long longitudinal chain of the Sierra 
Nevada abounding in glaciers to a late date, and to a less 
extent that of the Rocky Mountains, brought about a partial 
isolation of the stocks in the great north-and-south migrations, 
maintaining previous differences and originating others, so 
that we now distinguish differences between what is called the 
Pacific group, while they are yet practically the same. The 
tribes farthest advanced at the beginning of the isolation on 
this continent would not necessarily continue at the front of 
progress, for a change of conditions that might cripple such 
tribes might at the same time be beneficial to others previously 
inferior. For instance, as the heat gradually returned, the 
highly developed lowland tribes began to find themselves at a 
disadvantage, which grew with the intensity of heat, while 
others, inured to harsher conditions, found warmth stimulat- 
ing, and they began to develop germs received from the 
superior but now declining stocks. c The American Indians,' 
says Brinton, ' cannot bear the heat of the tropics even as 
well as the European.' The heat, which at first seems to 



136 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

have been intense in the daytime, then caused a decline of 
the highest stocks, and a corresponding progression of lower 
stocks existing on, or migrating to, higher levels. The Yuca- 
tec tribes declined, while the IsTahuatls, at higher altitudes, 
began to develop. The finest monuments of North American 
antiquity, for these reasons, are generally found on com- 
paratively low levels and below a certain latitude, where 
conditions during the greatest cold were most favorable; 
conditions that may have continued fairly favorable down 
to within, say, a thousand years. 

" Long before the dawn of the Columbian era, therefore, 
the Amerind peoples had become, through the influences indi- 
cated, a world-race by themselves, existing in various stages 
of the same general culture, and with a rising and a 
declining of tribes and stocks directed by environment and 
circumstances." 22 

Speaking of languages and dialects Dellenbaugh says 
elsewhere : " The widest differences were in the Maya and 
the Timuquanan. Each of these differed greatly from the 
bulk of the Amerind languages and from each other, probably 
because both stocks held more isolated positions than the 
others during the glacial period, and preserved more of their 
earlier life, whatever it may have been." 23 

It will now be interesting to see what this ethnologist says 
of the effects of the glacial age on the human race as a whole. 
Discussing this problem, he says : " The people inhabiting 
the world before it may have been originally much alike in 
kind and color, with local variations, and the isolation pro- 
duced by glacial conditions modified this color and increased 
the variations, those finally left in hot lands becoming darker, 
medium temperatures producing brown, still cooler the reds 
and yellows, and the forests of Europe evolving a shade or 



22 Hid., Preface, pp. viii-x. 
26 Hid., p. 17. 



RECENTNESS OF THE LAST STAGES OF THE ICE 137 

shadow people, shrinking from the strong sun; the so-called 
white race." 24 The author of this work does not agree with 
these last conclusions of Dellenbaugh. Briefly rearranging 
the order according to his light, it would seem that the orig- 
inal color of the inhabitants of the world before the canopies 
fell was black ; as time went on, and more especially towards 
the north, the browns, reds, and yellows developed, and then 
finally the Caucasian or Adamite race was evolved. The 
conditions arising from the fall of the heat-retaining canopies 
of course were the leading stimuli which fostered these 
changes. 

After these long citations from Dellenbaugh, by way of 
contrast we will indulge in a few shorter ones, that by the 
mouth of several witnesses these things may be established. 
G. Frederick Wright says : 

" The evidence of man's existence in North America 
before the close of the Glacial period would indicate that he 
too shared in the sharp struggle which ensued with the new 
and rapidly changing conditions of that time. Did he also, 
like so many of his companions among the larger animals, 
share in this extinction ? The sharpness of the transition 
from paleolithic to the neolithic implements, as we pass out 
from the Trenton gravel into the shallow soil above it, would 
seem to indicate an absolute distinction between the two 
succeeding races. 77 25 

" The geological succession of events,' 7 says J. W. Foster, 
" as disclosed by the Danish discoveries, would appear to be 
after the following order: The Reindeer Epoch had closed, 
and the animals fitted for an Arctic climate, which formerly 
roamed over France and almost to the shores of the Mediter- 
ranean, had retired to the far north, before the earthen 
tumuli and shell-heaps and other relics of human occupancy 



"IUd., p. 435. 

25 "The Ice Age in North America," 4th ed., p. 568. 



138 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

had been erected; and were succeeded by a fauna now in- 
digenous to the region. On the land, changes in the 
character of the arborescent vegetation were going on. The 
pine associated with the oldest stone implements, and on 
whose buds the capercailzie fed gave place to the oak - 
associated with bronze implements which in turn gave place 
to the beech associated with iron implements, the predomi- 
nant type of vegetation at this time. Thus, this succession 
in climatic changes corresponded very closely with the 
archaeological changes of the ages of Stone, Bronze, and Iron, 
bringing down the record to the Historical Period." 26 

James Geikie tells us that " no relics of Paleolithic man 
have been detected anywhere in Northern Europe in beds 
of later date than the accumulations of the third glacial epoch. 
Implements, etc., of Neolithic age, on the other hand, make 
their first appearance on a much higher horizon. They occur 
in the older beds of peat, but never in the clays with arctic 
plants which underlie the peat-bogs. It would seem, then, 
that Neolithic man did not appear in Northern Europe until 
the cold of the fourth glacial epoch was passing away." 27 

Since Paleolithic relics have been found, we have direct 
proof that man lived on the earth before the last belts, which 
caused the last glacial and interglacial periods, had dissi- 
pated. " It is interesting to know that relics of Paleolithic 
Man have been found in the same deposits with remains of 
mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, horse, wapiti, etc., near Irkutsk. 
The relics consisted of rudely worked bones, coarse objects of 
burnt clay, one of which was pyramidal in form and ' holed ' 
for the obvious purpose of being fixed to a shaft, while the 
point was worn and blunted as if from use." 2S 



" Prehistoric Races of the United States of America," 6th ed., p. 40. 

""The Great Ice Age," 3d ed., pp. 499-500. G. Frederick Wright 
devotes a whole chapter to evidence of this kind. "The Ice Age in 
North America," 4th ed., p. 506, if. 

28 Geikie, " The Great Ice Age," 3d ed., p. 704. 



RECENTNESS OF THE LAST STAGES OF THE ICE 139 

It is interesting to know that the same story comes from 
Africa. There they had a pluvial period almost within 
Historic time, as the accompanying evidence shows* : " The 
exploration of the Sahara daily yields unexpected discoveries ; 
and already fifteen different stations formerly inhabited by 
man have been made out. In those remote days a large river 
flowed near Wargla, which was then an important centre, and 
a number of tools picked up bear witness to the former 
presence of an active and industrious population. At one 
place the flint implements, arrow-heads, knives, and scrapers 
are all of a very primitive type, and were found sorted into 
piles. This was evidently a depot, probably forming the 
reserve stock of the tribe. Wargla, or perhaps Golea, at one 
time appears to have been the extreme limit of the Stone age 
in Algeria, but quite recently traces of primitive man have 
been discovered amongst the Tuaregs." 29 

The Egyptologist, A. B. Edwards, tells of a dry river 
somewhere between Wady Sabooah and Maharrakeh. Here 
she found the ruins of a comparatively modern town, whose 
location led her into the following speculation. She says: 

" Supposing yonder town to have been founded in the 
days when the river was a river, and the plain fertile and 
well watered, the mystery of its position is explained. It 
was protected in front by the Nile, and in the rear by the 
ravine and the river. But how long ago was this ? Here 
apparently was an independent stream, taking its rise among 
the Libyan mountains. It dated back, consequently, to a 
time when those barren hills collected and distributed water 
that is to say, to a time when it used to rain in Nubia. 
And that time must have been before the rocky barrier broke 
down at Silsilis, in the old days when the land of Kush flowed 
with milk and honey." 30 

29 The Marquis de Nadaillac, "Manners and Monuments of Pre- 
historic Peoples," trans. Nancy Bell (N. D'Anvers), p. 32. 
80 " A Thousand Miles up the Nile," p. 362. 



140 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

" The hippopotamus is found in the Nile, Niger, Senegal, 
and most of the larger rivers of South Africa, between which 
stretch vast areas where no individuals of the animal have 
ever been found regions untenable by reason of their arid- 
ity ; but here, as in the case of the chamois, there can be no 
doubt that a migration or diffusion did take place at a time 
when the physical aspects of the country were favorable for 
such a dispersion, and were, consequently, different from 
what they are at present." 31 

Professor Sayce says of the period immediately succeed- 
ing the close of the old Egyptian empire with the sixth 
dynasty, and the rise of the eleventh: "Profound changes 
have taken, place when the veil is once more lifted from 
Egyptian history. We find ourselves in a new Egypt: the 
seat of power has been transferred to Thebes, the physical 
type of the ruling caste is no longer that of the Old Empire, 
and a change has passed over the religion of the people; it 
has become gloomy, introspective, and mystical; the light- 
hearted freedom and practical character that formerly dis- 
tinguished it are gone. Art, too, has undergone modifications 
which imply a long age of development: it has ceased to be 
spontaneous and realistic, and has become conventional. 
Even the fauna and flora are different; and the domestic 
cat, imported from Nubia, for the first time makes its appear- 
ance in the threshold of history." No doubt the increased 
cold resulting from the break-up of the Ice age started the 
Hyksos invasion. It must be remembered that the effects 
of the Ice age have not yet entirely disappeared from our 
climate, and that when the protecting belt which was the 
immediate cause of the great storms that heaped up the snow 
over North America and Europe passed away, then these 
storms descended into the south country. Thus for a long 



81 Angelo Heilprin, " The 'Geographical and Geological Distribution 
of Animals," p. 21. 



RECENTNESS OF THE LAST STAGES OF THE ICE 141 

time after the belt bad dissipated, its removal disturbed the 
genial climate of the heretofore favored middle-lands. Prob- 
ably most of the barbarian invasions resulted from this cause. 
As a summary to all that has been said, two more citations 
may be pardoned : " Prof. James Geikie maintains that the 
use of paleolithic implements had ceased, and that early man 
in Europe made neolithic (polished) implements, before the 
recession of the ice-sheet from Scotland, Denmark, and the 
Scandinavian peninsula; and Prestwich suggests that the 
dawn of civilization in Egypt, China, and India may have 
been coeval with the glaciation of northwestern Europe." 32 
Winchell says : " There has been a time in the history of 
the Aryan family of men when they seem to have suffered 
from a sudden change of climate which compelled them to 
migrate southward. When we trace the movements of the 
European nations backward, we find, in the remote past, a 
point of divergence from the nations which crossed the 
Hindu-Kush into the peninsula of India. In Central Asia 
the ancestors of the Hindus, Iranians, and Europeans were 
one people. There arose the Brahmanic and Zoroastrian 
religions. But the sacred books of the latter contain allusions 
to a remoter time, when the ancestors of the Aryans dwelt in 
a country blessed with seven months of summer. This was 
Aryana-Vaejo, a land of delight, given by Ahura-Mazda, and 
supposed to have been located in southern Turkestan, upon 
the Plateau of Pamir, or somewhat f artber east in the beauti- 
ful valley of Cash gar. But lest this paradise should tempt 
all nations to crowd in and overpopulate it, the c evil being, 
Angra-Mainyus (Ahriman), full of death, created a mighty 
serpent, and winter, the work of the Devas.' Now ten 
months of frost prevailed, succeeded by only two months of 
summer. Of this transformed region the Vendidad says: 



82 G. Frederick Wright, "Greenland Icefields and Life in the Korth 
Atlantic," p. 339. 



142 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

' There is the heart of winter ; there all around falls deep 
snow; there is the worst of evils.' So the ancestors of the 
Zoroastrians migrated from Aryana-Vaejo, or Old Iran, 
southward into New Iran, within the modern Afghanistan. 
" Is there no analogy between the Aryana-Yaejo of the 
Zend-Avesta and the Eden of the Hebrew sacred books ? In 
both, the primitive home of the white race was a country of 
spontaneous productiveness and a delightful climate. Both 
lands were given by a beneficent Deity for human occupation. 
From both lands our ancestors were driven through the 
machinations of the Evil One. In both narratives the power 
of evil is personified in a serpent. The consequence in both 
narratives is the necessity of resort to cultivation of the soil 
for the production of bread. May both narratives be pictures 
reproducing from national memory the same encroachment 
of physical severities upon the same land of Edenic de- 
lights ? " 33 In the future chapters of this work it will be 
seen that the vapor-belt in the sky was the great serpent. 



Sparks from a Geologist's Hammer/' 3d ed., pp. 245-246. 



CHAPTER XII 

FOSSIL THOUGHT 

WITH apologies for taking such liberty with Shakespeare 
the following question is asked: 

Doubt thou the stars are fire; 

Doubt that the sun doth move; 
Doubt; but at least inquire 

What theory fits the groove. 

Serpent worship was once a world-wide cult, and in Egypt 
this serpent was linked with Canopus (the canopy), who 
conquered the fire in the sky-ring (the sun) by his water- jar. 
Canopus was the Egyptian god of water, and was represented 
by the hieroglyphic of a water- jar, though sometimes a ser- 
pent was used in its stead. As the vapor-belt formed a 
secondary arc under the canopy, it was natural to associate 
it with water; hence the water- jar. It can readily be seen 
how our word " canopy " is derived from this serpent-net 
or covering. It comes to us through the Greek. 

Leaving the thought of the serpent for the present, we 
find many references to the canopy ; thus one of the maxims 
from Theognis the Megarean, translated by the Rev. J. Blank, 
M.A., reads as follows: 

" Then may the broad brazen vault-of-heaven fall on me 
from above, that terror of men of the olden-time, if I shall 
not help them indeed who love me : but be to my foes a vexa- 
tion and great source-of-loss." 

The same translated by J. H. Frere runs thus : 

"Then let the brazen fiery vault of heaven 
Crush me with instant ruin, rent and riven, 
(The fear and horror of a former age,) 
If from the friends and comrades that engage 
In common enterprise I shrink, or spare 
Myself or any soul! If I forbear 
Full vengeance and requital on my foes! 
All our antagonists! all that oppose! " 

143 



144 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

This brazen fiery vault was the sun, or " shiner," of the 
ancients ; the true sun imparted its light to the fire belt, but 
was itself unseen. Herodotus tells of the account he heard 
from the Egyptians, how that for a period of ten thousand 
years none of the sky gods assumed the form of man. Speak- 
ing of the shiner, or, as he calls it, the sun, he says : " Dur- 
ing this time, they related that the sun had four times risen 
out of his usual quarter, and that he had twice risen where 
he now sets, and twice set where he now rises; yet that no 
change in the things in Egypt was occasioned by this, either 
with regard to the productions of the earth or the river, or 
with regard to diseases, or with respect to deaths." 1 

The early Aryans called " the vault " Varuna. Beneath 
it the region of clouds was enthroned. The light of luminous 
air they called Dyaus. The Greeks conceived the same idea 
of a hollow or concave vault, KoUo$. Among the Latins the 
name ccelum has the same signification. Thus we see how 
tenaciously the record of the facts survived the rise and fall 
of empires, even after their meaning had been forgotten. 

Should we go back to the earliest days of the first Baby- 
lonian Empire, we would find that these matters which we 
are depicting were even then in a great measure only echo. 
On investigation, however, we would find the sound was very 
close, the echo was very loud and clear. We often tell chil- 
dren to count the seconds intervening between the flash of the 
lightning and the growl of the thunder, in order to estimate 
the distance. Applying this rule, we find in this instance a 
very short interval. 

Rassam found in the ruins of Abu Habba a marble tablet, 
eleven inches and a half long by seven inches wide, covered 
with writing and adorned with a beautiful bas-relief on the 
top of the obverse. The subject represents Sippara, the god of 
the shiner, seated in his shrine, under the canopy. The 



1 Henry Gary's trans., B. 2, <|f 142, p. 152. 



FOSSIL THOUGHT 145 

significance of the fact is that the inscription gives instruc- 
tions how the symbols are to be engraved, how they " are to 
be placed on a new image that may be made," " opposite the 
ocean, between the snake." The sun, Shamash, is outside 
the snake, but is pulled up over it by cords. 2 

At the time when this conception was born the true sun 
must have been seen dimly riding up above the body of the 
snake. The Egyptians beheld the same scene, and, according 
to the custom of the age, it became a part of their religion. 
They called the arc of the sky Nu or Nu-t and represented it 
by a female figure bending over Seb, the earth, who lay in a 
recumbent position. N~u~t's body was elongated in a very 
peculiar manner, her feet resting on one horizon and her 
finger-tips on the other. Over her arched back the sun-god 
traversed the sky daily from east to west in his boat. The 
vapor arc or halo which surrounded the dimly seen sun 
accounts for this myth. Sometimes K~u-t is represented as 
double. The upper bending figure being covered with stars 
clearly portrays her nature. She must have been nearly 
transparent. The lower Nu-t is evidently a band of water, 
which suggests the Hebrew idea of the firmament. The 
proximate cause of the formation of this vapor belt, we have 
seen, was the upper canopy. Seb, the earth, is represented 
covered with leaves. 

When the canopy first began to split at the equator, divid- 
ing into the northern and southern halves, the Egyptians saw 
the two belts descending on the one horizon as the arms of 
Nu-t and on the other as the legs. Job speaks of these two 
divisions as " the pillars of heaven." He says : " They 
tremble and are astonished at His reproof. He divideth the 
sea with His power." * * * " He bindeth up the waters in 
His thick clouds; and the cloud is not rent under them." 



2 Herman V. Hilprecht, "Explorations in Bible Lands During the 
Nineteenth Century," pp. 269-271. 
10 



146 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

* * * " By His Spirit He hath garnished the heavens ; His 
hand hath formed the crooked serpent." 3 

The Hindus called these two belts the Acvins. At night 
they were seen as two pillars of light receiving the sun rays 
from the under-world. These were also the original Pillars 
of Hercules. As the vapors thinned out over the tropical 
region, the sun rose between the great pillars or divisions of 
Nu-t, and set between them again on the other side. And 
this sun was a blazing, flaming creature, a god, traveling in 
his halo boat. 

When the fact is recalled that the sun was said by the 
ancients to set between the Pillars of Hercules, it will be 
granted that it was natural that when the sky scenes passed 
away, the twin rocks at the entrance of the Mediterranean 
came to inherit the name. Some may even have considered 
them the stumps out of which the sky-pillars grew. They 
were at the " world's end " to the Greeks, nothing but the all- 
encircling ocean-river lying beyond. 

As we have seen, in Job " the pillars of heaven " are 
associated with the " crooked serpent." Hercules (the sun), 
when he took the place of the giant Atlas, supporting the 
heavens on his shoulders while the latter obtained the golden 
apples (stars) from the garden of Hesperides, is another 
account by a different people of the same thing. We can 
readily see the " Pillars " (Atlas) arising from the horizon 
and apparently supporting the heavens ; the stars are discov- 
ered in its open rifts guarded by the dragon or serpent. 
Another name of the " Pillars " is the " World-Tree." 

Serpent worship was universal. Frequently the myths 
tell of two serpents. These undoubtedly represent the two 
halves of the canopy, and the people who left the record lived 
on or near the equator, where both belts could be seen. When 
only one serpent is mentioned the people leaving the record 



Job xxvi: 11, 12, 8, 13. 



FOSSIL THOUGHT 147 

usually lived in the middle regions under the canopy or 
nearer the poles. 

The infant Hercules (the new-born sun, just bursting 
through the canopy) is said to have strangled two serpents 
with his own hands before he was out of his cradle (the vapor 
arc boat). 

" First two dread Snakes at Juno's vengeful nod 
Climb'd round the cradle of the sleeping god; 
Waked by the thrilling hiss and rustling sound, 
And shrieks of fair attendants trembling round, 
Their gasping throats with clenching hands he holds, 
And Death untwists their convoluted folds." 4 

It is said of the ancient Hindus that they must have 
known of yore that Saturn was encircled by rings. 5 This 
assumption is made on the ground that an image in one of 
their temples represents the god Sani, or Saturn, intwined 
by two wreathing serpents. It seems more likely that this 
image originally represented our own system, as the two 
snakes are certainly very suggestive of the two halves of the 
divided canopy. 

The Persian legends tell us of a serpent-king called Zohak. 
He was a power for good until the demon Iblis kissed him 
on the shoulder. This seems to have been the place from 
whence the good emanated. On his shoulder, like in the 
story of Atlas, the world-roof rested. Thus when he was 
kissed in this spot there issued two dreadful serpents, and the 
golden age, with its Eden-like conditions under the canopy, 
came to an end. We will find a great many myths of this 
character as we go on with the study. The parting of the 
canopy brought with it death and destruction. In this par- 
ticular instance Iblis told Zohak that the two dreadful 
serpents must be fed every day with the brains of two chil- 
dren. So the country gradually became depopulated. The 
end was to destroy the human race. 6 

4 Darwin. 'Maurice, "Indian Antiquities." 
"Poor, "Sanskrit Literature," p. 158. 



148 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

At Circleville, Ohio, some time ago, a very curious cir- 
cular disc of stone, about a foot in diameter, was found. 
Around it was carved the figures of two intwined serpents. 

Bernal Diaz, who accompanied Cortez, stated that in one 
town whose buildings were of lime and stone they found 
" figures of serpents and idols painted upon the walls." The 
arms of the Peruvians were two serpents with their tails 
interlaced. At San Juan de Maguana, in the Island of 
Haiti, " curious relics of the aboriginal cult," says A. K. 
Fiske, " have been found, including a circle of stones roughly 
representing the emblem of eternity, in the form of a serpent 
with its tail in its mouth." 7 Many such relics have been 
found elsewheres. 

The usual form of the serpent myth, however, represents 
only one belt at a time. The Midgard Serpent occupied the 
local heaven, or middle world (middle heaven), of the Norse- 
man. In Egypt, Apophis, the lofty serpent, reigned over 
the mighty water. 

Archaeological remains show the same veneration for this 
ubiquitous sky-serpent. Some of the new-world " finds " 
have already been referred to. " Some additional light ap- 
pears to have been thrown upon ancient serpent worship in 
the West by the recent archaeological explorations of Mr. 
John S. Phene, F.G.S., F.E.G.S., in Scotland. Mr. Phene 
has just investigated a curious earthen mound in Glen 
Feechan, Argyllshire, referred to by him, at the late meeting 
of the British Association in Edinburgh, as being in the 
form of a serpent or saurian. ( The mound/ says the 
Scotsman, ' is a perfect one.' The head is a large cairn, and 
the body of the earthen reptile 300 feet long; and in the 
centre of the head there were evidences, when Mr. Phene 
first visited it, of an altar having been placed there." 8 



T "The West Indies," p. 252. 

8 Ignatius Donnelly, " Atlantis," 21st ed., pp. 204-205. 



FOSSIL THOUGHT 149 

In America the Mound Builders are comparatively a 
recent people. Their works overlie the formations of the 
Glacial age, but the existence of serpent worship amongst 
them indicates that there were still remnants of the old 
belted vapor system left in the sky when they inhabited the 
land. Probably the most famous monument left by them is 
that of the great serpent mound of Adams County, Ohio. 
This serpent has an egg in its mouth, which undoubtedly 
represents the sun in his vapor-arc, the boat of the Egyptians. 
Other groups of mounds also include the egg. 

In the south the canopy divided, and the sun, appearing 
in the rift, seemed to conquer, but in the higher latitudes, in 
the middle regions, as it were, the belts slowly descending 
polewards seemed to swallow the orb of day as depicted by 
the serpent mounds. The Iroquois say that the White one, 
meaning the sun, was overcome by the frog monster, who 
swallowed him up. This tale is found on both sides of the 
Atlantic. 

At Waukesha, Wisconsin, is a relic similar to the serpent 
mound of Adams County, Ohio. It is called by Lapham a 
" Turtle mound." Body, 56 feet, engulfing an egg; tail 250 
feet ; height 6 feet. The so-called " Lizard mounds " also 
occur here. They have remarkable curved tails. These 
long tails portray what their builders actually saw in the 
sky. And no doubt we here have the origin of that primeval 
serpent-worship found all over the world. First he was the 
good serpent, the protector, but as his aspect became menac- 
ing, with the passing of time, he became associated with the 
evil one. " In itself the serpent should no more represent 
moral wrong," says Donnelly, " than the lizard, the crocodile, 
or the frog; but the hereditary abhorrence with which he is 
regarded by mankind extends to no other created thing. He 
is the image of the great destroyer, the wronger, the enemy." 9 



"Ragnarok," p. 175. 



150 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

A peculiarity about serpent worship was that it was 
quickly forgotten, being superseded by its successor in a few 
turns of the hour-glass ; but this is as the present hypothesis 
requires, for when the hidden sun came into view he came as 
a conqueror and claimed all that adoration which ones be- 
longed to the snake. The slimy reptile which we all abhor 
to-day never could have commanded the veneration which 
we find was accorded it in the prehistoric age. The 
conclusion is obvious 

The snakes of old, that by all men were praised 
Must have been grand as in the sky they blazed 
The people called them gods and stood amazed. 

In India, Amanta, the good, who was the serpent of 
celestial waters, and who dwelt in the lower sky, was con- 
quered by a supreme god, who lived above, on high. The 
Toltecs called their sky-god, Quetzalcoatl. " The Popol Vuh, 
the great collection of Quiche myths, presents Gukumatz as 
one of the four principal gods who created the world. 
Gukumatz means shining or brilliant snake, and hence seems 
to be the same character as that known to the Nahuatls, or 
Aztecs, as Quetzalcoatl, whose name means the bright or 
shining snake." 10 

Quetzalcoatl was reputed to be a very good vapor 
spirit, a kind of coverer. He was the son of Camaxtli, the 
shiner of yesterday ; that is, of a shining canopy or sun that 
had passed away. " He fought the enemies that had risen 
against his father, and attacked the temple of the Cloud- 
Snakes' mountain." * * * " He was tall, of white com- 
plexion." His reign was the Golden Age of the Toltecs. He 
was pursued by enemies and obliged to fly. One of these 
was a near kinsman, a splendid youth, named Tezcatlipoca, 
the smoking mirror, whom we recognize as a canopy. This 



10 F. S. Dellenbaugh, " The North Americans of Yesterday," p. 397. 



FOSSIL THOUGHT 151 

kinsman was his bitter enemy. " Quetzalcoatl was pressed 
from land to land. By some accounts he disappeared in a 
boat on the sea; by others he perished on the snow-covered 
peak of Orizaba (the Olympian cloud-mountain of the 
Aztecs), mounting to heaven on the smoke of the funeral 
pile. When he vanished the sun withdrew his shining." 11 

In the museum down at Mexico an image of Quetzalco- 
atl is on exhibition which is girt about with snakes of very 
savage mien. Their peculiarity is that they are both bird 
and reptile, a kind of feathered flying serpent, indicating 
rapid flight. This idea of rapid flight is frequently associ- 
ated with the White one, the illuminated and fleeting canopy, 
or perhaps rather with the true sun seen in his vapor-arc or 
boat passing rapidly over the canopy-sea. 

Turning to the Arabian tales, the identity of thought with 
all that we have already set forth bespeaks a common origin 
of this class of nature myth. Thus, " Abou Mohammed the 
Lazy, who is a very great magician, with power over the 
forces of the air and the Af rites, beholds a battle between two 
great snakes, one tawny-colored, the other white. The tawny 
serpent is overcoming the white one; but Abou Mohammed 
kills it with a rock. The white serpent (the sun) departed, 
and was absent for a while, but returned; and the tawny 
serpent was torn to pieces and scattered over the land, and 
nothing remained of her but her head." 12 

The white one, or the egg in some of the myths, which 
was seen through the canopy was the sun. His foe was the 
glittering prince of serpents, the feathered serpent, etc. In 
the Bible there is the flying serpent: Isa. xiv: 29 ; Job xxvi : 
13 ; Isa. xxvii : 1. The Aztecs represented their god, 
Tezcatlipoca, as a flying or winged serpent. Other myths 
represent the canopy as a dragon, while still others picture it 



11 Charles De B. Mills, " The Tree of Mythology," pp. 44, 45. 
"Ignatius Donnelly, " Ragnarok," p. 268. 



152 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

as a giant bird, a frog, a wolf, a dog, a boar, or as some other 
creature. The Hindu legends often represent it as a cow, 
and amongst all primitive people the deer and the hare are 
common. It must be remembered that the belts in falling 
advanced through several different stages, forming many 
different sky-forms, which were seen from a great many 
different angles, and by a great many different people. Speed 
seems to have impressed them all, hence the comparison with 
flying animals. 

The belts as they drifted northward or southward broke 
into separate divisions. These were the immediate cause of 
the various stages of ice recession. Mythology is full of these 
broken and wicked forms wicked because of the evil that 
they introduced on the earth ; and sometimes these forms are 
called serpents. They were the hundred-armed giants, 
known as Typhon, Briareus, and Enceladus. Again, they 
were the three huge monsters, the terrible speckled serpent, 
Typhon, and Chimaera, the fire ring, a lion in front, a goat 
in the middle, and a serpent behind. Chimsera breathed 
resistless fire, and, like the speckled serpent, was huge, swift, 
and fierce. Typhon, associated with both of these, seems to 
have been the most terrible of all. This dreadful monster, 
born of Hell, was also a serpent or fierce dragon. He was 
many-headed, dusky tongues of fire gleamed throughout his 
body, and it was said that he emitted appalling noises and 
caused earthquakes. 

The story told in the Typhon legend is found in the 
mythology of many peoples. In the Norse account we see 
the same threefold aspect, to wit, the three monsters called 
" the Midgard serpent," " the Fenris wolf," and lastly " the 
dog Gram." In the book of Job again we have the three 
divisions : first, the " winding " or " twisting " serpent, with 
which God " adorned the heavens " ; then " Behemoth," the 
monster who drank up rivers; and finally the terrible 
" Leviathan," whose name means " the twisting animal gath- 



FOSSIL THOUGHT 153 

ering itself into folds." The Saxon legend tells us how 
Beowulf killed savage monsters Grendel, the devil's dam, 
and thirdly a dragon. Association of ideas recalls to our 
minds the three roots of the tree Ygdrasil, the three-pronged 
trident of Poseidon, etc., etc. 

Says the Russian fairy-tale : " Once there was an old 
couple who had three sons. Two of them had their wits about 
them, but the third, Ivan, was a simpleton. Now, in the land 
in which Ivan lived there was never any day, but always 
night. This was a snake's doing. Well, Ivan undertook to 
kill that snake. Then came a third snake, with twelve 
heads. Ivan killed it, and destroyed the heads ; and immedi- 
ately there was bright light throughout the whole land. The 
myth is pushed on, and there is also the monster who devours 
maidens, called a i Norka ' ; and Perun takes the work of 
Indra and Saint George, enters the castle (dark clouds), and 
rescues her. But the dark power takes a distinctive Russian 
appearance in the awful figure of Koshchei the deathless." 13 

This victory of the sun over the serpent is told by all 
primitive peoples. It is the victory of Adonis over Typhon, 
of Indra over Yritra, of Dimiriat over Dahish, of Timadonar 
over Ariconte, of Hercules over the two serpents strangled 
while he was still an infant; of Osiris over Seb, etc., etc. 

" Pleasing was his shape, 
And lovely; never since of serpent kind, 
Lovelier; not those that in Illyria changed 
Hermione and Cadmus, or the god 
In Epidaurus, nor to which transformed 
Ammonian Jove, or Capitoline, was seen." 14 

The serpent, as we have already seen, was not always 
lovely. In the early stages of canopy decline he was the 
dark and threatening one. The Peruvians tell of a certain 
hero named Guamansuri, who descended to the earth and 



13 L. E. Poor, " Sanskrit and its Kindred Literatures," p. 390. 

14 Milton. 



154 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

seduced the sister of Guachemines, who was the rayless one, 
or the Darkling; that is to say, she was the Power of Dark- 
ness. The sister proved pregnant, and died in her labor, 
giving birth to two eggs, the sun and moon. 

Again the Miztecs, who dwelt on the outskirts of Mexico, 
said : " In the year and in the day of obscurity and dark- 
ness, yea, even before the days or the year were (before the 
visible revolution of the sun marked the days, and the 
universal canopy prevented the distinguishing of the sea- 
sons) , when the world was in great darkness and chaos, when 
the earth was covered with water, and there was nothing but 
mud and slime on all the face of the earth behold a god 
became visible, and his name was the Deer, and his surname 
was the Lion-snake. There appeared also a very beautiful 
goddess called the Deer, and surnamed the Tiger-snake. 
These two gods were the origin and beginning of all the 
gods." 15 



0rigen de los Ind., pp. 327-329. 



CHAPTER XIII 

GENESIS 

IN the development of Christianity on its intellectual 
side, what is needed to-day is more synthetical work; it is 
often forgotten that parts only go to make up a whole. Sepa- 
rate truths go to make up one testimony, and that testimony 
is of the unity of truth, and nothing but the truth ; it is the 
revelation of God in all and through all and above all, and 
all truth has its place somewhere in the scheme of this tes- 
timony. Truth cannot annihilate truth, hence we say, what 
is needed to-day is more synthetical work. Frederick Har- 
rison has well said : " There never was an age so deeply 
intoxicated with specialism in all its forms as our own, so 
loftily abhorrent of anything systematic, so alien to synthesis, 
that is, organic coordination of related factors. Everything 
nowadays is treated in infinitesimal subdivisions. Each 
biologist sticks to his own microbe ; each historian to his own 
' period ' ; the practical man leaves ' ideas ' to the doctrinaire, 
and the divine leaves it to the dead worldling to bury his 
dead in his own fashion. Specialism is erected into a philos- 
ophy, a creed, a moral duty, an intellectual antiseptic." 1 

Now, as the various parts are brought together, we see 
that science and comparative theology, as recorded in the 
fossil rock and fossil thought handed down to us, unite har- 
moniously in the present cosmological hypothesis. Each 
shoemaker has been sticking to his own last, but it is now 
time to do the fitting, and the foot-gear should be in keeping 
with the whole dress of the man. The historian, the archae- 
ologist, the paleontologist, the anthropologist, the ethnologist, 



" Great Keligions of the World," art. on " Positivism," p. 170. 

155 



156 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

the philologist, the mythographer, and the theologian, all 
need to get together. 

The present hypothesis brings them together, and, further- 
more, it sets its seal on God's revelation. God's created record 
and God's written record, Nature and the Bible, testify with 
one voice. And the written word is inspired by the Holy 
Ghost. 

Proof that the Bible is inspired is set forth in the fact 
that its various parts were written in an unscientific age and 
yet they are scientific. For this reason theology, when it 
properly interprets the evidence, may be set down as an exact 
science. In an unscientific age a correct account of creation 
was written. Since the unknown has been revealed, why 
should not the unknowable of this age also be opened to the 
eyes of a future generation ? Cicero says : " When you look 
upon a large and beautiful house, though you should not see 
the master and find it quite empty, no one can persuade you 
that it was built for the mice and weasels that abound in it," 
The plan of the universe is far too grand to suppose that it 
is " accident," therefore we are glad to say with the patriarch, 
" In the beginning God." 

Let us look into this creation record. In Genesis i : 1 , 
there is a heaven mentioned which seems to be the same as the 
firmament heaven of verse 8. This is not to be understood 
to be the expanse above and around us, studded with innu- 
merable stars, which is really infinite space, but a heaven 
that was according to the divine account " created." It was 
associated with the earth. God made heaven (Heb. 
shamayim, heaved up things) and earth. Jer. xxxii : 17 ; 
Ps. xxxiii : 6-9. This fact is forgotten to-day. II Pet. iii : 
3-6; Isa. xl:21-22. The necessity of some such interpre- 
tation as this was apparent to the early Church Fathers. 
St. Basil, St. Csesarius, and Origen argued that the sun, 
moon, and stars existed from the beginning, but that they 
did not appear until the fourth day. 



GENESIS 157 

This heaven, or heavens, had an expansion or division 
in it (Gen. i : 6). The vapor helt was suspended, as we have 
seen in our scientific chapters, in the atmosphere under the 
canopy, and the Scriptures call them the waters which were 
under and which were above the expanse. Unless this account 
be based on fact, who would have ever risked his reputation 
to be sponsor for such a statement? Does the heaven look 
to us as though the blue arch were a few hundred feet high, 
and that on top of it are the clouds ? Job says : " Dost 
thou know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous works 
of Him which is perfect in knowledge? * * * Hast 
thou with Him spread out the sky, which is strong, and as a 
molten looking-glass ? " 2 

It has been demonstrated in our scientific chapters that 
the geological age-changes were brought about by the disrup- 
tion of these vapor belts, or heavens. These broke the 
sequence in the chain of life. The great mutations occurred 
almost instantaneously, becoming established in a generation 
or so. Verily they were new " creations," and they occurred 
in a day. 

The etymology of this word day " gives it the sense," 
says J. W. Dawson, " of the time of glowing or warmth, and 
in accordance with this the divine authority here limits its 
meaning to the daylight." 3 This is very puzzling to the 
Biblical student, for the nature of the context clearly shows 
that the natural day from sunrise to sunset is expressly 
excluded. ISTow, the period of duration for a canopy was a 
time of glowing and of warmth ; it is therefore quite evident 
that the seven days of creation were seven ages of canopy 
light. 

The diurnal period was divided into a time of light and 
of shade. The light of the sun shining through, and on, 
the overhanging canopy of water-vapors produced the greater 



3 Job xxxvii: 16, 18. *"The Origin of the World," p. 126. 



158 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. 
" Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, Thou art 
very great ; Thou art clothed with honour and majesty. Who 
coverest Thyself with light as with a garment : Who stretchest 
out the heavens like a curtain : Who layeth the beams of his 
chambers in the waters : Who maketh the clouds his chariot : 
Who walketh upon the wings of the wind: Who maketh his 
angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire: Who laid the 
foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for 
ever. Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment: 
the waters stood above the mountains." 4 

During the period of shade the light from below illu- 
minated the vapor arc or crescent (moon of the ancients) 
with a pale refulgence, weird, cold, and uncanny. The 
witness of the shadow of the earth on the canopy is the 
Pyramid of Cheops (Isa. xix: 19-20; Jer. xxxii: 17-20). 
The time of shade or shadow, associated with death by the 
Egyptians, was the night-time. A shadow-cone, or pyramid, 
was projected into the canopy from the sunlight shining up 
from the under-world. 

A sparkling canopy diffused its light on an awakening 
earth. After man was created (evolved), this was to him 
the " shiner," or his sun. In Joshua's day this sun stood 
still. " The sun and moon stood still in their habitation : 
at the light of Thine arrows they went, and at the shining 
of Thy glittering spear." 5 

At night-time the canopy was the lesser light or moon. 
" Fontenelle, who was always so ingenious in determining 
the conditions of existence in the planetary worlds, expresses 
himself thus in regard to Saturn : ( We would be much aston- 
ished to see over our heads at night that great ring, which 
would extend as a half-circle from one end of the horizon 
to the other, and which, reflecting the light to us, would 



4 Ps. civ: 1-6. Hab. iii: 11. 



GENESIS 159 

produce the effect of a continuous moon.' " 6 Kawlinson 
tells us in his History of Ancient Egypt that " under 
Necherophes (Nebka?) the Libyans, who had revolted, made 
their submission on account of a sudden increase in the 
moon's size, which terrified them." 7 This increase in size 
stamps the phenomenon as belonging to an inf ailing canopy. 

It has been shown that the great precipitation accompany- 
ing the disintegration of these belts was in the higher lati- 
tudes, beyond the region of the greenhouse-roof. Job tells 
us that here were stored the treasures of snow and hail 
(Chap, xxxviii: 19-23). Under the canopy evaporation 
went on at a great rate. ~No doubt, however, the atmosphere 
was of a moist and misty character, hence the dews were 
intensely copious. The Scriptures say, the dew or mist 
rose from the ground (Gen. ii: 5-6). Who would have had 
the hardihood to make such a statement, so utterly in con- 
flict with the established laws of nature, were the hand of 
revelation not in this record? 

Science and the Bible do not disagree. One is God's 
created record and the other is God's written record. The 
works of His hand cannot contradict the works of His heart ; 
in Him is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of 
old He laid the foundations of the earth: and the heavens 
are the work$ of His hands (Ps. cii:25). The works of 
His heart are love, and the object of His love is to draw all 
men unto Himself. He so loved the world that He gave us 
the written word (John i: 1-14; iii: 16). 

Science and the Bible do not disagree, but the interpre- 
tations which man has evolved need to be either adjusted 
or rejected. When a proper understanding is arrived at, 
harmony is at once evident and the two testimonies become 
essentially one. Now, the Bible is full of the same kind 



8 Scientific American Supplement) No. 192. 
7 Vol. ii, chap, xii, p. 18. 



160 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

of tales as the ancients have left us in their varied literature, 
commonly called myths, but it is offensive to a certain type 
of mind to say that the Bible contains these myths. The 
reason for this is that a lack of knowledge of the mental 
horizon of the ancients exists. The common understanding 
of a myth is that it is purely a fabulous or imaginary tale, 
and the fact is lost sight of that it generally conveys an 
important truth of an allegorical and religious nature. In 
the light of this present hypothesis the nature myths of these 
so-called heathen were essentially religious, and they were 
not so far from the true religion either, inasmuch as the 
nature-types were pointing the way to God. Before taking 
exceptions to the existence of these myths in the Bible, then, 
their meaning should first be ascertained. 

The trouble is this: The truths taught by the so-called 
myths have been forgotten, the Bible is a book of the past 
as well as a book of to-day, and therefore to understand it 
we must understand the past. Our Saviour spoke a parable 
of a sower that went forth to sow, that he might impress 
thereby a spiritual teaching. Now, the solar myth of 
Samson, which we will investigate later, it is evident was 
introduced into the Old Testament not by spontaneous growth 
nor by popular origin, but as in the case of the parable by 
divine direction, and for the same purpose, namely, to set 
forth a spiritual truth. All the saints living in those days 
were as familiar with the illustration as we are to-day with 
the settings of our Saviour's parable. 

In the beginning, as in our Saviour's day, the hand of 
God was visible. He planned it all before He began its ful- 
filment. His love brooded over this earth, giving to man 
an Eden paradise. Man, tempted by the beauty of this 
creation, fell into the serpent's clutch, worshiping the crea- 
tion or creature instead of the Great Creator. God in His 
infinite love then revealed Himself, casting man out from 
the garden world wherein he had dwelt, that he might learn 



GENESIS 161 

the lesson, that first things must perish and that in the second 
state alone there is life. In other words, matter always has 
been and always must be subject to change. The spiritual 
essence alone is unchangeable. This explains many of the 
mooted questions of the theologians the cause of the fall; 
the mystery of iniquity ; God's love reconciled with the admis- 
sion of sin into the world, etc., etc. 

Briefly, the drama of sin, and of death, and of resur- 
rection, was all revealed in the type, and the type was the 
physical canopy and the vapor-belt which hung under the 
canopy in the atmosphere. Natural phenomena were used by 
God to convey the spiritual truth. The ordinary myth 
missed this revelation, the Biblical always emphasized it. 
The Adamite saw the works of creation, that they were good, 
and forthwith worshiped the creature (serpent), leaving out 
the Creator. This was the act of partaking of the tree of 
knowledge. 8 Man as a free agent thus brought on his own 
fall, for God in His infinite goodness and justice of neces- 
sity had to disclose the nature of creation. This left man with 
the knowledge of good and evil, with knowledge of the Creator 
and the creature, and it also left him the heritage of original 
sin, for the fallen serpent or vapor skies allowed the actinic 
rays to enter, and these produced fermentation, violence, and 
a quickened life. The first drunkenness mentioned in the 
Bible is that of Noah's. It is postulated that a remnant of 
the Edenic canopy caused the deluge of the Scriptures. In 
the world that was before this flood, Noah never knew the 
fruit of the vine to produce such results, but with the passing 
of the canopy new conditions of sun-fire were introduced, to 
which he was not accustomed. His sin was, therefore, the 
result of ignorance; immediately afterwards he preached a 
sermon. In this age we do not listen to men recovering from 



8 The tree in mythology will be shown in subsequent chapters to be 
the canopy. 
11 



162 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

a spree, but Noah's voice has sounded on down through the 
ages. The longevity of the ancients was a direct result of 
the more healthful conditions, though undoubtedly the canopy 
prevented their keeping track of the years. Hence the great 
age of Methuselah and the rest of the antediluvians was due 
to the two causes. When sun-fire broke in, the quickened 
life brought a swifter death. 

In this connection it is interesting to note that at a 
certain early period the " Egyptians neither employed nor 
knew any years of longer term than four months. The proof 
of this, admits one of the most ardent champions of the high 
antiquity of Egypt, is that, later, when the year consisted of 
twelve months, three seasons were designated, each com- 
prising four months, which were indicated hieroglyphically 
by the word ier, and by a sign that may mean a season or 
a year, indifferently." 9 

But to return to the heritage of sin : With the removal 
of the Edenic canopy evil conditions came upon the earth. 
" Cursed is the ground," says the Lord God, " for thy sake ; 
in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life." 10 
The protecting canopy which was cast down was the serpent. 
" And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou 
hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle (behemah), 
and above every beast of the field ; upon thy belly shalt thou 
go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life." 11 

The Bible myths, then, portray the story of the conflict, 
and present both the good and evil sides thereof. In the 
Walam Olum, or Red Score of the Lenape, " The cosmogony 
describes the formation of the world by the Great Manito, 
and its subsequent despoliation by the spirit of the waters, 
under the form of a serpent. The happy days are depicted 



8 F. De Lanoye, "Wonders of Art and Archaeology: Rameses the 
Great," p. 31. Dr. H. De Brugsch, " History of Egypt from the Earliest 
Period of its Existence," Leipzig, 1859, p. 26. 

M Gen. iii:17. u Gen. iii:14. 



GENESIS 163 

when men lived without wars or sickness, and food was at 
all times abundant. Evil beings of mysterious power intro- 
duced cold and war and sickness and premature death. Then 
began strife and long wanderings." 12 

Primitive man began to go astray in his religion by tak- 
ing the natural phenomena of the canopy and attributing to 
them life; then he deified the creations of his mind. He 
passed from the worship of God to the worship of the works 
and forces which God had made, from reverence for the 
creator to reverence for the created. Thus canopy worship 
became simply a form of animism. It follows that a just 
God had to remove the cause of this error. He had to 
dethrone the gods of the heathen. 

The first step in dethronement was the revealing of the 
true sun through the equatorial slit or opening between the 
northern and southern halves of the divided canopy. In 
Genesis this event, which follows immediately after the fall 
of man into the error of serpent worship, is described as the 
introduction of " a flaming sword which turned every way, 
to keep the way of the tree of life." 13 To keep the way 
open for man to see the Creator through whom there is life. 
The tree, the eating of which caused them to know good 
and evil, perished. 

The two halves of the canopy, as we have already seen, 
were the pillars of Hercules. Job speaks of them as the 
" pillars of heaven," and the opening as the " chambers of 
the south." The mountains of the cloud-belt were removed. 14 
Verily these mountains have a new significance. Mount 
Olympus, the home of the gods. Ossa heaped on Pelion. 
Jacob's ladder, etc. 

Under the name of Hercules the Romans, Greeks, and 
Phoenicians worshiped the sun. The story of Samson is the 



12 D. G. Brinton, " The Lenapg and Their Legends," p. 164. 
"Gen. iii: 24. "Job ix: 5-9; xxvi: 11. 



164 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

Biblical account of the same sky hero. The Hebrew form 
of his name is, Shimshon, which is a variant form of 
Shamash the name of the sun in Babylonian and Hebrew. 15 

Like Hercules, Samson performed twelve labors in order 
to free himself. First, he rent the lion as Hercules did the 
Nemean sky monster, the skin of which he then used as a 
cloak. The meaning of this is that the conquering sun was 
obscured or hidden by the enveloping cloud. Second, he 
extracted honey. Third, he slew thirty men. Fourth, he 
caught some foxes. Fifth, with hip and thigh he made a 
slaughter. Sixth, he broke certain cords. Seventh, he slew 
a thousand men. Eighth, he carried off the gates, posts, 
bar and all. Ninth, he broke green withes. Tenth, he broke 
the new ropes. Eleventh, he carried off the pin and beam 
of the sky temple (Latin, templum, expanse, open place), 
the original sky home of the gods. Twelfth, he pulled down 
this temple on his own head. 16 

But though related to the Greek, Eoman, and Phoanician, 
this solar myth also bears a close analogy to the Babylonian. 
Jastrow says : " The Biblical Samson appears to be mod- 
elled upon the character of Gilgamesh. Both are heroes, both 
conquerors, both strangle a lion, and both are wooed by a 
woman, the one by Delilah, the other by Ishtar, and both 
through a woman are shorn of their strength. The historical 
traits are of course different." 17 

The Bible tells us of these things because they are part 
of the error of the ages, and the Bible presents both sides, 
and it is written for all Eternity, and God's purposes must 
be true, though every man be a liar. 18 " Nay, but, O man, 
who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing 



"Morris Jastrow, "The Religions of Babylonia and Assyria," chap, 
xxiii, p. 515. 

16 Judges xiv-xvi. 

1T " Religions of Babylonia and Assyria," pp. 515-516. 

"Roffi. iii: 3-4. 



GENESIS 165 

formed say to Him that formed it, Why hast Thou made me 
thus ? " 19 " He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh : 
the Lord shall have them in derision." 20 

Nay, but, O man, surely it may be said of you that ye 
have questioned the very record of the flood itself (II Pet. 
iii : 5-6), and, what makes it worse, this is not a myth which 
you have put the interrogation mark against, but a matter of 
scientific and Biblical fact. 

The Noachian flood probably extended over a vast terri- 
tory in Central Asia and perhaps portions of Europe. Many 
similar catastrophes of a like character occurred at about 
the same time. The submergence was connected with the 
Glacial period. The Ice-king held in his grip four million 
square miles of the American continent and two million 
square miles of western Europe. These immense areas were 
buried under a mile or more of glacial ice. The shifting 
of this vast weight brought about, as we have seen in our 
scientific chapters, a number of secondary results, amongst 
which may be included the great inundations recorded by 
prehistoric man. 

" The principal countries in which these Flood-stories are 
found are Greece (Deucalion's deluge), Lithuania, Austra- 
lia, Hawaii and other Polynesian islands, Cashmir, Thibet, 
Kamchatka, different parts of India, and America (where 
such stories are particularly numerous) ; they are not found 
(according to Andree) in northern and central Asia; they 
are also absent in Egypt, China, and Japan, and almost 
absent in other parts of Africa (except where they are due to 
Christian influence). 21 

" It was maintained by the late Professor Prestwich, 
on the ground of certain geological indications (especially the 
so-called ' Rubble Drift'), that long after the appearance 



19 Rom. ix:20. ^Ps. ii:4. 

a Westminster Commentaries, Gen. The Deluge, pp. 101-102. 



166 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

of paleolithic man, there was a submergence of the crust of 
the earth, chiefly in W. Europe, but also in N. W. Africa, 
though extending doubtfully as far E. as Palestine, causing 
a great inundation of the sea, which, though of short dura- 
tion, destroyed a vast amount of animal and some human 
life, so that some species of animals {e.g.., the hippopotamus 
in Sicily) became extinct in regions which they formerly 
inhabited; and he suggests that this inundation may have' 
accounted for the above-mentioned traditions." 22 

The Commentator thinks that it mitigates against the 
truth of Prestwich's theory that in Europe itself Elood 
stories are comparatively scarce and that they are more fre- 
quent in countries such as North and Central America. On 
the other hand, where flood, and fire (volcanic), and earth- 
quake, turned the earth into a cemetery, where was there 
a man left to preserve the record? Dead men tell no tales. 

It is not necessary to suppose that Europe was inundated 
at the time of the Noachian submergence. The cataclysm 
simply overwhelmed the known earth of the Adamite (Cau- 
casian) race. The whole area of northern Asia is still said 
to be slowly rising, which may be taken as an indication 
that the figure of the continent has not yet regained its 
normal condition. Scattered lakes over this part of Asia 
are inhabited by the same animals. How did they get from 
one to the other? Intervening stretches of desert contain 
semi-fossil shells of the species still living in the lakes. 23 

Of Central Asia and southern Siberia G. Frederick 
Wright says : " The geological conditions are such as can 
only be explained by an extensive submergence of the region 
where the Scriptures and tradition locate the Elood which 
destroyed the whole human race, excepting Noah and his 
family. The evidences of such a deluge are not one, but 



Hid., p. 102. * American Geologist, vol. v, No. 3, p. 182. 



GENESIS 167 

several, and extend from Mongolia to the western borders 
of Kussia." 24 

With the close of the Glacial period it is not to be sup- 
posed that all remnants of the canopy and vapor-belt at once 
disappeared. The Babel Builders (Gen. xi:4-9) sought to 
reach this canopy or heaven. Its ever-changing appearance 
caused great confusion of tongues and of thought as the 
various peoples described different scenes to each other, and 
converted the natural phenomena into heroes and demi- 
gods; and, furthermore, they worshiped these ever-changing 
appearances as gods and devils, adding confusion to the 
already existing chaotic discord and disorder. 

Berosus records the Chaldean version of this event in 
complete agreement with the Biblical account, as follows: 
" They say that the first inhabitants of the earth, glorying 
in their own strength and size and despising the gods, under- 
took to raise a tower whose top should reach the sky, in the 
place in which Babylon now stands ; but when it approached 
the heaven the wind assisted the gods and overthrew the 
work upon its contrivers, and its ruins are said to be still 
at Babylon; and the gods introduced a diversity of tongues 
among men, who till that time had all spoken the same 
language ; and a war arose between Cronus and Titan. The 
place in which they built the tower is now called Babylon, 
on account of the confusion of tongues, for confusion is by 
the Hebrews called Babel." 

It will be seen from this that the gods were afraid that 
man would reach their abode. Elsewhere this version clearly 
states that they were building " in order that they might 
mount up into heaven." 25 

Of the confusion of tongues we have this to say: The 

"McClure's, June, 1901, vol. xvii, No. 2, p. 134. 
25 Rawlinson, " Seven Great Monarchies," vol. i, Chaldea, Assyria. 
Note 141 to chap, vii of " First Monarchy," p. 526. 



168 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

changing aspects of the sky caused the words which the 
peoples used in describing what they saw to change with the 
same rapidity as the scenes themselves. While all this was 
but a phase of inanimate nature, yet it seemed ever to be 
producing new forms, hence in describing it the ancients 
confused its various phenomena with the idea of sex. Gen- 
der-terminations are a part of the bacillus which was thus 
injected into the tongues of the nations. 26 E^ut though this 
gave rise to a great many different languages, the fact 
remains that there were old root languages from which these 
new languages were descended, and they of course did not 
originate in this way. Andrew Lang says : 

" After taking my degree in 1868, I had leisure to read 
a good deal of mythology in the legends of all races, and 
found my distrust of Mr. Max Miiller's reasoning increase 
upon me. The main cause was that whereas Mr. Max Miiller 
explained Greek myths by etymologies of words in the Aryan 
languages, chiefly Greek, Latin, Slavonic, and Sanskrit, I 
kept finding myths very closely resembling those of Greece 
among Red Indians, Kaffirs, Eskimo, Samoyeds, Kamilaroi, 
Maoris, and Cahrocs. Now, if Aryan myths arose from a 
6 disease ' of Aryan languages, it certainly did seem an odd 
thing that myths so similar to these abounded where non- 
Aryan languages alone prevailed. Did a kind of linguistic 
measles affect all tongues alike, from Sanskrit to Choctaw, 
and everywhere produce the same ugly scars in religion and 
myth ? " 27 In reply to Lang's query we would say that it 



26 "In ancient languages every one of these words (sky, earth, sea, 
rain) had necessarily a termination expressive of gender, and this 
naturally produced in the mind the corresponding idea of sex, so that 
these names received not only an individual but a sexual character." 
Max Miiller, Chips, iv, 62. We explain this matter by the theory that 
man called the lifeless things and phenomena of the canopy male or 
female by using gender-terminations as a result of his habit of 
regarding the lifeless things, etc., as personal beings and as gods. 

27 " Modern Mythology," p. 4. 



GENESIS 169 

is quite evident that the germ which scattered the linguistic 
measles in all the root languages was the ever-changing sky 
phenomena. Max Miiller should not have confined this 
infectious disease to the Aryan language alone. 

But we have had enough about languages, so let us return 
to the sky scenes themselves. At a time when the Pillars of 
Hercules spanned the equatorial heavens there was an open 
spot or egg hole in the distant northern sky. The Bible calls 
this spot " Baal-peor " : Baal, " the lord," Peor, " the open- 
ing." Israel fell into the worship of this dreadful nature 
cult and was accordingly punished (Num. xxv:3-5). 

Nature or creature worship always dies hard. In 
Ezekiel's time this evil thing had not yet been extirpated 
(Ezek. viii : Y-10). In the winter the sun, being in southern 
latitudes, was of course far away from this hole which was 
the only place in the heavens where he could be seen, hence 
Tammuz was lost. In the prophet's vision every man saw 
this "in the chambers of his imagery" (v. 12). In other 
words, like Ptolemy's rings, this cult was only an echo. Bel 
worship was indeed a terrible thing. Confusion's place was 
at this sky-hole or ' gate of God.' It is recorded that the 
prophet came to " the door of the gate of the Lord's house 
which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women 
weeping for Tammuz" (v. 14). Tammuz means "the 
hidden lost one." Tammuz, it will plainly be seen, was 
originally the hidden sun, and even at this time it was known 
that this weeping was for the sun. Sun worship was then 
in full possession of the Lord's house itself (v. 16). 

It is recorded of Tammuz that he was seen bleeding. 
This is easily accounted for, as the great sky-hole must have 
often been decked out in ruddy or sunset hues. This door or 
opening into the Jieavens proved like the serpent a snare. It 
is more than likely that our Saviour referred to it when he 
said, " I am the door," the way," " the truth," " the life." 
The door of the shining hole produced a stupendous error, but 



170 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

now we know that first (natural) things must perish that the 
last (spiritual) may live. 

The Indians of northern California have a legend which 
localizes this sky-hole over Mount Shasta. They say that 
the Creator made it first. The account is as follows : " Bor- 
ing a hole in the sky, using a large stone as an auger, he 
pushed down snow and ice until they reached the desired 
height; then he stepped from cloud to cloud down to the 
great icy pile, and from it to the earth, where he planted 
the first trees by merely putting his finger into the soil here 
and there. The sun began to melt the snow; the snow pro- 
duced water ; the water ran down the sides of the mountains, 
refreshed the trees, and made rivers. The Creator gathered 
the leaves that fell from the trees, blew upon them, and they 
became birds, etc." 28 

The story of Odysseus in the cave of Calypso (Greek 
Kalupto, to cover) is but one of the many myths which have 
arisen from this same scene. In Calypso's grotto-cave, 
located in the Isle of Ogygia, in the hub of the sky sea, were 
stars or nails that were fixed in the wondrous azure blue. 
This was the egg-land, or beginning place where man first 
learned astronomy. Man in those early days not only knew 
God through the gospel of the stars, but also through the 
beauties of the canopy, which were to them who were of a 
true heart a guide and type to things celestial. 

One of the most glorious types was that of the cherubim. 
When the flaming sword, the bright shaft of sunlight, first 
pierced the Edenic canopy, the sun itself floated as in a vapor 
arc or shell accompanied by four mock suns surrounded with 
halos. These were the cherubim, types of the redeemed 
in future glory, true consorts of the living Son of God. The 
first like a lion, the demean beast which Hercules the sun 
was sent to slay. The second, " like a calf," the solar bull 



Bancroft, "Native Races," vol. iii, p. 90. 



GENESIS 171 

famed in the mythology of the ancients. The third had a 
face as a man, made in the image of the solar orb. The 
fourth, a flying eagle the winged disk being Assyria's old 
emblem of the sun. 

In Genesis iii, the cherubim appear as guardians of God's 
abode and of the spiritual treasures reserved therein. The 
passage which should on all grounds be compared is Ezek. 
xxviii : 13-17. Ezekiel states that he was by the river of 
Chebar (chap, i: 3) when he received this word. This river 
was a large, navigable canal, not far from Mppur, southeast 
of Babylon. 29 But we are not concerned with the site; it is 
not where the prophet had the vision that interests us, but 
it is the substance, the mythological fact. It does not follow 
that he actually saw the wheels; what the text tells us is 
that he saw a vision. In his mind's eye he saw what even 
then probably was a remote occurrence. 

" In Ezekiel xxviii : 13-17 there is a description where 
the e prince of Tyre ' is represented as a glorious being 
bedecked with gold and precious stones, who had been placed 
' in Eden, the garden of God,' had there ( walked up and 
down in the midst of stones of fire ' (i.e., flashing gems), 
but had forfeited his high estate by pride, and had been 
expelled from the holy ' mountain of God ' by a cherub. 
Ezekiel, it is probable, had access to traditions about Para- 
dise more ample than those preserved in Genesis, and per- 
haps in some respects different from them ; and he makes use 
of them here for the purpose of representing pictorially the 
fall of the King of Tyre." 30 

" And He rode upon a cherub, and did fly ; yea, He did 
fly upon the wings of the wind." The same authority says 
of the passage just cited : " Ps. xviii : 10 would suggest that 
the conception arose in a personification of the thunder-cloud 



29 University of Pennsylvania texts, vol. ix, p. 28. 

80 Westminster Commentaries, Gen. The Cherubim, p. 61. 



172 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

(upon, or within, which, as the context of the verse plainly 
shews, the Hebrews believed Jehovah to be borne along)." 31 

From the ' prince of Tyre ' to Satan, or ' the prince of the 
power of the air/ is only a step. Satan in Arabic means a 
serpent. The apostle was sent, To open certain eyes, and 
to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of 
Satan or the serpent unto God (Acts xxvi: 18). In other 
words, His commission was to turn men from the material 
to the spiritual, from the darkness, the seed of which was 
planted by the canopy, to the light. And this light we find is 
bearing fruit abundantly in the scientific revelations of this 
present age. The prince of the power of the air (Eph. ii: 2) 
is the prince of this world, and he is cast out (John xii: 31). 

The serpent was a vapor-belt. Moses lifted up a figure 
still known to all the people in that day as a memorial of a 
creation that had passed away, and they were to look by 
faith for a new order in a coming Saviour. The barber's 
pole is still a survival of serpent symbolism amongst us. 
The ribbon painted spirally around their sign represented 
originally the serpent. Formerly the barbers were doctors, 
thus naturally they adopted the sign and symbol of the 
healer. 

The old creation that had passed was an Eden, but 
because the people worshiped the creature instead of the 
Great Creator, the God of Nature was forced to reveal Him- 
self and to cast down the serpent upon the ground. The 
Eden conditions passed, and man has had to earn his liveli- 
hood by the sweat of his brow ever since. Jer. x: 11-12; 
Isa. xix: 1; Rev. xii: 9, 15. This last quotation shows how 
the error of the ages has lived on down to our time. Ps. 
xix: 1; Job xxvi: 8-13; Gen. iii: 1, 14; Isa. xxvii: 1; Ps. 
Ixxiv: 13-15. 

The following passages of Scripture introduce many 



IUd. 



GENESIS 173 

features not presented in the text for lack of space. The 
summary only suggests some of the riches which may be 
unearthed. 

Introduction. Heb. xi:3, 7; Isa. xl:21-22; II Pet. iii: 3-6. 

Creation. Gen. i:6-7. 

The Beginning. Ps. xixrl; Amos ix:6; Ps. xxxiii:6-7; xxiv:l-2. 

Dew ascending from the ground. Gen. ii:5-6. 

Heavens stretched out. Job xxxvii:18; Isa. xlii:5; xliv:24; xlv:12; 
li:13. 

Water Heavens (Secondary vapor-belts held in suspension under the 
canopy). Job xxxviii:!, 4-11, 16-17, 37; Ps. civ:2-6. 

Water heavens worshipped. Punishment followed. Jer. x: 11-12; 
Isa. xix:l; Rev. xii:9, 15. 

Serpent, i.e., serpent-like belt. Job xxvi:8-13; Gen. iiirl, 14; Isa. 
xxvii:!, Ps. Ixxiv: 13-15; Rev. xii. Note specially v. 15. Moses lifted 
up a sign familiar to the multitude. Num. xxi:9; John iii: 14-15. 

Treasures of snow. Job xxxviii: 22-23; Rev. xi:19; xvi:21. 

Falling vapor-belts. Job ix:5-8. In v. 8 bamah is the word trans- 
lated waves, it means in Hebrew " heights." Hag. ii:6, 21; Joel ii:2-ll; 
Isa. ii: 19-21; Heb. xii:26-27; Hab. iii:6-15. 

The Flood. Gen. vii. Note specially v. 11. 

Rainbow after canopy fell. This phenomenon could not take place 
until the vapor-heavens cleared. Gen. ix:8-17. 

Babel. Gten. xi:4-9. 

Pillar of cloud. Ex. xiii: 21-22; xiv: 19-24. 

Ancient sun or shiner stood still. Joshua. x:12; Hab. iii: 11. 

Flaming Sword. Gen. iii: 24. 

Cherubim. Gen. iii: 24. Connecting link with canopy. Ps. 
xviii:7-16; civ: 3-4; Ezek. x. 

Good canopy turned evil. Ezek. xxviii: 14-17. 

Wheels. Ezek. i. 

Horses. Zech. i:8; Rev. vi:2-8; Hab. iii: 6-15. 

Voice of Many Waters. Ezek. xliii:2; Dan. x:6; Rev. i:15; xiv:2; 
xix:6. 

Pyramid. The witness of the shadow of the earth on the canopy. 
Isa. xix: 19-20; Jer. xxxii: 17-20. 



CHAPTER XIV 

HINDU MYTHS 

" THE gods themselves cannot recall their gifts." * Vedic 
literature contains the record of five elements, fire, water, 
earth, air, and nature, the latter containing Agni, the ' Golden 
Germ/ which is evidently the creative power seen in the fire 
ring or belt. Edward Washburn Hopkins says : " The 
world was at first water ; thereon floated a cosmic golden egg 
(the principle of fire). Out of this came Spirit that desired ; 
and by desire he begat the worlds and all things. It is 
improbable that in this somewhat Orphic mystery there lies 
any pre- Vedic myth. The notion comes up first in the golden 
germ and egg-born bird (sun) of the Rik. It is not specially 
Aryan, and is found even among the American Indians." 2 

From the canopy continually came new sky-scenes which 
the ancients thought were manifestations of their gods, hence 
according to their records " Agni is Varuna and is Indra." 
Plainly Agni, the reflected light of the sun, was seen in 
Varuna and in Indra. All fire was seen emerging from 
the upper dome of gauze. Hopkins describes the attributes 
of Indra as follows : 

" Indra has been identified with f storm/ with the ' sky/ 
with the ' year ' ; also with ' sun ' and with e fire ' in general. 
But if he be taken as he is found in the hymns, it will be 
noticed at once that he is too stormy to be the sun; too 
luminous to be the storm; too near to the phenomena of the 
monsoon to be the year or the sky ; too rainy to be fire ; too 
alien from every one thing to be any one thing. He is too 
celestial to be wholly atmospheric; too atmospheric to be 
celestial ; too earthly to be either. A most tempting solution 



1 Tennyson. 2 "The Religions of India," chap, ix, p. 208. 
174 



HINDU MYTHS 175 

is that offered by Bergaigne, who sees in Indra sun or light- 
ning. Yet does this explanation not explain all, and it is 
more satisfactory than others only because it is broader; 
while it is not yet broad enough. Indra, in Bergaigne's 
opinion, stands, however, nearer to fire than to sun." 3 

Indra was the clear sky or sun. Dyaus also was the true 
sky. His name is derived from Dyu " to shine." Zeus comes 
from the same root. 

O Agni, give us eyes that we may see 

The mighty Indra, in his shining car, 

Ride o'er the canopy, the great enfolder! 

His golden whip, the ray of penciled light, 

In his strong arms. His ruddy cheeks aglow 

The clear-sky of the heavens towards the poles 

All reddened by prismatic rays of light. 

The golden helmet of the crowned sun, 

Like a lamp flaming in a heavy mist 

All nature proving that the gods are one. 

O Agni! Thou art terrible. We fear! 
"Yea, when the waters covered everywhere 
" They held the germ, they generated light 
"Then came from the one spirit, breath of gods. 
" May he not hurt us, he the Lord of beings." 

May he not hurt us. Agni, hurt us not! 4 

Indra the clear sky conquered all the Asura, including 
Varuna Asura, the dragon serpent, whose eyes were magni- 
fied additions or haloes of the sun. She grew up over and 
covered all the other Asuras, as a canopy drifting towards 
the poles always did. 

Zenaide A. Eagozin says : " Now, Sanskrit has a root 
vri, ' to cover ' a prolific one, which can be traced in many 
words of kindred meanings and one of its most direct for- 
mations is this very name of Yaruna. It is as though we 
called the sky ' the coverer, the enfolder/ * * * All 
ancient peoples used to say that ' the heavens cover or 

3 Ibid., ch. iv, pp. 91-92. 

4 Adapted to the present interpretation. After a famous hymn, etc., 
from the Rig Veda. 



176 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

encompass the earth and all it contains/ sometimes adding 
' like a tent ? or ' like a roof ' and meant it literally, not 
metaphorically." 5 

" I will sing forth unto the universal king a high, deep 
prayer, dear to renowned Varuna, who, as a butcher a hide, 
has struck earth apart (from the sky) for the sun. Varuna 
has extended air in trees, strength in horses, milk in cows, 
and has laid wisdom in hearts ; fire in water ; the sun in the 
sky; soma in the stone. Varuna has inverted his water- 
barrel and let the two worlds with the space between flow 
with. With this (heavenly water-barrel) he, the king of 
every created thing, wets the whole world, as a rain does a 
meadow. He wets the world, both earth and heaven, when 
he, Varuna, chooses to milk out (water)." 6 

Varuna is the universal encompasser, the canopy. He 
stands in mid-air like Parjanya and upsets a water-barrel. 
Agni is the light or fire in the water-sky; afterwards he is 
earthly fire. To place on the altar that which was seen in 
the sky was a natural sequence. Fire worship is the logical 
result of seeing fire in heaven. Indra is the true sun seen 
floating above Varuna in a boat or vapor-arc. In the Egyp- 
tian myth, Nu-t is depicted as a water-sky with stars above 
her. The hymns and prayers to these Vedic gods are 
naturally much confused, for the reason that the ever-chang- 
ing features of the zonal cloud system resulted in the votaries 
of one age emphasizing a feature known as a god which the 
peoples of a following generation perhaps could not distin- 
guish. Thus Indra might be obscured by Varuna Asura 
growing up over and covering him from view. 

" He, men, is Indra," as the Vedas say, and Agni is 
Varuna and is Indra. This confusion was caused by the 
ever-changing appearance of the sky-scene. It reminds us 
of the confusion of tongues at Babel. He slew the snake 

6 "The Story of Vedic India," ch. v, fl 8, pp. 140, 141, 
6 " Religions of India," pp. 65-66. Rig Veda T, 85, 



HINDU MYTHS 177 

that lay upon the hills. He Vritra slew. Watched by the 
snake, the waters stood on high. What time the water-cov- 
ered cave he opened, the waters freed. Like bellowing kine 
they swiftly flowed to earth. 7 

The text says : " He men is Indra of the long red beard." 
There are several features about Indra that reminds us of 
Thor, the Scandinavian thunder god, Jove the thunderer, 
and of Samson. Both Indra and Thor had lightning or fire 
beards. Samson's hair also figured as a cause of his strength. 
He set fire to the corn of the Philistines (Judges xv: 45). 
In Indra's fight with Vritra, the former's thunderbolt is all- 
powerful. 8 

" He men is Indra of the long red beard " is plainly the 
same as Hercules. The Acvins were the two pillars of light 
seen in the canopy at night. The canopy that is, the north 
and south belts caught the rays of the sun from the under- 
world, making two pillars. These* were the Pillars of Her- 
cules. They were the < Horsemen,' twin sons of Dyaus. 
Their steeds, the whirling belts, were ever in motion. 

The Maruts, whose name means the shining, gleaming 
ones, always accompanied the storm bringer, Indra. Their 
mother was the variegated cow, Pricni, the mother cloud. 9 
These warlike Maruts thus spoke to Indra bragging what 
they had done : 

" Thou hast indeed done great things, O mighty one, 
with us for thy helpers, through our equal valor. But we 
Maruts, O strong Indra, can perform many great deeds by 
our power when we so desire." 

Indra retorts : " By my own inborn might, O Maruts, 
I slew Vritra. Through my own wrath I grew so strong. It 
was I who, wielding the lightning, opened the way for the 
shining waters to run down for men." 10 



T Rig Veda i, 32.2 and v. 11. 

8 Hopkins, " The Religions of India," chap, xiv, p. 357. 
IUd., p. 97. 10 Rig Veda i, 165. Ragozin, " Vedic India," p. 211. 
12 



178 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

The Maruts knuckled and admitted that Indra had " no 
equal among the gods." Yet they too were immortal. The 
whole story is that of Hercules and the many-headed Hydra. 
One of these heads proved immortal, which signifies that 
the storm winds cannot be subjugated by the- sun ; those heads 
which Hercules killed being the violent personifications of 
the Ice age. 

The Maoris of New Zealand have a story entitled i The 
Legend of the Children of Heaven and Earth/ It was taken 
down by Sir George Grey many years ago, and though it is 
somewhat lengthy, it will bear perusal in this connection. 
We would have the reader note especially the character of 
Tawhiri-ma-tea (the immortal storm-head). 

" Men had but one pair of primitive ancestors ; they 
sprang from the vast heaven that exists above us, and from 
the earth which lies beneath us. According to the traditions 
of our race, Rangi and Papa, or Heaven and Earth, were 
the source from which, in the beginning, all things origi- 
nated. Darkness then rested upon the heaven and upon the 
earth, and they still both clave together, for they had not 
yet been rent apart ; and the children they had begotten were 
ever thinking amongst themselves what might be the differ- 
ence between darkness and light ; they knew that beings had 
multiplied and increased, and yet light had never broken 
upon them, but it ever continued dark. Hence those sayings 
are found in our ancient religious services : ( There was 
darkness from the first division of time unto the tenth, to 
the hundredth, to the thousandth,' that is, for a vast space 
of time; and these divisions of time were considered as 
beings, and were each termed a Po. 

" At last the beings who had been begotten by Heaven 
and the Earth, worn out by the continued darkness, consulted 
amongst themselves, saying, Let us now determine what we 
should do with Rangi and Papa, whether it would be better 
to slay them, or to rend them apart. Then spoke Tu-ma- 



HINDU MYTHS 179 

tauenga, the fiercest of the children of Heaven and Earth, 
' It is well, let us slay them/ 

" Then spake Tane-mahuta, the father of forests and of 
all things that inhabit them or that are constructed from 
trees, ' Nay, not so. It is better to rend them apart, and to 
let the heaven stand far above us, and the earth lie under 
our feet. Let the sky become as a stranger to us, but the 
earth remain close to us as our nourishing mother.' The 
brothers all consented to this proposal, with the exception 
of Tawhiri-ma-tea, the father of winds and storms, and he, 
fearing that his kingdom was about to be overthrown, grieved 
greatly at the thought of his parents' being torn apart. Five 
of the brothers willingly consented to the separation of their 
parents, but one of them would not agree to it. 

" The brothers all tried, in vain. The god and father of 
the cultivated food of man, god and father of fish and rep- 
tiles, etc. every one failed. Then at last slowly uprises 
Tane-mahuta, the god and father of forests, of birds, and of 
insects, and he struggles with his parents ; in vain he strives 
to rend them apart with his hands and arms. Lo, he pauses, 
his head is now firmly planted on his mother, the earth, his 
feet he raises up and rests against his father, the skies; he 
strains his back and limbs with mighty effort. Now are 
rent apart Rangi and Papa, and with cries and groans of 
woe they shriek aloud. c Wherefore slay you thus your 
parents? Why commit you so dreadful a crime as to slay 
us, as to rend your parents apart ? ' But Tane-mahuta pauses 
not, he regards not their shrieks and cries ; far beneath him 
he presses down the earth, far, far above him he thrusts up 
the sky. 

" Hence these sayings of olden time : ' It was the fierce 
thrusting of Tane which tore the heaven from the earth so 
that they were rent apart, and darkness was made manifest, 
and so was light.' 

" No sooner was heaven rent from the earth than the mul- 



180 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

titiide of human beings were discovered whom they had 
begotten, and who had hitherto lain concealed between the 
bodies of Rangi and Papa. 

" The legend next describes how Tawhiri-ma-tea, god 
and father of winds and storms, arose and followed his father 
to the realms above, hurrying to the sheltered hollows of the 
boundless skies, to hide and cling and nestle there. Fierce 
desire came to him to wage war against his brethren who had 
done such unhandsome deed to their parents. ' Then came 
forth his progeny, the mighty winds, the fierce squalls, the 
clouds, dense, dark, fiery, wildly bursting ; and in their midst 
their father rushed upon his foe.' Tane-mahuta and his 
giant forests were taken unawares, unsuspecting, when the 
raging hurricane burst upon them, the mighty trees were 
snapped in twain, prostrated, trunks and branches left torn 
upon the ground for insect and grub to prey on. The sea was 
swept and tossed with wild surgings and mountain waves 
till Tangaroa, god of the ocean and father of all that dwell 
therein, became affrighted and fled. His children, the 
parents of fish on the one hand and of reptiles on the other, 
fled, the one into the depths of the sea, the other into the 
recesses of the shore, amid the forests and the scrubs. 

" The storm-god attacked his brothers, the gods and pro- 
genitors of the tilled food and the wild, but Papa, the Earth, 
caught them up and hid them, and he searched and swept to 
find them, in vain. He fell upon the last of his brothers, the 
father of fierce men, but him he could not even move. Man 
stood erect, unshaken upon the bosom of his mother earth. 
e At last the hearts of the Heaven and the Storm became tran- 
quil, and their passion was assuaged.' 

" But now Tu-ma-tauenga, father of fierce men, became 
stirred to attack. He was minded to avenge himself upon 
his brethren who had left him unaided to stand against the 
god of storms. He twisted nooses of the leaves of the whanake 
tree, and the birds and beasts, children of the forest-god, 



HINDU MYTHS 181 

fell before him; netted nets of the flax plant and dragged 
ashore the fish; he digged in the ground and brought up the 
sweet potato and all cultivated food, the fern root and all 
wild growing food. He overcame every one of the brothers, 
all but the storm-god, who still ever attacks him in tempest 
and hurricane, seeking to destroy him both by sea and by 
land. It was in one of these attacks that the dry land was 
made to disappear beneath the waters. 

" The beings of ancient days who thus submerged the 
land were Terrible-rain, Long-continued-rain, Fierce-hail- 
storms ; and their progeny were Mist, Heavy-dew, and Light- 
dew, and thus but little of the dry land was left standing 
above the sea. 

" From that time clear light increased upon the earth, 
and all the beings which were hidden between Rangi and 
Papa before they were separated now multiplied upon the 
earth. The first beings begotten by Rangi and Papa were 
not like human beings; but Tu-ma-tauenga bore the likeness 
of a man, as did all his brothers. 

" Up to this time the vast Heaven has still ever remained 
separate from his spouse, the Earth. Yet their mutual love 
still continues, the soft warm sighs of her loving bosom still 
ever rise up to him, ascending from the woody mountains and 
valleys, and men call these mists; and the vast Heaven, as 
he mourns through the long nights his separation from his 
beloved, drops frequent tears upon her bosom, and men, see- 
ing these, term them dew-drops." 11 

This long citation shows the similarity of the many- 
headed storm-king myth throughout the world. The lifting 
of the canopy was invariably followed by a season of tem- 
pestuous violence. But let us return to the Hindu legends. 

The Eig Veda, which is the oldest Hindu authority, is 
a compiled work, containing many additions of a later day; 

u Grey's Polynesian Mythology, pp. 1-5, 14, 15, as quoted by Charles 
De B. Mills, " The Tree of Mythology," pp. 269-274. 



182 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

thus hymns that first expressed the scenes of a water sky 
were afterwards in part rearranged to adapt them to the 
changed conditions. But this will become clearer to us as 
we peruse the following selections taken from the Second 
Series of Auld Lang Syne. It will be noted that these mostly 
record the scenes of the vapor-belt and canopy period. 

HYMN TO SAVITRI SUN. (RIG- VEDA i, 35, 2.) 

(6) Three skies are there of SavitH, two places, 

And one in Yama's realm that holds our heroes, 
Immortals mounted on the chariot's axle, 
Let him speak out who understands this saying. 

(7) The glorious bird (the sun) has lighted-up the heaven, 
The guide divine, whose wings are deeply sounding j 
Where is the sun? Who knows it now, to tell us, 
Which of the heavens his ray may have illumined? 

Naturally, the sun was first addressed when seen through 
the vapor-sky, where in the imagination he appeared as a 
spirit riding in a golden chariot, drawn by brilliant horses. 
The next step noted is that the figurative speech remained 
after the canopy and vapor-belt had passed away and the 
sun was seen in its true glory. Thus we read, Rig- Veda i, 
27, 10 : 

The stars fixed high in heaven and shining brightly 
By night, say, where have they gone by day-time? 
The laws of Varuwa are everlasting, 
The moon moves on by night in brilliant splendor. 

It does not follow from this that because the stars were 
seen the last canopy or ring had dissipated. This evidence 
is simply to be classed with the records which the ancient 
Chinese, Egyptians, and Chaldeans kept of the eclipses. 
These records, together with the other astronomical data of 
the ancients, merely show that the true sky was seen at times. 
Yea, even if we are forced to grant that the skies were com- 
pletely cleared from all belted-cloud phenomena at the time 
of these recorded astronomical events, it only removes the 
actual appearances of the cloud phenomena into a more 



HINDU MYTHS 183 

remote past. Who can gainsay such evidence as is found in 
the following (hymn X, 129) : 

Nor aught nor naught existed: yon bright sky 
Was not, nor heaven's broad woof outstretched above; 
What covered all? what sheltered? what concealed? 
Was it the waters' fathomless abyss? 

Again we quote from the same hymn: 

Darkness there was, and all at first was veiled 
In gloom profound, an ocean without light j 
The germ that still lay covered in the husk 
Burst forth, one nature, from the fervent heat. 

Here is another selection taken from the Hymn, To 
Katri, Night. 

(1) The Night comes near and looks about, 
The goddess with her many eyes, 

She has put on her glories all. 

(2) Immortal, she has filled the space, 
Both far and wide, both low and high, 
She conquers darkness with her light. 

(3) She has undone her sister, Dawn, 

The goddess Night, as she approached, 
And utter darkness flies away. 

Max Miiller says : " We must remember that the night 
to the Yedic poet was not the same as darkness, but that, on 
the contrary, when the night had driven away the day, she 
was supposed to lighten the darkness, and even to rival her 
sister, the bright day, with her starlight beauty. The night, 
no doubt, gives peace and rest, yet the Dawn is looked upon 
as the kindlier light, and is implored to free mortals from 
the dangers of the night, as debtors are freed from a debt. 
Many conjectural alterations have been proposed in this 
hymn, but it seems to me to be intelligible as it stands." 12 

From the standpoint of the additional light shed by the 



""Auld Lang Syne/' Second Series, p. 255. 



184 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

present hypothesis, this hymn becomes still more intelli- 
gible. At night the sunlight from below illuminated the 
canopy ; in the words of the hymn, " She conquered darkness 
with her light." In connection with the lesson of the pyra- 
mids, this hymn becomes clearer, and the midnight hour of 
the " shade " and of " Death " is indeed a revelation. 

(8) Like cows, I brought this hymn to thee, 
As to a conqueror, child of Dyaus. 
Accept it graciously, O Night! 

The " cows " mentioned in the text refers without ques- 
tion to the clouds, and brings at once to our attention all 
the solar bulls of mythology. Sarama had cloud-cattle stolen 
by the Pani-robbers. Sarama went after them, and the fol- 
lowing conversation took place: 

" The Panis: ' With what intention did Sarama reach 
this pla.ce? for the way is far and leads tortuously away. 
What is thy wish with us ? Didst travel safely ? (or, ' how 
was the night?') How didst thou cross the waters of the 
Easa ? ' 

ff Sarama : ' I came sent as the messenger of Indra, 
desiring, O Panis, your great treasures. This preserved me 
from the fear of crossing, and thus I crossed the waters of 
the Rasa.' 

" The Panis: e Who is he ? what looks he like, this Indra, 
whose herald you have hastened from afar? Let him come 
here, we will make friends with him, then he may be the 
herdsman of our cows.' 

"Sarama: ( Ye cannot injure him, but he can injure, 
whose herald I have hastened from afar. Deep rivers cannot 
overwhelm him ; you, Panis, soon shall be cut down by Indra.' 

ff The Panis: ' Those cows, O Sarama, which thou cam'st 
to seek, are flying round the ends of the sky. O darling, who 
would give up to thee without a fight? for, in truth, our 
weapons too are sharp.' " 13 

18 Rig- Veda x, 108. Eagozin, "Vedic India," p. 257. 



HINDU MYTHS 185 

We have already sketched some of the attributes of Indra, 
the conquering sun. He was also a cow or cloud disperser. 
He slew the awful " demon-cloud " ; also Yal or Vritra, him 
of speed, the great snake, the great restrainer. He, men, 
was Indra, the cloud compeller. 

" He who fixed firm the moving earth ; who tranquillized 
the incensed mountains ; who spread the spacious firmament ; 
who consolidated the heavens: he, men, is Indra. 

" He who, having destroyed Ahi, set free the seven 
rivers; who recovered the cows retained by Bal; who gen- 
erated fire in the clouds ; who is invincible in battle ; he, men, 
is Indra." 14 

It is an interesting fact that England's patron, Saint 
George, is borrowed from this scene. The battle of Indra 
and Ahi is analogous and equivalent to that between Saint 
George and the Dragon. Other prototypes are Hercules and 
the Hydra, Perseus and the sea-monster, Sigurd and Eafnir, 
Beowulf and Grendel. " All this is descriptive of the deliv- 
erance of the earth," says Charles De B. Mills, " from the 
fangs of a monster, either the storm-cloud in the case of 
Herakles the throttling serpents of night or the icy prison 
of cold, of winter." Nay, but we know that it is all summed 
up in one monster the overhanging snake-belt under the 
canopy. 

Mr. Mills goes on to say : " What causes surprise is the 
universality of this speech. It is everywhere, certainly 
wherever any of the Aryan race are found. Nay, there are 
traces of the same essential story in the literatures of the 
Phoenicians, Egyptians, and Babylonians. In Saint George 
we have the myth Christianized, touched afresh with new 
colors, and the hero thus presented has become one of the 
most venerated and popular of all the saints in the calendar. 
The patron saint of England now since early in the fifteenth 
century, he has been also that of Aragon and Portugal, and 

"Murray's Manual of Mythology, 20th ed., p. 372. 



186 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

the order of the knights of Saint George has been widely 
instituted. In the time of the crusades he appeared once in 
light on the walls of Jerusalem, waving his sword, and led 
the victorious assault on the Holy City. Is it not wonder- 
ful that he has been so long and gratefully remembered ? " 15 
Sky-scenes were essentially ephemeral, thus all through 
Vedic literature the changing of names and of the meanings 
of words is in evidence, and so just as we have seen the 
English saint, originally a sun-god, become a being leading 
armies of men to victory, so also the Hindus, like all the 
other peoples of their day (and of the days that have since 
passed), endeavored to keep abreast of the times. Deva 
Surya, ' shining one/ is an illustration of this truth. Surya 
means the red ball of the sun ; afterwards he became Savitar, 
' enlivener.' He proved to be the burner death. 16 This 
burning one was the racing canopy. Max Miiller says of it: 
" One of the most intelligible names given to the sun 
was Asva, the racer, or Dadhikravan or V&gm (horse). 
And while at one time the sun was a racer, at another the 
sun was conceived as approaching men and standing on a 
chariot which was drawn by horses, as in Greek mythology. 
Thus we read, Kig-Veda i, 35, 2 : ' The god Savit (the 
sun), approaching on the dark-blue sky, sustaining mortals 
and immortals, comes on his golden chariot, beholding all 
the worlds.' " 17 

Hopkins gives the hymn as follows: 

Through space of darkness wending comes he hither, 

Who puts to rest th' immortal and the mortal, 

On golden car existent things beholding, 

The god that rouses, Savitar, the shining; 

Comes he, the shining one, comes forward, upward, 

Comes with two yellow steeds, the god revered, 

Comes shining Savitar from out the distance, 

All difficulties far away compelling. 

His pearl-adorned, high, variegated chariot, 

""The Tree of Mythology," pp. 76-77. 16 Rig- Veda, liv, 2. 
""Auld Lang Syne," Second Series, p. 194. 



HINDU MYTHS 187 

Of which the pole is golden, he, reverSd, 
Hath mounted, Savitar, whose beams are brilliant, 
Against the darksome spaces strength assuming. 
Among the people gaze the brown white-footed 
(Steeds) that the chariot drag whose pole is golden. 
All peoples stand, and all things made, forever, 
Within the lap of Savitar, the heavenly. 

(There are three heavens of Savitar, two low ones, 
One, men-restraining, in the realm of Yama. 
As on (his) chariot-pole stand all immortals, 
Let him declare it who has understood it ! ) 

Across air-spaces gazes he, the eagle, 
Who moves in secret, th' Asura, well-guiding, 
Where is (bright) Surya now? who understands it? 
And through which sky is now his ray extending ? 18 

It has already been pointed out that the Acvins were 
the two halves of the divided canopy. They were like two 
great mountains, the one to the north, the other in the south. 
Warren says of them: 

" A striking parallel to the Egyptian and Akkadian idea 
of two opposed polar mountains, an arctic and an antarctic 
the one celestial and the other infernal is found among the 
ancient inhabitants of India. The celestial mountain they 
called Su-Meru, the infernal one Ku-Meru. In the Hindu 
Puranas the size and splendors of the former are presented 
in the wildest exaggerations of Oriental fancy. Its height, 
according to some accounts, is not less than eight hundred 
and forty thousand miles, its diameter at the summit three 
hundred and twenty thousand. Four enormous buttress 
mountains, situated at mutually opposite points of the hori- 
zon, surround it. One account makes the eastern side of 
Meru of the color of the ruby, its southern that of the lotus, 
its western that of gold, its northern that of coral. On its 
summit is the vast city of Brahma, fourteen thousand leagues 
in extent. Around it, in the cardinal points and the inter- 
18 "Religions of India," p. 49, Rig- Veda i, 35. 



188 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

mediate quarters, are situated the magnificent cities of Indra 
and the other regents of >he spheres. The city of Brahma, in 
the centre of the eight, is surrounded by a moat of sweet 
flowing celestial waters, a kind of river of the water of 
life (Ganga), which, after encircling the city, divides into 
four mighty rivers flowing towards four opposite points of 
the horizon, and descending into the equatorial ocean which 
engirdles the earth. 

" Sometimes Mount Meru is represented as planted so 
firmly and deeply in the globe that the antarctic or infernal 
mountain is only a projection of its lower end. Thus the 
Surya Siddhanta says : f A collection of manifold jewels, a 
mountain of gold, is Meru, passing through the middle of 
the earth-globe (bhugola), and protruding on either side. 
At its upper end are stationed along with Indra the gods and 
the great sages (maJiarishis) ; at its lower end, in like 
manner, the demons have their abode each (class) the enemy 
of the other. Surrounding it on every side is fixed, next, 
this great ocean, like a girdle about the earth, separating the 
two hemispheres of the gods and of the demons." 19 

The four mighty rivers above referred to as flowing down- 
wards towards the four opposite points of the horizon were 
four snakes. At an early date in the mythology of the 
Hindus the great snakes and the little snakes are said to have 
taken sides. Divine snakes grouped with other celestial 
powers disputed for victory over earthly combatants. This is 
a record of the fact that as time wore on the cult which 
owed its origin to the original sky-scenes was becoming con- 
taminated. The scenes that gave birth to the myths had 
passed away and the people were prone to forget. In a 
footnote on these times Hopkins says: 

" The snakes belong to Yaruna and his region, as de- 
scribed in v. 98. It is on the head of the earth-upholding 
snake Cesha that Vishnu muses, iii, 203, 12. The reverence 

""Paradise Found," pp. 129-130. 



HINDU MYTHS 189 

paid to serpents begins to be ritual in the Atharva Veda. 
Even in the Kig Veda there is the deification of the cloud- 
snake. In later times they answered to the Nymphs, being 
tutelary guardians of streams and rivers (Buhler). In i, 36, 
Cesha Ananta supports earth, and it is told why he does 



so. 



99 20 



Vishnu means " knowledge." Avatar means " Descent 
from somewheres to this earth." The gods descended when 
the canopy fell and brought knowledge to men. 

The duration of the time of the gods' own lives and of 
the divine heavens, unlike the Greeks' notion of the four ages 
which include all time, in India embraces only a fraction of 
time. 

" Starting at any one point of eternity, there is, accord- 
ing to the Hindu belief," says Hopkins, " a preliminary 
' dawn ' of a new cycle of ages. This dawn lasts four hun- 
dred years, and is then followed by the real age (the first of ' 
four), which last four thousand years, and has again a twi- 
light ending of four hundred years in addition. This first 
is the Krita age, corresponding to the classical Golden Age. 
Its characteristics are that in it everything is perfect ; right 
eternal now exists in full power." 21 

These ages are a long-drawn-out affair. "No doubt the 
epoch-making events of canopy decline through which primi- 
tive man passed moulded his thoughts in this direction and 
gave birth to the idea of dividing time up into ages. In 
Hindu expression, this cycle of the ages always repeats itself 
anew. 

The four horses of Eevelations (ch. vi) are another in- 
stance of the fourfold division of early time. In all parts 
of the world the same divisions seem to have been observed, 
and the inference is that there actually was something in 
canopy time which caused these ages to be noted. 

20 "The Religions of India," chap, xiv, p. 376. 
81 "Religions of India," ch. xv, p. 419. 



190 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

" The ' Popul Vuh,' the national book of the Quiches, 
tells us of four ages of the world. The man of the first age 
was made of clay ; he was i strengthless, inept, watery ; he 
could not move his head, his face looked but one way; his 
sight was restricted, he could not look behind him ' (that is, 
he had no knowledge of the past) ; ' he had been endowed 
with language, but he had no intelligence, so he was con- 
sumed in the water.' 

" Then followed a higher race of men ; they filled the 
world with their progeny ; they had intelligence but no moral 
sense; ' they forgot the Heart of Heaven.' They were de- 
stroyed by fire and pitch from heaven, accompanied by tre- 
mendous earthquakes, from which only a few escaped. 

" Then followed a period when all was dark, save the 
white light as yet of the primeval world. 

" Once more are the gods in council, in the darkness, in 
the night of a desolated universe. 

" Then the people prayed to God for light, evidently for 
the return of the sun. 

"'Hail! O Creator!' they cried. 'O Former! Thou 
that hearest and understandest us ! abandon us not ! forsake 
us not ! O God, thou art in heaven and on earth ; O Heart of 
Heaven ! O Heart of Earth ! give us descendants, and a pos- 
terity as long as the light endure.' 

" It was thus they spake, living tranquilly, invoking the 
return of the light ; waiting the rising of the sun ; watching 
the star of the morning, precursor of the sun. But no sun 
came, and the four men and their descendants grew uneasy. 
* We have no person to watch over us,' they said ; ' nothing 
to guard our symbols ! ' Then they adopted gods of their 
own, and waited. They kindled fires, for the climate was 
colder; then there fell great rains and hail-storms, and put 
out their fires. Several times they made fires, and several 
times the rains and storms extinguished them. Many other 
trials also they underwent in Tulan, famines and such things, 



HINDU MYTHS 191 

and a general dampness and cold for the earth was moist, 
there being no sun. * * * 

"Many generations seem to have grown up and perished 
under the sunless skies, ' waiting for the return of the light ' ; 
for the ' Popul Vuh ' tells us that l here also the language 
of all the families was confused, so that no one of the first 
.four men could any longer understand the speech of the 
others.' * * * 

" This shows that many, many years it may he cen- 
turies must have elapsed before that vast volume of mois- 
ture, carried up by evaporation, was able to fall back in 
snow and rain to the land and sea, and allow the sun to 
shine through ' the blanket of the dark/ Starvation encoun- 
tered the scattered fragments of mankind. 

" And in these same Quiche legends of Central America 
we are told : ' The persons of the godhead were enveloped 
in the darkness which enshrouded a desolated world/ " 22 

" The Aztecs," says Prescott, " felt the curiosity, common 
to man in almost every stage of civilization, to lift the veil 
which covers the mysterious past and the more awful future. 
They sought relief, like the nations of the Old Continent, 
from the oppressive idea of eternity, by breaking it up into 
distinct cycles, or periods of time, each of several thousand 
years' duration. There were four of these cycles, and at 
the end of each, by the agency of one of the elements, the 
human family was swept from the earth, and the sun blotted 
out from the heavens, to be again rekindled." 23 

Quetzalcoatl was the god of the air, the good canopy. 
" Under him," says Prescott, " the earth teemed with fruits 
and flowers, without the pains of culture. An ear of Indian 
corn was as much as a single man could carry. The cotton, 
as it grew, took, of its own accord, the rich dyes of human 

22 Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. iii, p. 46, as quoted by Donnelly 
in " Ragnarok," pp. 216-218. 

23 "History of the Conquest of Mexico," vol. i, ch. iii, p. 64. 



192 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

art. The air was filled with intoxicating perfumes and the 
sweet melody of birds. In short, these were the halcyon days, 
which find a place in the mythic systems of so many nations 
in the Old World. It was the golden ag& of Anahuac." 24 

" The reader has already been made acquainted with the 
Aztec system of four great cycles," says the famous historian, 
" at the end of each of which the world was destroyed, to be . 
again regenerated. The belief in these periodical convulsions 
of nature, through the agency of some one or other of the ele- 
ments, was familiar to many countries in the Eastern hemi- 
sphere; and, though varying in detail, the general resem- 
blance of outline furnishes an argument in favor of a common 
origin. 

" No tradition has been more widely spread among 
nations than that of a Deluge. Independently of tradition, 
indeed, it would seem to be naturally suggested by the inte- 
rior structure of the earth, and by the elevated places on 
which marine substances are found to be deposited. It was 
the received notion, under some form or other, of the most 
civilized people in the Old World, and of the barbarians of 
the New. The Aztecs combined with this some particular 
circumstances of a more arbitrary character, resembling the 
accounts of the East. They believed that two persons sur- 
vived the Deluge a man, named Coxcox, and his wife. 
Their heads are represented in ancient paintings, together 
with a boat floating on the waters, at the foot of a mountain. 
A dove is also depicted, with the hieroglyphical emblem of 
languages in his mouth, which he is distributing to the chil- 
dren of Coxcox, who were born dumb. The neighboring 
people of Michoacan, inhabiting the same high plains of 
the Andes, had a still further tradition, that the boat in 
which Tezpi, their Noah, escaped, was filled with various 
kinds of animals and birds. After some time, a vulture was 
sent out from it, but remained feeding on the dead bodies of 
"Ibid., p. 61. 



HINDU MYTHS 193 

the giants, which had been left on the earth, as the waters 
subsided. The little humming-bird, huitzitzilin, was then 
sent forth, and returned with a twig in its mouth. The coin- 
cidence of both these accounts with the Hebrew and Chaldean 
narratives is obvious. It were to be wished that the authority 
for the Michoacan version were more satisfactory." 25 

This account of the Deluge, though evidently grafted 
from the Old World, brings us back to our Hindu legends. 
Manu was the Hindu Noah. The human race, according 
to this legend, was preserved through a compact which was 
made between him and the god, Vishnu, who was incarnate 
in many strange forms and things, each one of which was 
an avatar. The account of the famous flood avatar is as 
follows : 

" In the morning they brought water to Manu to wash 
with, even as they bring it to-day to wash hands with. While 
he was washing a fish came into his hands. The fish said, 
' Keep me, and I will save thee.' f What wilt thou save me 
from ? ' ' A flood will sweep away all creatures on earth. 
I will save thee from that/ ' How am I to keep thee ? ' 
' As long as we are small/ said he (the fish), e we are sub- 
ject to much destruction ; fish eats fish. Thou shalt keep me 
first in a jar. When I outgrow that, thou shalt dig a hole, 
and keep me in it. When I outgrow that, thou shalt take 
me down to the sea, for there I shall be beyond destruction.' 

" It soon became a (great horned fish called a) jhasha, 
for this grows the largest, and then it said : ' The flood will 
come this summer (or in such a year). Look out for (or 
worship) me, and build a ship. When the flood rises, enter 
into the ship, and I will save thee.' After he had kept it he 
took it down to the sea. And the same summer (year) as the 
fish had told him he looked out for (or worshiped) the fish ; 
and built a ship. And when the flood rose he entered into 
the ship. Then up swam the fish, and Manu tied the ship's 

*Ilnd.f vol. iii, appendix, part i, pp. 362-364. 
13 



194 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

rope to the horn of the fish; and thus he sailed swiftly up 
toward the mountain of the north. ' I have saved thee,' said 
he (the fish). ' Fasten the ship to a tree. But let not the 
water leave thee stranded while thou art on the mountain 
(top). Descend slowly as the water goes down.' So he 
descended slowly, and that descent of the mountain of the 
north is called the ( Descent of Manu.' The flood then swept 
off all the creatures of the earth, and Manu here remained 
alone." 26 

This avatar speaks plainly of the descent of both gods and 
water to this earth. Vishnu is said to have lain on a bed of 
snakes, so the unknown source, the somewheres of the myth, 
is clearly the vapor-belt on high. First Yishnu took the form 
of a fish. In a later avatar he became a strong tortoise, 
upholding the sky-rim-disk. 

Another avatar is thus described by Maurice : " By the 
power of God there issued from the essence of Brahma a 
being shaped like a boar, white and exceeding small; this 
being, in the space of an hour, grew to the size of an elephant 
of the largest size, and remained in the air. 

" Brahma was astonished on beholding this figure, and 
discovered, by the force of internal penetration, that it could 
be nothing but the power of the Omnipotent which had 
assumed a body and become visible. He now felt that God 
is all in all, and all is from him, and all in him; and said 
to Mareechee and his sons (the attendant genii) : ' A won- 
derful animal has emanated from my essence ; at first of the 
smallest size, it has in one hour increased to this enormous 
bulk, and, without doubt, it is a portion of the almighty 
power.' 

" They were engaged in this conversation when that 
vara, or ( boar-form/ suddenly uttered a sound like the loud- 
est thunder, and the echo reverberated and shook all the 
quarters of the universe. 

26 Hopkins, "The Religions of India," ch. ix, pp. 214-215. 



HINDU MYTHS 195 

" But still, under this dreadful awe of heaven, a certain 
wonderful divine confidence secretly animated the hearts of 
Brahma, Mareechee, and the other genii, who immediately 
began praises and thanksgiving. That vara (boar-form) 
figure, hearing the power of the Yedas and Mantras from 
their mouths, again made a loud noise, and became a dread- 
ful spectacle. Shaking the full flowing mane which hung 
down his neck on both sides, and erecting the humid hairs 
of his body, he proudly displayed his two most exceedingly 
white tusks ; then, rolling about his wine-colored (red) eyes 
and erecting his tail, he descended from the region of the 
air, and plunged headforemost into the water. The whole 
body of water was convulsed by the motion, and began to rise 
in waves, while the guardian spirit of the sea, being terrified, 
began to tremble for his domain and cry for mercy." 27 

The avatars that follow are nothing but husks built up 
to sustain the priestly cult. But we must not omit mention- 
ing Vasuka, the King of Serpents, who was made into a rope 
to twirl the churn of heaven. It is said that he churned the 
foaming waters of the sea until the milky waves arose, lashed 
to whiteness, and in the midst of these mighty convulsions he 
caused the storm to bring the things of beauty out from the 
heaving bosom of the deep to their birth. 

27 "Ancient History of Hindustan," vol. i, p. 304. 



CHAPTER XV 

BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN MYTHS 

THE fourth avatar of Vishnu, as we have just seen in 
our last chapter, was that of the great mountain, " Mandara 
the lofty," which acted as a churning stick to stir the foam- 
ing waters of the vapor-belt, the King snake being used as 
a rope to twirl the stick around. Now, the cloud-mountain 
always was the home of the gods. The Greeks had their 
Olympia, the North American Indians had their sky-moun- 
tain, and the Mohammedan mythology records the fact that 
Mount Caf, which encircled the earth, was the home of 
giants. It was said to rest upon the sacred emerald-colored 
stone, sakhral, whose reflected light was the cause of the tints 
of the sky. The Scandinavian myths also mention the moun- 
tain giants, and the Egyptians had their pyramids. That 
the Babylonian gods lived above or on top of the world- 
mountain therefore seems quite natural. " The mountain of 
the world is also called ' the mountain of the nether world ' 
(shad Aralu) in the cuneiform inscriptions." The gods, 
Ea, Sin, Shamash, Nebo, Adad, Ninib, and their sublime 
consorts, were all born in a house situated on top of this 
mountain. 1 

In some form or other, nearly all the peoples of antiquity 
have left a record of this sky-mountain phenomena, but per- 
haps the Babylonians and Assyrians have excelled them all. 
Their zikkurats, or staged towers, were imitations of this 
mountain, 2 and they were the temples of their gods. " The 

1 " Explorations in Bible Lands During the Nineteenth Century," 
pp. 464-465. 

2 "To produce the mountain effect, a mound of earth was piled up, 
and on this mound a terrace was formed that served as the foundation 
plane for the temple proper, but it was perfectly natural also that 
196 



BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN MYTHS 197 

temple in so far as it was erected to serve as a habitation for 
the god/' says Jastrow, " was to be the reproduction of the 
cosmic E-Kur ' a mountain house ' on a small scale, a 
miniature Kharsag-kurkura." * * * "In Assyria we 
find one of the oldest temples bearing the name E-kharsag- 
kurkura, that stamps the edifice as the reproduction of the 
' mountain of all lands.' " 3 

Some of the mountain titles of these deities and their 
temples were as follows : The name ( zikkurat' itself means 
' mountain peak.' Bel's temple at Mppur was ' E-Kur,' 
the mountain house of Bel. Belit, his consort, was called 
' Nin-Khar-Sag,' or the ' lady of the great high mountain.' 
Bel was often addressed as if he himself were the mountain : 
( the great mountain,' ' the lofty Bel,' ' the mighty Bel.' 
Originally he was the mountain mass in the sky. His deifi- 
cation did not rob him of his name. 

In Ur was ' the house of the great mountain,' ' the glo- 
rious mountain house,' ' the lofty house,' ' the heavenly 
house,' 'the link of heaven and earth,' ' the summit house.' 

In Asshur there was ' the house of all the lands ' or ' the 
house of mountains,' ' the house of the mountain of countries.' 

At Babylon ' the great house ' was an abode of the same 
nature. Here the mountain-god was called Marduk, from 
Maru ('the sun') Duk (u) ('the glorious chamber') 4 : the 
glorious chamber of the hidden sun. The gods lived in 
chambers. Jastrow says: 

" As the zikkurat represented the mountain on which the 
gods were born and where they were once supposed to dwell, 
so the sacred room was regarded as the reproduction of a 

instead of making the edifice consist of one story, a second was super- 
imposed on the first, so as to heighten the resemblance to a mountain. 
The outcome of this ideal was the so-called staged tower, known as 
the zikkurat. The name signifies simply a ' high ' edifice, and embodies 
the same idea that led the Canaanites and Hebrews to call their tem- 
ples ' high places/ Jastrow, " Religion of Babylonia and Assyria," ch. 
xxvi, p. 615. *IUd., pp. 614, 615. *IUd., ch. viii, p. 116. 



198 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

portion of the great mountain where the gods assembled in 
solemn council. This council chamber was situated at the 
eastern end of the great mountain, and was known as 
Du-azagga, that is, ' brilliant chamber.' The chamber itself 
constituted the innermost recess of the eastern limit of the 
mountain, and the special part of the mountain in which it 
lay was known as Ubshu-kenna, written with the ideographic 
equivalents to ' assembly room.' " 5 

Bel of Nippur became associated with Marduk of Baby- 
lon. The union of the governments of the two cities blended 
the one god into the other until finally they became united as 
one deity. Both were solar characters. Probably they rep- 
resented the same aspect of abstract nature, and since their 
affinities were the same their union was the logical result 
when the peoples of the two cities came to realize that they 
were worshiping the same nature-being. In both places they 
were worshiping the same god-like mountain. 6 

The union of Bel-Mar duk is only one instance of an 
innumerable host of similar occurrences. Take the leviathan 
which we read about in Job. He is the crooked serpent 
(Job xxvi: 13; Ps. xxxiii: 6-7; Isa. xxvii: 1). The swift 
Acvin or northern canopy of the Hindus, etc., etc. And yet 
how quickly he becomes associated with our present scene. 
It is written of him : " He beholdeth all high things ; he is 
a king over all the children of pride." Chaldaic: "of all 
the sons of the mountains " (Job xli: 34) 



6 Ibid., ch. xxvi, p. 629. 

6 Marduk was the bright glowing, shining canopy-mountain. He 
was not the sun itself; only the shiner which was lit by reflection, even 
at night. Those who believe that his temple, E-Sagili, was a sun- 
temple will have some difficulty to explain the night prayers that 
formed a part of his worship. Sayce (Hibbert Lectures, p. 101) says: 
" Two hours after nightfall the priest must come and take of the waters 
of the river; must enter into the presence of Bil, and, putting on a 
stole in the presence of Bil, must say this prayer, etc." 



BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN MYTHS 199 

Ishtar was originally a good canopy. Personified, she 
was known as * the mother/ for the reason that she seemed 
to give birth to all, the sky phenomena. 7 She was also known 
as the ' brilliant goddess/ and as ' the mistress of the moun- 
tains.' Afterwards she became violent, and the verdant earth 
under her greenhouse roof trembled. Thus she lost her good 
character, and the Assyrians, seeing her transformation, 
henceforth considered her the goddess of battle and war. 
Her character is like that of the good cherub of Ezekiel 
(chap, xxviii), who afterwards became a menace and terror. 
Of this canopy it is written that he was set like Ishtar on the 
holy mountain. The passage reads as follows : 

" Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth ; and I 
have set thee so : thou wast upon the holy mountain of God ; 
thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones 
of fire. 

" Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou 
wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. 

" By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled 
the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned : there- 
fore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God : 
and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of 
the stones of fire " (vs. 1416). 

In the cosmology of the Chaldeans the mountain of the 
canopy is very prominent. They imagined that the earth 
was shaped like an inverted round boat or bowl. A. H. Sayce 
is authority for the following: 

" Heaven itself had not always been e the land of the 
silver sky ' of later Assyrian belief. The Babylonians once 
believed that the gods inhabited the snow-clad peak of 
Eowandiz, 'the mountain of the world ' and ' the mountain 
of the East/ as it was also termed, which supported the 

7 "The mother" was a common appellation given to the canopy 
in all ancient systems of religion. 



200 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

starry vault of heaven. It is to this old Babylonian belief 
that allusion is made in Isaiah xiv: 13, 14, where the Baby- 
lonian monarch is represented as saying, in his heart: 'I 
will ascend into heaven, I will sit also on the mount of the 
assembly (of the gods) in the extremities of the north: I 
will ascend above the heights of the clouds.' " 8 

" Above the convex surface of the earth," Eagozin says, 
"spread the sky (ana), itself divided into two regions: the 
highest heaven or firmament, which, with the fixed stars 
immovably attached to it, revolved, as round an axis or pivot, 
around an immensely high mountain, which joined it to the 
earth as a pillar. * * * 

" Between the lower heaven and the surface of the earth 
is the atmospheric region, the realm of Im or Mermer, the 
Wind, where he drives the clouds, rouses the storms, and 
whence he pours down the rain, which is stored in the great 
reservoir of Ana, in the heavenly Ocean. As to the earthly 
Ocean, it is fancied as a broad river, or watery rim, flowing 
all round the edge of the imaginary inverted bowl; in its 
waters dwells Ea (whose name means ' the House of 
Waters '), the great Spirit of the Earth and Waters (Ziki-a), 
either in the form of a fish, whence he is frequently called 
' Ea the fish/ or f the Exalted Fish,' or on a magnificent 
ship, with which he travels round the earth, guarding and 
protecting it." 9 

The people of those early days naturally speculated on 
the question as to what held the hollow hemisphere of the 
stretched-out heaven in place. It appeared to them as a 
solid dome or covering. The Assyriologist of the British 
Museum, L. W. King, gives us some account of their ideas 
on this subject. He tells us that they thought that " both 
earth and heaven rested upon a great body of water called 
Apsu, i.e., the Deep." Again, some say: 

8 "By-Paths of Bible Knowledge," vii; "Assyria," ch. iii, p. 77. 
9 "The Story of Chaldea," pp. 153, 154. 



BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN MYTHS 201 

" It is not quite certain how the solid dome of heaven 
was supported; that is to say, it is not clear whether it was 
supported by the earth or was held up, independently of the 
earth, by the waters. According to one view, the edge of the 
earth was turned up and formed around it a solid wall, like 
a steep range of hills, upon which the dome of heaven rested ; 
and in the hollow between the mountain of the earth and 
this outer wall of hills the sea collected in the form of a 
narrow stream. 10 This conception coincides with some of 
the phases in the Legend of Etana, but against it may be 
urged the fact that the sea is frequently identified with 
Apsu, or the primeval Deep upon which the earth rested. 
But if the edges of the earth supported the dome of heaven, 
all communication between the sea and Apsu would be cut 
off. It is more probable, therefore, that the earth did not 
support the heavens, and that the foundations of the heavens, 
like those of the earth, rested on Apsu." This confusion 



10 The original stream of the Eden World is here portrayed. It is 
written: "A river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from 
thence it was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the 
first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, 
where there is gold ; and the gold of that land is good : there is bdellium 
and the onyx stone. And the name of the second river is Gihon: the 
same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. And the name 
of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east 
of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates." (Gen. ii: 10-14.) 
William F. Warren says: 

"Finally, pursuing these curious investigations further, our plain 
reader finds mention in Pausanias, ii, 5, of a strange belief of the 
ancients, according to which the Euphrates, after disappearing in a 
marsh and flowing a long distance underground, rises again beyond 
Ethiopia, and flows through Egypt as the Nile. This reminds him of 
the language of Josephus, according to which the Ganges, the Tigris, 
the Euphrates, and the Nile are all but parts of 'one river which ran 
round about the whole earth' the Okeanos-river of the Greeks. And 
he wonders whether the old Shemitic term from which the modern 
Euphrates is derived was not originally a name of that Ocean-river 
which Aristotle describes as rising in the upper heavens, descending 
in rain upon the earth, feeding, as Homer tells us, all fountains and 



202 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

arises from the fact that the Chaldeans themselves did not 
understand the workings of the laws which upheld the dome. 
They therefore felt certain that it must rest on some founda- 
tion, for they saw 'it descending, as it were, both on the 
right hand and on the left, both to the East and to the West. 

Our author describes the origin of the dome as follows: 
" According to a version of the creation story, the god Bel 
or Marduk formed the heavens and the earth out of the body 
of a great female monster that dwelt in the Deep which he 
had slain. Splitting her body into two halves, he fashioned 
from one half the dome of heaven, and from the other the 
earth." " 

Above the dome of heaven, according to the ancient belief, 
was another mass of water, supported by the lower dome 
which kept it from breaking through and drowning the earth. 
The interpretation of this is that the dome of heaven was a 
canopy in its last stages, hence so thin that the sun, moon, 



rivers and every sea, flowing through all these water-courses down 
into the great and 'broad' equatorial ocean-current which girdles the 
world in its embrace, thence branching out from the further shore into 
the rivers of the Underworld, to be at last fire-purged and sublimated, 
and returned in purity to the upper heavens to recommence its round. 
And just as he is wondering over the question, he finds that some of 
the Assyriologists, in their investigation of pre-Babylonian Akkadian 
mythology, have found reason to believe this surmise correct, and to 
say that in that mythology the term Euphrates was applied to * the 
rope of the world,' 'the encircling river of the snake god of the tree 
of life,' ' the heavenly river which surrounds the earth.' Furthermore, 
as he turns back to the pages of Hyginus, and Manilius, and Lucius 
Ampelius, and reads of the fall of the ' world-egg ' at the beginning 
' into the river Euphrates,' he perceives that he is in a mythologic, and 
not a historic, region. And when he lights upon a mutilated fragment 
of an ancient Assyrian inscription, in which descriptions of the visible 
and invisible 1 world are mixed up together, and in which the river 'of 
the life of the world ' is designated by the name ' Euphrates,' he 
quickly concludes that it will not do to take the term Phrath, or 
Eu-frata, as always and everywhere referring to the historic river of 
Mesopotamia." ("Paradise Found," pp. 30, 31.) 

""Babylonian Religion and Mythology," vol. iv, pp. 28, 30, 31. 



BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN MYTHS 203 

and stars were seen as gods drifting through its substance 
in halos or boats. Herodotus says, the boats of the Baby- 
lonians and Assyrians were circular, like a shield, and no 
distinction was made between the head and the stern. 12 In 
this way the mythological idea of the gods journeying in boats 
had its beginning. From the parent conception it was only 
a step to introduce the boat-procession into the various 
priestly cults as practised in Egypt and elsewhere. 13 There 
is splendid poetry in the following hymn : " O Sun ! thou 
hast stepped forth from the background of heaven, thou hast 
pushed back the bolts of the brilliant heaven, yea, the gate 
of heaven. O Sun ! above the land thou hast raised thy head ! 
O Sun ! thou hast covered the immeasurable space of heaven 
and countries ! " 14 

But besides seeing the daily procession of the gods, headed 
by the Sun, stepping out from behind the Mountain of the 
Sunrise and drifting in his boat towards the Mountain of 
the Sunset, these Babylonians also saw the true canopy soar- 
ing above the vapor dome. This they naturally supposed was 
supported by the lower cloud belt or mountain. 

12 Bk. i, ch. 194. 

13 "A sacred object in the construction of which much care was 
taken was the ship in which the deity was carried in solemn procession. 
It is again in the inscriptions of Gudea that we come across the first 
mention of this ship. This ruler tells us that he built the 'beloved 
ship ' for Nin-girsu, and gave it the name Kar-mma-ta-uddua, the ship 
of ' the one that rises up out of the dam of the deep.' The ship of 
Nabu is of considerable size, and is fitted out with a captain and crew, 
has masts and compartments. The ship resembled a moon's crescent, 
not differing much, therefore, from the ordinary fiat-bottomed Baby- 
lonian boat with upturned edges. Through Nebuchadnezzar we learn 
that these ships were brilliantly studded with precious stones, their 
compartments handsomely fitted out, and that in them the gods were 
carried in solemn procession on the festivals celebrated in their honor. 
A long list of such ships shows that it was a symbol that belonged to 
all the great gods. The ships of Nin-lil, Ea, Marduk, Sin, Shamash, 
Nabu, Ninib, Bau, Nin-gal, and of others are especially mentioned." 
Jastrow, " Religion of Babylonia and Assyria," ch. xxvi, pp. 653-655. 

14 Ragozin, "Story of Chaldea," ch. iii, p. 172. 



204 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

Ornoroka was the name of the woman which Bel cleft in 
twain, from one half of which he made the dome of heaven, 
and from the other half the earth. In Chaldee her name is 
Thamte, i.e.., tamtu, the Babylonian for i sea ' or ' ocean/ 
which in the Greek is Thalassa. 15 This Tiamat or sea, 
according to the myth, took the form of a huge serpent, she 
and Apsu, her consort, revolted against the gods, that is 
against the sun, moon, and stars, by creating a brood of 
monsters which destroyed them. In other words, the serpent- 
belt became a sun-obscuring, star-devouring pall, a spreading 
canopy. 

According to the beautiful Babylonian poem, the creation- 
epic, written upon seven tablets, this scene is depicted as fol- 
lows : " At the very beginning of all things, a dark, chaotic, 
primeval water, called Tiamat, existed in a state of agitation 
and tumult. But as soon as the gods made preparations for 
the formation of an ordered universe, Tiamat, generally 
represented as a dragon, but also as a seven-headed serpent, 
arose in bitter enmity, gave birth to monsters filled with 
venom and with these as her allies, prepared, roaring and 
snorting, to do battle with the gods. All the gods tremble 
with fear when they perceive their terrible adversary; only 
the god Marduk, the god of light, * * * volunteered to 
do battle. * * * A splendid scene follows. The god 
Marduk fastens a mighty net to the east and south, north and 
west, in order that nothing of Tiamat may escape; then, 
clad in the gleaming armor, and in majestic splendor, he 
mounts his chariot drawn by four fiery steeds (a reference 
to the four halos or mock suns which accompanied the true 
sun on his diurnal journey over the canopy), the gods around 
gazing with admiration. Straight he drives to meet the 
dragon and her army. * * * Then her ground quaked 



15 The Hebrew and Babylonian cosmogonies both present to us in 
the beginning a watery chaos. The Hebrew word tehom, translated 
'the deep' (Gen. i:2), corresponds with the Babylonian Tiamat. 



BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN MYTHS 205 

asunder from the bottom. She opened her jaws to their 
utmost, but before she could close her lips the god Marduk 
bade the evil wind enter within her. * * * Then 
Marduk clave Tiamat clean asunder like a fish; out of the 
one half he formed heaven, out of the other, earth, at the 
same time dividing the upper waters from the lower by means 
of the firmament. He decked the heavens with moon, sun, 
and stars (which implies that they were not seen before), 
the earth with plants and animals." 16 

She created a brood of uncouth beings, the same as we 
find in the giant myths of the Greeks and Scandinavians. 
The Babylonian version reads: 

They have joined their forces and are making war, 

Ummu-Khubur (i.e., Tiamat), who formed all things, 

Has made in addition weapons invincible, she has spawned monster- 
serpents, 

Sharp of tooth and cruel of fang; 

With poison instead of blood she has filled their bodies. 

Fierce monster-vipers she has clothed with terror, 

With splendor she has decked them, and she has caused them to 
mount on high. 

Whoever beholds them is overcome by dread. 

Their bodies rear up and none can withstand their attack. 

She has set up the viper, and the dragon, and the monster Lakkamu." 

Attention is called to the second line quoted; there, it 
will be noted, Tiamat is said to have created all things, hence 
this revolt against the gods was against her own offspring, 
which fact is sustained by various other Babylonian texts 
as well as by the myths of other lands. The interpretation 
is clear. When the first canopy known by tradition to the 
Babylonians became thin it gave birth to the gods ; in other 
words, the sun, moon, and stars were seen through it. Then, 
as time went on, Marduk, i.e., Bel, the solar deity, split up 



16 Translated by C. H. W. Johns, " Babel and the Bible," pp. 47-49. 

"From the Tablets of the Creation epic; see Jastrow, "Religion of 
Babylon and Assyria," ch. xxi, p. 409 ff., and L. W. King, "Babylon 
Religion and Mythology," vol. iv, p. 63 ff. 



206 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

another canopy which had formed and which was called the 
body of his mother. Out of half of her body he formed the 
dome of heaven and the waters which were seen above it, 
and out of the other half he formed the earth. Tiamat then 
created other serpents from the sky-water or canopy above 
the firmament, a fearful brood of sun-obscuring, star-devour- 
ing, venomous serpents, annular forms, and lowering 
canopies. 

The majority of scholars say that Marduk divided Tiamat 
in half and from one half formed the earth. From the stand- 
point of the present hypothesis, this is in perfect harmony 
with the appearance of things, for to all intents and pur- 
poses, when the sun, Marduk, conquered the water-sky, half 
of it did seem to be cast upon the earth. Certain other 
scholars, however, say that the word, E-shara, translated 
earth, is incorrectly interpreted, and if this be true our 
hypothesis gains even more prestige, for the word they would 
substitute for earth means ' heaven.' L. W. King would have 
us " consider E-shara to be a name for heaven, or for a part of 
it," and he further adds in support of this assertion that 
" the last two lines of the Fourth Tablet of the poem certainly 
favor this view. The most natural meaning of the passage 
is that Marduk made the mansion of E-shara to be heaven, 
which he then divided between the three gods Anu, Bel, 
and Ea." 

That we may have a better understanding of the argu- 
ment we quote from the last twelve lines of the Fourth Tablet 
of the Creation Epic. It reads thus : 

Then the lord rested, and gazed on her dead body. 

He divided the flesh of the body, having devised a cunning plan. 

He split her up like a flat fish into two halves. 

One half of her he set in place as a covering for the heavens. 

He fixed a bolt, he stationed watchmen, 

And bade them not to let her waters come forth. 

He passed through the heavens, he surveyed the regions (thereof), 

Over against the Deep he set the dwelling of Nudimmud. 



BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN MYTHS 207 

And the lord measured the structure of the Deep, 

And he founded E-shara, a mansion like unto it. 

The mansion E-shara, which he created as heaven, 

He caused Ami, Bel, and Ea in their districts to inhabit." M 

Our interpretation is that Marduk, i.e., Bel, conquered 
Tiamat, the serpent-belt or ring; that is, she was not a 
canopy in its last stages, but she was a serpent. Now, a 
serpent had to progress through the various stages of decline 
before it could be dissipated. Marduk divided the serpent- 
ring into two parts, the one resting towards the north and 
the other towards the south. This divided the heavens into 
three sections, one for each of the three gods, Bel giving to 
Anu the middle alley in the equatorial sky, where he had 
split the serpent in twain, and where of course the clear-sky 
could be seen. Anu was the god of the clear open sky. 
Naturally, in time the two halves, drifting towards the north 
and towards the south, became canopies. Bel dwelt in the 
northernmost one himself, and through it he could be seen 
crossing daily in his halo-boat. Hence we read that he caused 
these gods " their districts to inhabit." 

It is an interesting probability that these tablets were 
not a new composition when written. They were found in 
Ashur-bani-pal's library and date from the seventh century 
before Christ. But this does not indicate their age, for 
Ashur-bani-pal was very fond of literature, and he collected 
his material from all over the country ; therefore it is almost 
certain that these tablets were copied from older sources. 

Another tablet, found in the same library, gives quite a 
variation in the portrayal of the combat. Were the legend 
a brand-new literary effort of the seventh century B. C. we 
should not expect to find such variations in the same library. 
It takes time to produce variant forms, especially when the 
matter is set forth in writing. All this goes to show that 
this mythological evidence may date from a very remote 

""Babylonian Religion and Mythology," pp. 77, 78. 



208 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

period. It is well to keep this fact ever in mind, for as we 
go on to consider the evidence from other and newer lands, 
we must remember that the people themselves never saw their 
own gods. Greece, for instance, retained, and in a measure 
beautified, the legends, but that is all they were to her. The 
natural phenomena had slipped so far away in the remote 
past that all that was left was legend. 

This literary mist which has grown up and spread over 
and beautified the stern reality of nature is the soul of poetry. 
The Lord asks Job: 

" Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the 
earth? tell it, if thou hast any understanding (of it). 

" Who fixed her measurements, if thou knowest it or who 
stretched the measuring-line over her ? 

" Upon what are her foundation-pillars placed at rest ? 
or who laid her corner-stone? 

" When altogether sang the morning stars in gladness, 
and shouted for joy all the sons of God ? " 19 

But in considering the question of time we are likely also 
to err in the other direction; we are likely to assign these 
myths to a dust-mirky age entirely too far back. Knowledge 
of celestial phenomena on the part of the ancients does not 
always mean that the belted canopy phenomena had entirely 
disappeared. For instance, there can be no question but 
that the Babylonians were great astronomers. On a tablet 
found in the Temple Library, Nippur, astronomical calcula- 
tions of the most minute character as to the constellation 
Scorpion show how proficient were the astronomers of 
2300 B. C. But such evidence must not be understood to 
indicate that the annular system was a thing of the past in 
that age. It only indicates that the heavens were clear from 
canopies, and that the rings, if such were then in the sky, 
were probably seen edgewise, and so took up little space in 



Isaac Lesser s Version, Job xxxviii:4-7. 



BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN MYTHS 209 

the equatorial heavens, being altogether an unconspicuous 
feature. 20 

Professor H. V. Hilprecht's discoveries show amongst 
other things that these Babylonians were aware that the earth 
was round. They had the rings to guide them to the dis- 
covery of this truth, and the fact that the peoples which lived 
after them lost this knowledge shows us that the rings which 
acted as interpreters of nature must have passed into the 
canopy stage or have been dissipated altogether. With their 
disappearance the gods are said to have fled to the celestial 
heavens, where they ultimately became identified with the 
planets. Marduk is thus associated with Jupiter, Ishtar 
with Venus, RTergal with Mars, Nabu with Mercury, and 
Mnib with Saturn. 21 The very act of thus connecting them 

20 The record of eclipses forms a very considerable portion of the 
astronomical data of the ancients. " Among the Chinese they were 
long calculated, and, in fact, it is thought by some that they have 
pretended to a greater antiquity by calculating backwards, and record- 
ing as observed eclipses those which happened before they understood 
or noticed them. It seems, however, authenticated that they did in 
the year 2169 B.C. observe an eclipse of the sun, and that at that date 
they were in the habit of predicting them. For this particular eclipse 
is said to have cost several of the astronomers their lives, as they had 
not calculated it rightly. As the lives of princes were supposed to 
be dependent on these eclipses, it became high treason to expose them 
to such a danger without forewarning them. They paid more attention 
to the eclipses of the sun than of the moon. 

"Among the Babylonians the eclipses of the moon were observed 
from a very early date, and numerous records of them are contained in 
the Observations of Bel in Sargon's library, the tablets of which have 
lately been discovered. In the older portion they only record that on 
the 14th day of such and such a (lunar) month an eclipse takes place, 
and state in what watch it begins, and when it ends. In a later 
portion the observations were more precise, and the descriptions of the 
eclipse more accurate. Long before 1700 B.C. the discovery of the lunar 
cycle of 223 lunar months had been made, and by means of it they 
were able to state of each lunar eclipse that it was either ' according to 
calculation ' or ' contrary to calculation/ " Flammarion, " Astronomical 
Myths," ch. xii, pp. 337-338. 

'"Jastrow, "The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria," pp. 370, 371, 
459. 

14 



210 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

with the star-roofed heavens points to the fact that they were 
originally sky-scenes. It would have violated the religious 
feelings of the people too much to restrict them to an earthly 
home, and yet their old cloud-mountain home had passed 
away, so where else in the whole universe could the priests 
say they had gone ? In connection with the old cloud-moun- 
tain, the second month of the Babylonian year was desig- 
nated as the month of the resplendent mound. 22 

The origin of the signs of the zodiac was due to the same 
causes which led the Chaldean mind to assign planets to the 
gods, in which they might make their home after the moun- 
tain canopy had dissolved. " Eleven constellations, that is 
to say, the entire zodiac with the exception of the bull the 
sign of Marduk were identified with the- eleven monsters 
forming the host of Tiamat." 23 The fantastic shape of the 
animals chosen for this purpose bears unmistakable evidence 
of their origin as vapor forms. 

But to return to the earlier days. It was Bel, as we have 
seen, that caused the gods, Anu, Bel, and Ea, their districts 
to inhabit, 

A tablet of the ' Creation Epic,' so far as decipherable, 
reads : 

There was a time when above the heaven was not named. 

Below the earth bore no name. 

Apsu was there from the first the source of both, 

And raging Tiamat, the mother of both. 

But their waters were gathered together in a mass. 

No field was marked off, no soil seen. 

When none of the gods was as yet produced, 

No name mentioned, no fate determined, 

Then were created the gods in their totality. 

Lakhmu and Lakhamu were created. 

Days went by. 24 



22 IUd., p. 464. ^Ibid., p. 456. 

"Delitzsch supplies a parallel phrase which in the light of our 
hypothesis makes the reading clearer. It is : ' periods elapsed/ 



BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN MYTHS 211 

Anshar and Kishar were created. 
Many days elapsed * * * 
Ann (Bel and Ea were created). 
Anshar, Anu (?)*** 25 

The portion of the heavens given to Ea was Apsu, the 
deep. Ea means ' the House of waters/ He was an ' Exalted 
Fish. 7 This is parallel to that avatar of Vishnu where he 
assumed the form of a great fish protecting Manu from the 
flood. (The canopy was a protector, bringing greenhouse 
conditions into the world.) Ea fought against Tiamat, the 
dragon, serpent snake, and with Marduk's and Anu's help 
conquered the dark one. Ea thus figures as the great hero of 
the flood, which parallels the account of the Noachian deluge, 
but as this incident is described in the eleventh tablet of the 
Gilgamesh epic, it will be best to defer its consideration until 
after we have become acquainted with some of the records 
from the first tablets. 

This epic of Gilgamesh is known to many by the name 
of ' Izdubar.' " Gisdhubar," says Sayce, " himself was a 
solar hero." * * * " His twelve labors or adventures 
answer to the twelve months of the year through which the 
sun moves, like the twelve labors of the Greek Herakles." 26 

E"ow, in the sixth tablet, to secure the love of Gilgamesh, 
the solar orb, the exalted Ishtar, the one-time good canopy, 
' brilliant goddess/ and ' mother of the gods,' raises her eyes. 
She offers him her love, her home, her all. She offers him 
the products of the mountain and the land, for she, the 
goddess of fertility, produced wonderful agricultural fruits 
under her protecting roof. She offers him full control of 
her herds and cow-like clouds. She offers him a chariot of 
lapis lazuli and gold, with wheels and horns of sapphire, 
drawn by great steeds the swift horse being an emblem of 
the flying ring or vapor-belt driven by centrifugal force. 

IUd., eh. xxi, p. 410. 

26 "By-Paths of Bible Knowledge," vii. "Assyria," p. 110. 



212 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

Gilgamesh spurns all this and upbraids her for her treatment 
of her youthful loves. 

Tammuz, the consort of thy youth ( ?), 

Thou causest to weep every year. 

The bright-colored allallu bird thou didst love. 

Thou didst crush him and break his pinions. 

In the woods he stands and laments, " my pinions ! " 

Thou didst love a lion of perfect strength; 

Seven and seven times thou didst bury him in corners ( ? ) . 

Thou didst love a horse superior in the fray; 

With whip and spur thou didst urge him on. 

Thou didst force him on for seven double hours. 27 

She could not stand this insult, so, flying to her father, 
Anu, the true sky, he creates for her a divine bull, a storm 
deity; apparently in this case a kind of demon. 28 The seal 
cylinders of Babylon frequently picture the battle that fol- 
lowed between this strong or supreme one and Gilgamesh and 
his friend Eabani. Since Gilgamesh is the sun, he of course 
conquered. The bull was killed and the carcass was thrown 
full into the face of the canopy (Ishtar). 

Briefly this whole scene may be thus interpreted : Ishtar 
with her peace-like clouds was but a canopy in its last stages. 
Unveiled, it then displayed its violent character (Her). Its 
brilliant smiles produced a bitter chill, and Anu, heaven's 
ocean, her own father, was covered with the clouds of rain 
and storm. Gilgamesh, the sun, conquered these. 

See the sun himself! on wings 
Of glory up the east he springs. 
Angel of light! who from the time* 
Those heavens began their march sublime, 
Hath first of all the starry choir 
Trod in His Maker's steps of fire! 

" On many seal cylinders and on the monuments Gil- 
gamesh is pictured in the act of fighting with or strangling 
a lion. In the preserved portions of the epic no reference 



87 "Religion of Babylonia and Assyria," ch. xxiii, p. 482. 
28 Ibid., p. 483. ^Lalla Rookh. 



BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN MYTHS 213 

to this contest has been found." * * * " After escaping 
from the danger occasioned by the lions, Gilgamesh comes to 
the mountain Mashu, which is described as a place of terrors, 
the entrance to which is guarded by ' scorpion-men.' " 

He reached the mountain Mashu, 

Whose exit is daily guarded, 

Whose back extends to the dam of heaven. 80 

It will be recalled that the cloud-belt is pictured by the 
Babylonians as a mountain. The description of Mashu is 
dependent upon this conception. Ragozin says of the ( scor- 
pion-men ' they were " gigantic monstrous beings, half men, 
half scorpions: their feet were below the earth, while their 
heads touched the gates of heaven ; they were the wardens of 
the sun." 31 

They were the Pillars of Hercules. In the Greek, 
Hercules strangles the serpents sent to destroy him in the 
cradle. In the Hebrew it is the house of the Philistines, 
whose pillars Samson Shemesh, the Sun destroyed and 
thereby slew his enemies. In fact, there is no end to the 
figures under which canopy darkness is represented in the 
myths and legends of the world. Often it is a sphinx, a 
dragon, or a witch. In the Egyptian symbolism it is a 
scorpion, conceived as stinging the sun to death, and after 
that sitting as guard over it. The same appears to have 
been the conception in the Akkadian myth of ' scorpion-men 9 
which we have just perused. "At the appearing of the sun, 
and the disappearing of the sun, they guard the sun." 32 
Plainly they stand at the imaginary boundary between firm 
land and the watery region of the upper world. In the epic 
(60, 9) one version reads that the " Scorpion man and his 
wife guard the gate leading to the great cloud mountain, 
Mashu." As they watched the sun rise and set in the slit 



30 Ibid., pp. 488, 489. "Story of Chaldea," ch. vii, p. 311. 
32 Substance of the above culled from Charles De B. Mills' " The Tree 
of Mythology," p. 162. 



214 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

between them, i.e., between the two pillars, verily they were 
its guardians. Their upper part, as the text says, reaches to 
the sky, and their irtu (breast?) to the lower regions. This 
lower or hidden part, which seemed to the ancients to go 
down below the horizon, was the scorpion part. 

The scorpion-men bring us back to the story of Ea, for 
Gilgamesh was on his way to find Parnapishtim when he 
came across these strange beings. Parnapishtim was the 
Noah of the epic, though in some of the details he bears a 
closer resemblance to Lot than to the patriarch of the deluge. 

Gilgamesh speaks to Sabitum: 
" (Now) Sabitum, which is the way to Parnapishtim? 

If it is possible, let me cross the ocean. 

If it is not possible, let me stretch myself on the ground." 

Sabitum speaks to Gilgamesh: 
" Gilgamesh ! there has never been a ferry, 

And no one has ever crossed the ocean. 

Shamash, the hero, has crossed it, but except Shamash, who can cross it? 

Difficult is the passage, very difficult the path. 

Impassable ( ? ) the waters of death that are guarded by a bolt. 

How canst thou, O Gilgamesh, traverse the ocean? 

And after thou hast crossed the waters of death, what wilt thou do? " 

As we have not yet become acquainted with Shamash, a 
digression from the epic will be in order, so that we may 
come to know the sun and moon gods. Shamash was the 
original or older Sun-god and it is a significant fact of the 
early Babylonian or Sumerian religion, that his cult was 
subordinate to the worship of Sin, the Moon-god. Indeed, 
according to one tradition, Shamash was regarded as the 
son of the Moon-god, and verily this tradition is founded on 
fact, for it will be remembered that it was an actual neces- 
sity of nature that caused the sun first to be seen in the vapor 
arch or moon where he was born, as it were, in the water and 
out of the water. Sin was originally the moon-like arch, but 
later he is represented on some of the tablets accompanied by 



83 Jastrow, " Religion of Babylonia and Assyria," ch. xxiii, pp. 
490-491. 



BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN MYTHS 215 

the lunar disk. 34 Undoubtedly this was a later development 
of the cult. In the beginning Sin was the vapor-arc, simply 
a crescent arc. After the deluge, when the gods fled to the 
clear vault of heaven, Sin naturally became identified again 
with the only crescent form in the clear sky, the new moon, 
j^annar means ' the illuminator ' ; it is one of the names 
of Sin. The following extracts from the moon hymn illus- 
trate the conceptions current about this deity: 

Father Nannar, moon-god, chief of the gods. 

Father Nannar, lord of the brilliant crescent, chief of the gods. 

O strong bull, great of horns, perfect in form, with long flowing beard 

of the color of lapus-lazuli. 
Powerful one, self-created, a product ( ?) beautiful to look upon, whose 

fulness has not yet been brought forth. 
Father, begetter of the gods and of men, establishing dwellings and 

granting gifts. 35 

The statement that the gods were born of the moon stamps 
it as the beginning place of the sky-scenes, the canopy. When 
the moon came to be conceived as a female divinity, Ishtar 
became also the goddess of the moon. This ' shiner ' or moon 
was likewise the sun of the ancients. 

The winged sun of Assyria is one of the most familiar 
emblems in the architectural adornment of the east. The 
attribute of flight indicates that the original sun was the 
' shiner/ the swift moving canopy itself. Another statement 
that proves that the sun was originally the canopy is that 
Mnib the major solar deity swallowed up Mn-girsu, 
!N^in-gish-zidu, another solar deity, and Nin-shakh. E"in- 
shaka-kuddu was ' the mistress of Uruk/ ' the lady of shining 
waters.' But to return to the epic of Gilgamesh: 

Ea warned Parnapishtim of the approach of the flood. 
Now, Ea lived in the sky-stream above, and no doubt the 
aspect of the stream conveyed the warning. 



Notably on the cylinder-seal No. 89126, British Museum. 
Jastrow, "Religion of Babylonia and Assyria," ch. xvii, p. 303. 



216 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

Doomed to destruction 'neath the dank dark cloud with nothing to 

indemnify 
The earth was doomed 'neath the great black thing which hung in the 

parted sky. 

Parnapishtim told the story to Gilgamesh as follows : 

Parnapishtim spoke to Gilgamesh: 
" I will tell thee, Gilgamesh, the marvelous story, 

And the decision of the gods I will tell thee. 

The city Shurippak, a city which, as thou knowest, 

Lies on the Euphrates, 

That city was corrupt, so that the gods thereof 

Decided to bring a rainstorm upon it. 

All of the great gods, Anu, their father; 

Their counsellor, the warrior Bel; 

The bearer of destruction, Ninib; 

Their leader, En-nugi; 

The lord of unsearchable wisdom, Ea, was with them, 

To proclaim their resolve to the reed-huts. 
'Reed-hut, reed-hut, clay structures, clay structures, 

Reed-hut, hear! Clay structure, give ear! ' 
****** 

O man of Shurippak, son of Kidin-Marduk ! 
Erect a structure, build a ship." 

" Parnapishtim declares his readiness to obey the orders 
of Ea, but, like Moses upon receiving the command of 
Yahwe, he asks what he should say when people questioned 
him. 

"What shall I answer the city, the people, and the elders?" 

Ea replies : 

" Thus answer and speak to them : 
' Bel has cast me out in his hatred, 

So that I can no longer dwell in your city. 

On Bel's territory I dare no longer show my face; 

Therefore, I go to the " deep " to dwell with Ea, my lord. 
***** 

Over you a rainstorm will come, 
Men, birds, and beasts will perish. 
***** 

When Shamash will bring on the time, then the lord of the whirlstorm 
Will cause destruction to rain upon you in the evening." 



BABYLONIAN AND ASSYRIAN MYTHS 217 

Parnapishtim now proceeds to take his family and 
chattels on board. 

" All that I had, I loaded on the ship. 
With all the silver that I had, I loaded it, 
With all the gold that I had, I loaded it, 
With living creatures of all kinds I loaded it. 
I brought on board my whole family and household, 
Cattle of the field, beasts of the field, workmen all this I took on 
board." - / 

Parnapishtim is ready to enter the ship, but he waits 
until the time fixed for the storm arrives. 

" When the time came 

For the lord of the whirlstorm to rain down destruction, 
1 gazed on the earth; 
I was terrified at its sight, 
I entered the ship, and closed the door. 

To the captain of the ship, to Puzur-Shadurabu, M the sailor, 
I entrusted the structure with all its contents. 
***** 

Upon the first appearance of dawn 
There arose from the horizon dark clouds, 
Within which Ramman caused his thunder to resound. 
Nabu and Sharru marched at the front. 
The destroyers passed across mountains and land. 
Dibbarra lets loose the (mischievous forces?), 
Ninib advances in furious hostility. 
The Anunnaki raise torches 
Whose sheen illumines the universe, 
As Ramman's whirlwind sweeps the heavens, 
And all light is changed to darkness. 
***** 

Brother does not look after brother, 

Men care not for another. In the heavens, 

Even the gods are terrified at the storm. 

They take refuge in the heaven of Anu. 

The gods cowered like dogs at the edge of the heavens." 

The significance of this language is remarkable : the gods 



"Puzur" signifies "hidden," "protected." "Shadu rabu," i.e., 
"great mountain," is a title of Bel. 



218 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

had to cower on the edge of heaven because the canopy which 
had been their home had passed away. 

" Ishtar groans like a women in throes, 
The lofty goddess cries with loud voice, 
The world of old has become a mass of clay. 
* * * * * 

That I should have assented to this evil among the gods! 

That when I assented to this evil, 

I was for the destruction of my own creatures! 

What I created, where is it? 

Like so many fish, it fills the sea." 8T 



87 Jastrow, " Religion of Babylonia and Assyria," ch. xxiii, p. 495 ff. 



CHAPTER XVI 

EGYPTIAN MYTHS 

IN Egypt, the dead grave-yard of the past, the present 
hypothesis finds a living record which begins with the memo- 
rials of the old sky scenes, followed by the introduction of 
pure and simple sun worship (disk- worship) in the eigh- 
teenth dynasty. 1 This change of cult was too radical, how- 
ever, for the people of that day, so they reverted to their old 
gods, whose memory was probably still kept before them by 
lingering remnants of the dethroned system. 2 

The critical or turning event in this history is the change 
of cult to disk-worship. In Assyria we have the winged 
disk, emblem of Ashur. The interpretation of which is 
that the head of the Assyrian pantheon was some phase of 
the personified sun. Frequently a tail was attached to the 



*In the twentieth dynasty (1100 B.C.) a series of star tables have 
been found recorded in several manuscripts recovered from the tombs. 

2 It is said of Solon the Greek law-giver, that when he visited Egypt, 
six hundred years before Christ, he had a talk with the priests of Sais 
about the Deluge of Deucalion. The following is Plato's account: 
"Thereupon, one of the priests, who was of very great age, said, 'O 
Solon, Solon, you Hellenes are but children, and there is never an 
old man who is an Hellene/ Solon, hearing this, said, ' What do you 
mean? ' ' I mean to say,' he replied, * that in mind you are all young; 
there is no old opinion handed down among you by ancient tradition, 
nor any science which is hoary with age. And I will tell you the 
reason of this: there have been, and there will be again, many destruc- 
tions of mankind arising out of many causes. There is a story which 
even you have preserved, that once upon a time Phaeton, the son of 
Helios, having yoked the steeds in his father's chariot, because he was 
not able to drive them in the path of his father, burnt up all that was 
upon the earth and was himself destroyed by a thunderbolt. Now, 
this has the form of a myth, but really signifies a declination of the 
bodies moving around the earth and in the heavens, and a great con- 
flagration of things upon the earth recurring at long intervals of time." 
"Dialogues," xi, 517, Timseus. 

219 



220 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

wings, the meaning of which was that the bird or sun was 
seen moving over the canopy. 

This same symbol, without the tail, strikingly resembles 
the Egyptian emblem; the wings of the latter, however, are 
those of the sparrow-hawk, their sacred bird. As time passed 
on, the wings were dropped. The sun came clearer and 
clearer into view, until finally the vapor appendages dissi- 
pated forever; naturally the symbolic representations were 
altered in order to conform to the new conditions, hence the 
wings were dropped. 

Rawlinson says : " Aten, in Egyptian theology, had 
hitherto represented a particular aspect or character of Ha, 
'the sun' that aspect which is expressed by the phrase, 
' the solar disk.' How it was possible to keep Aten distinct 
from the other sun-gods, Ra, Khepra, Turn, Shu, Mentu, 
Osiris, and Horus or Harmachis, is a puzzle to moderns; 
but it seems to have been a difficulty practically overcome by 
the Egyptians, to whom it did not perhaps even present itself 
as a difficulty at all. Disk-worship consisted then, primarily, 
in an undue exaltation of this god, who was made to take the 
place of Ammon-Ra in the Pantheon, and was ordinarily 
represented by a circle with rays proceeding from it, the rays 
mostly terminating in hands, which frequently presented the 
symbols of life and health and strength to the worshiper." 3 

From the viewpoint of the present hypothesis the diffi- 
culty which Rawlinson mentions relative to the fact that the 
ancients kept distinct the various aspects of the sun, naming 
them as different gods, fizzles away. We moderns cannot 
find enough phases in the existing sun to go around amongst 
the gods. Had we lived under the canopy skies, everything 
would have been different; for instance, Ammon or Amen 
means ' concealer/ and this god is often coupled with another 
as Amen-Ra, the solar deity covered. 4 

1 " The story of Ancient Egypt," ch. xiv, p. 224. 

*E. A. Wallis Budge, "The Dwellers on the Nile," 4th ed., p. 142. 



EGYPTIAN MYTHS 



<Aten> is probably the same as ' Adon,' the root of 
Adonis; thus we see how the Greeks also worshiped this 
feature of the glorious sun, but their story has mellowed with 
age. Adonis was a youth who died from a wound received 
from a boar during the chase plainly the youthful sun was 
swallowed up by the remnant of a floating vapor-form. Orig- 
inally he was six months behind the canopy and six months 
in the open space. Later the worship of Adonis appears to 
have had reference to the death of nature in winter and to 
its revival in spring, hence Adonis spent six months in the 
lower world and six months in the upper. 

But to return to Egypt : " In the matter of religion," 
says Kawlinson, " the most noticeable changes which occurred 
are connected with the disk-worship, with the alternate ele- 
vation and depression of the god Set. The cult of the disk, 
favored by Amenophis III, and fully established by his son, 
Amenophis IV, or Khuenaten, is chiefly remarkable on 
account of its exclusive character, the disk-worshipers oppos- 
ing and disallowing all other cults and religious usages. Had 
Khuenaten been able to effect the religious revolution at 
which he aimed, the old Egyptian religion would have been 
destroyed, and its place would have 'been taken by a species 
of monotheism, in which the material Sun would have been 
recognized as the One and only Lord, and Ruler of the Uni- 
verse. Ammon, Khem, Kneph, Phthah, Maut, Khonsu, 
Osiris, Horus, Isis, Thoth would have disappeared, and the 
sun-worship, pure and simple, would have replaced the old 
complicated polytheism. But Egypt was not prepared for 
this change." 5 

Egypt was not ready to overturn her gods, so let us look 
behind the doors of the vapor belt, at the scenes which im- 
pressed themselves so strongly on their minds as to cause 
them to believe that they saw into the chambers of higher 

5 " History of Ancient Egypt," vol. ii, ch. xxi, p. 188. 



222 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

beings than themselves. Their eyes revealed to them the 
'Hall of the Two Truths' (i.e., the Pillars of Hercules), 
the double abode of the sun in the heavens, through which, 
according to the teachings of their theology, their dead had 
to pass and where they themselves would have to stand in 
judgment before Osiris, the sun-god, ' Lord of Life,' before 
they could enter to the fields of eternity beyond. 

It is recorded of Osiris that in the Hall of Two Truths 
he sat beneath a canopy. When he disappeared behind it 
he was ' lost ' and all Egypt mourned for him. When he 
returned he was said to be ' found,' and then all Egypt 
rejoiced. The myth of ' Osiris Lost,' when all Egypt 
mourned, represents the annual journey of the sun behind 
the northern or falling cloud bank. The important point is 
that the myth does not deal with the daily conflict between 
day and night, but in its full expansion it covers the whole 
year. The echo of this event sounded down through the 
ages long afterwards. Rawlinson says: 

" Other feasts were held in honor of Osiris on the sev- 
enteenth day of Athyr and the nineteenth of Pashons ; in the 
former of which the ' loss of Osiris,' and in the latter his 
recovery, were commemorated. A cow, emblematic of Isis, 
was veiled in black and led about for four successive days, 
accompanied by a crowd of men and women, who beat their 
breasts in memory of the supposed disappearance of Osiris 
from earth and his sister's search for him ; while, in memory 
of his recovery, a procession was made to the seaside, the 
priests carrying a sacred chest, and, an image or emblem of 
Osiris fashioned out of earth and water having been placed 
in it, the declaration was made, ' Osiris is found ! Osiris is 
found ! ' amid general festivity and rejoicing." 6 

The Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg gives a legend from the 
Quiche Indians of Central America which depicts this same 
scene : " Now, behold, our ancients and our fathers were 

6 " History of Ancient Egypt," vol. i, ch. x, p. 199. 



EGYPTIAN MYTHS 223 

made lords, and had their dawn. Behold, we will relate also 
the rising of the sun, the moon, and the stars! Great was 
their joy when they saw the morning-star, which came out 
first, with its resplendent face before the sun. At last the 
sun itself began to come forth ; the animals, small and great, 
were in joy; they rose from the water-courses and ravines, 
and stood on the mountain-tops, with their heads toward 
where the sun was coming. An innumerable crowd of people 
were there, and the dawn cast light on all these people at 
once. At last the face of the ground was dried by the sun ; 
like a man the sun showed himself, and his presence warmed 
and dried the surface of the ground. Before the sun ap- 
peared, muddy and wet was the surface of the ground, and 
it was before the sun appeared, and then only the sun rose 
like a man. But his heat had no strength, and he did but 
show himself when he rose ; he only remained like a mirror ; 
and it is not, indeed, the same sun that appears now, they 
say, in the stories." 7 

The death of Osiris has many like parallels in ancient 
thought. Both annular, and also astronomical. For instance, 
Epictetus favors the opinion that at the solstices of the great 
year not only all human beings, but even the gods, are 
annihilated, and speculates whether at such time Jove feels 
lonely. 8 The bank behind which Osiris disappeared was one 
of the Halls of Two Truths, to which the deceased were 
directed by the ' Ritual, or Book of the Dead.' 

A passage in this book which contains instructions for the 
deceased reads : " Retreat unto the eastern heavens. Unto 
the dwellings which support the mount. That great mys- 
terious mountain that spreads light among the gods." The 
reason for this direction to the dead was probably due to 
the fact that the cloud-mountain in its daily revolution kept 
ever turning towards the east. In the third part of the 

7 Tylor, " Early History of Mankind," p. 308. 
8 " Discourses," book iii, ch. xiii. 



224 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

Ritual, the deceased in company with the sun himself tra- 
verse the various houses of heaven. In the cosmologies of 
the ancients these great black halls or chambers (hiding 
places) are associated with the abode of the damned and lost 
souls. In the Homeric conception, they are called Hades 
and Tartarus. It is not credible, as some scholars would have 
it, that the early Greeks, unschooled in the exercise of the 
scientific imagination and unacquainted with Newton's law 
of gravitation, could have pictured a pendent under-surface 
of the earth, around which flopped topsy-turvy ghosts, and 
also that infernal rivers and infernal palaces could have 
clung to this under-hemisphere. 

The myth of Osiris and his consort Isis, whose image is 
crowned with the sun disk, is as follows : 

"Osiris and Isis were at one time induced to descend 
to the earth to bestow gifts and blessings on its inhabitants. 
Isis showed them first the use of wheat and barley, and 
Osiris made the instruments of agriculture and taught men 
the use of them, as well as how to harness the ox to the 
plough. He then gave men laws, the institution of marriage, 
a civil organization, and taught them how to worship the 
gods. After he had thus made the valley of the Nile a happy 
country, he assembled a host with which he went to bestow 
his blessing upon the rest of the world. He conquered the 
nations everywhere only with music and eloquence. His 
brother Typhon saw this, and sought during his absence to 
usurp his throne. But Isis, who held the reins of govern- 
ment, frustrated his plans. Still more embittered, he now 
resolved to kill his brother. Having organized a conspiracy 
of seventy-two members, he went with them to the feast which 
was celebrated in honor of the king's return. He then caused 
a box or chest to be brought in, which had been made to fit 
exactly the size of Osiris, and declared that he would give 
that chest of precious wood to whosoever could get into it. 
The rest tried in vain, but no sooner was Osiris in it than 



EGYPTIAN MYTHS 225 

Typhon and his companions closed the lid and flung the 
chest into the Nile. When Isis heard of the cruel murder 
she wept and mourned ; and then, with her hair shorn, clothed 
in black, and beating her breast, she sought diligently for 
the body of her husband. In this search she was materially 
assisted by Anubis, the son of Osiris and Nephthys. They 
sought in vain for some time; for when the chest, carried 
by the waves to the shores of Byblos, had become entangled 
in the reeds that grew at the edge of the water, the divine 
power that dwelt in the body of Osiris imparted such strength 
to the shrub that it grew into a mighty tree, enclosing in its 
trunk the coffin of the god. This tree, with its sacred deposit, 
was shortly after felled, and erected as a column in the palace 
of the king of Phoenicia. But at length, by the aid of 
Anubis and the sacred birds, Isis ascertained these facts, and 
then went to the royal city. There she offered herself at 
the palace as a servant, and, being admitted, threw off her 
disguise and appeared as the goddess, surrounded with thun- 
der and lightning. Striking the column with her wand, she 
caused it to split open and give up the sacred coffin." 9 

Interpreted, this means that sunlight brought gifts to 
man in the shape of agricultural plenty. Then an enemy 
called Typhon, the personified canopy, trapped him in his 
folds or coffin. Typhon's name is the same as the Hebrew 
word for north, ' Tsaphon.' He stretched out the canopy we 
read across the empty space in the north sky (Job xxvi: 7). 
The pillars of heaven trembled (verse 11), and the heavens 
were garnished by the crooked serpent (verse 13). Apophis 
was the Egyptian serpent of darkness. " He is portrayed," 
says Rawlinson, " either as a huge serpent disposed in many 
folds, or as a water-snake with a human head. He was sup- 
posed to have sided with Set against Osiris, and to have 
thereby provoked the anger of Horus, who is frequently rep- 

9 " Bulfinch's Age of Fable," Revised edit, of Rev. J. Loughran Scott, 
pp. 369-370. 
15 



326 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

resented as piercing his head with a spear." 10 He is a sky- 
scene that seems to have impeded the progress of souls on 
their journey to the ' Hall of Two Truths.' Subsequently 
he gave way, in the mythic system, to Set or Typhon, which 
is logical, as he was practically the same personified natural 
phenomenon. F. De Lanoye says : 

" In the Egyptian mythology, Apophis, the serpent, is 
the great enemy of the Sun ; in several hypogees he is repre- 
sented as struggling against the gods of the Amenti, who 
succeed in capturing and chaining him." n 

Typhon and the companions who were with him, after 
they had trapped the sun, closed the lid of the chest and 
flung him into a river which the myth designates as the Nile, 
but which older sources clearly indicates was heaven's river. 
The tree in which the coffin became incased is the same as 
Ygdrasil, the world tree of the Scandinavians. This great 
ash is supposed to have supported the whole universe, but 
suffice it for the present, with lightning and thunder, the 
goddess of sunlight made the mighty column or tree to split 
open and surrender the sun himself. Horus, the new sun 
god, is said to have despatched Typhon with a sun-dart, which 
pierced his watery head through and through. This again is 
nothing but the tale of Apophis. 

Many details of this wonderful myth could be dwelt on. 
Thus in the Isle of Philse, in the temple dedicated to Osiris 
and his wife and their son Horus, sculptured on the walls is 
a complete record of this legend. The last shrine represents 
Osiris rising from a couch which is supported by two legs 
and is arched just like the body of Nu-t. It could not be 
more suggestive of the sun resting on the arched canopy. It 
is depicted as it appeared to the Egyptians. 



" History of Ancient Egypt," vol. i, ch. x, p. 186. 
11 " Wonders of Art and Archaeology in Egypt 3300 Years Ago," p. 



146. See " Champollion's Letters from Egypt." 



EGYPTIAN MYTHS 227 

Typhon, or Set, as lie is often called, 12 like all the per- 
sonifications of the canopy, was at first a good deity. He 
afterwards became the principle of evil, and, rapidly running 
down the scale, he finally became the very synonym of death 
itself. Set or Seb was the son of Ra, the ancient sun. This 
luminary was nothing but the shiner or canopy. So, also, 
the ancient moon was not our present satellite, but only a 
crescent form of the ring. The mutilation of the sun's body 
by Typhon is one of many similar descriptions found else- 
wheres. The earth was covered with sun-fragments every 
time a canopy broke up its light. 

The Ute philosopher has strangely mixed the matter of 
the mutilation of this old sun or shining canopy with the 
occasional disappearance of the sun itself. Ta-vi, the sun- 
god, must have originally been the blazing canopy, and then 
like Osiris he became the true sun. The legend is as follows : 

"In that long ago, the time to which all mythology refers, 
the sun roamed the earth at will. When he came too near 
with his fierce heat the people were scorched, and when he 
hid away in his cave for a long time, too idle to come forth, 
the night was long and the earth cold. Once upon a time 
Ta-wats, the hare-god, was sitting with his family by the 
camp-fire in the solemn woods, anxiously waiting for the 
return of Ta-vi, the wayward sun-god. Wearied with long 
watching, the hare-god fell asleep, and the sun-god came so 
near that he scorched the naked shoulder of Ta-wats. Fore- 
seeing the vengeance which would be thus provoked, he fled 
back to his cave beneath the earth. Ta-wats awoke in great 
anger, and speedily determined to go and fight the sun-god. 
After a long journey of many adventures, the hare-god came 
to the brink of the earth, and there watched long and 

12 Egyptologists admit that Set, Sit, Typhon, Bes, and Sutekh are 
identical. To this list possibly Ombo and Nubi should be added. 
Apophis also was a form of Typhon. Sutekh was a god of the Canaan- 
ites. Maspero, " Histoire Ancienne" p. 165. 



228 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

patiently, till at last, the sun-god coming out, lie shot an 
arrow at his face, but the fierce heat consumed the arrow ere 
it had finished its intended course; then another arrow was 
sped, but that also was consumed; and another, and still 
another, till only one remained in his quiver. But this was 
the magical arrow that had never failed its mark. Ta-wats, 
holding it in his hand, lifted the barb to his eye and baptized 
it in a divine tear ; then the arrow was sped and struck the 
sun-god full in the face, and the sun was shivered into a 
thousand fragments, which fell to the earth, causing a gen- 
eral conflagration. Then Ta-wats, the hare-god, fled before 
the destruction he had wrought, and as he fled the burning 
earth consumed his feet, consumed his legs, consumed his 
body, consumed his hands and his arms all were consumed 
but the head alone, which bowled across valleys and over 
mountains, fleeing destruction from the burning earth, until 
at last, swollen with heat, the eyes of the god burst and the 
tears gushed forth in a flood which spread over the earth and 
extinguished the fire. The sun-god was now conquered, and 
he appeared before a council of the gods to await sentence. 
In that long council were established the days and nights, 
the seasons and the years, with the length thereof, and the 
sun was condemned to travel across the firmament by the 
same trail day after day till the end of time." 13 

The Greeks have portrayed certain features of this tale 
in the legend of Phaeton. This god was a son of Sol. 
Anxious to display his skill in horsemanship, he was allowed 
to drive the chariot of his father for one day. The horses of 
the sun soon found out the incapacity of the charioteer, 
became unmanageable, and overturned the chariot. There 
was such fear of injury to heaven and earth, that Jove, to 
stop the destruction, killed Phaeton with a thunderbolt. 

" Even the ruler of vast Olympus, who hurls the ruthless 



Popular Science Monthly," October, 1879, p. 799. 



EGYPTIAN MYTHS 229 

bolts with his terrific right hand, cannot guide this chariot; 
and yet what have we greater than Jupiter ? The first part 
of the road is steep, and such as the horses, though fresh in 
the morning, can hardly climb. In the middle of the heaven 
it is high aloft, whence it is often a source of fear, even to 
myself, to look down upon the sea and the earth, and my 
breast trembles with fearful apprehensions. The last stage 
is a steep descent, and requires a sure command of the 
horses. * * * Besides, the heavens are carried round 
with a constant rotation, and carry with them the lofty stars, 
and whirl them with rapid revolution. Against this I have to 
contend; and that force which overcomes all other things 
does not overcome me, and I am carried in a contrary direc- 
tion to the rapid world." 14 

Be it noted that Ovid supposes the rapid world-cloud to 
move or revolve in one direction, while the sun appears to 
move in the other. William F. Warren is authority for the 
following : 

" Now, it is difficult to believe it a mere accident that 
in various ancient authors we find allusion both to an ex- 
tremely ancient displacement of the sky and its supposed 
original state. None of these allusions have ever been 
explained by writers on the subject. One of them occurs in 
Plato's Timseus, where, in language ascribed to an Egyptian 
priest of Solon's time, ' a declination of the bodies revolving 
round the earth ' is spoken of, and this declination is offered 
as the true explanation of the partial destruction of the world 
commemorated in the myth of Phaeton. As this destruction 
was by fire, there would at first sight seem to be no connection 
between it and the destruction at the time of the Deluge; 
nor is there in the context anything to suggest such a con- 
nection. Fortunately, however, we have in Hyginus a fuller 
version of the myth, from which it appears that the Greeks 



"Ovid, "The Metamorphoses," book xi, fable 1. 



230 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

supposed Deucalion's universal flood to have been providen- 
tially sent to extinguish the fearful conflagration which 
Phaeton's unskilful driving of the steeds of the sun had occa- 
sioned. This makes the connection clear and direct. The 
Flood and the ( declination of the heavenly bodies revolving 
round the earth' are at once brought into a true historic 
relation. 

" In like manner, in the Bundahish, in the first five 
chapters, and in the Zad Sparam's paraphrase of the same, it 
is stated that during the first three thousand years, before the 
incoming of the Evil One, { the sun, moon, and stars stood 
still,' but as soon as the Destroyer of the good creation came 
he assaulted and deranged the sky, as well as the earth and 
sea. And, remarkably enough, it is stated that as a result 
of this assault the Evil One mastered as much as f one third 
of the sky ' and overspread it with darkness. Moreover, in 
the thirtieth chapter, in giving a prophetic account to the 
final restoration of the material world to its primeval state, 
there seems to be an allusion in verse thirty-two to a neces- 
sary resetting or readjustment of the celestial vault by the 
hand of its Creator." 15 

The sum and substance of this matter is that the winged 
sun was worshiped practically everywhere. F. Max Miiller 
says in the Second Series of Auld Lang Syne : " One of the 
most intelligible names given to the sun was Asva, the racer, 
or Dadhikravan or Ya^'n, horse. And while at one time the 
sun was a racer, at another the sun was conceived as ap- 
proaching men and standing on a golden chariot which was 
drawn by horses, as in Greek mythology. Thus we read, 
Kig-Veda i, 35, 2: ' The god Savitn (the sun), approaching 
on the dark-blue sky, sustaining mortals and immortals, 
comes on his golden chariot, beholding all the worlds.' " To 
us this quotation from the Veda is a description of the 

""Paradise Found," pp. 195-196; West, " Pahlavi Texts," pt. i, 
p. 129. 



EGYPTIAN MYTHS 231 

solar orb shining through the dark-blue vault, the abode of 
gods and demigods. Miiller catches the echo from the older 
thought, which called the shining canopy the sun or racer. 
Both Hesiod and Homer testify that the solar-car was drawn 
by winged steeds. The Hindus say that their sun was en- 
dowed with horses that were very fast. The people of the 
olden times saw these flying steeds, such as Pegasus, and so 
came to worship the swift or winged one (sometimes plural), 
praising heaven for their wondrous deeds. The wings 
attached to the glowing golden sun of Assyria and Egypt 
were for rapid flight In North America the sun was called 
a hare; afterwards, as the swift became slow, the lame hare 
became the sun emblem. Rapid suns or horses were flying 
canopies and were also called chariots; when they reflected 
the sunlight they appeared to be on fire. So Phrebus lashed 
his steeds of fire and rushed upon the very wings of the wind. 
Again, Phaeton drove the coursers of the sun, but as he drove 
them a fearful change seemed to be impending. The atmos- 
phere became sultry and almost unbearable as a result of the 
settling down of the sweltering vapor belt. This made the 
world below seem as though it were lost in fire. The lower- 
ing heavens also caught a fire-glow from the true sun, and 
heaven and earth appeared to be in one blaze. The Storm- 
King, roused by these conditions, brought to his aid Jove the 
' Thunderer,' who hurled his bolts at the luckless Phaeton, 
and the whole war of the vapors was fought o'er again: 

Then headlong falling, with his hair on fire, 
Poor Phaeton marked the heavens as a star. 

It is further recorded that all the gods were frightened, 
and that the rivers shrank. All the world felt that a change 
was coming. Yet through this terror wisdom was brought 
down to man, the Delphic oracle had spoken, and in the sight 
of all the end was evidently near at hand, for though Apollo, 
Phaeton's own father, regained possession of his steeds and 



232 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

by accelerating the speed 16 seemed to be driving the chariot 
of the sun along its proper course, yet, as we have said, it 
was only for a time. The Delphic oracle had spoken. 

These remarks on the slowing up of the speed with which 
the canopy revolved brings to our attention once more 
Typhon, the Egyptian canopy. Typhon personified was also 
a character in Grecian mythology. He and Echidna, who 

16 The substance of the ring-belt possessed energy on account of its 
situation, for the attraction of the earth was capable of doing work. 
The further the ring-belt was from the earth the larger was the quantity 
of energy that it possessed from this cause. But it also possessed 
another kind of energy, which was due to its velocity. The further 
the ring was from the earth the smaller was this velocity and the 
smaller was the quantity of energy possessed from this cause. If we 
-unite the two forces we find that the result may be expressed in the 
following manner: When the ring-belt revolved round the earth the 
total energy of the system when added to the reciprocal of the distance 
between the two bodies measured by a proper unit of length was the 
same for all distances between them. This shows the connection between 
the energy and the distance. Thus we see that when the orbit of the 
ring-belt decreased, the energy of the system decreased also. The 
moment of momentum of any such system is proportional to the square 
root of the distance of the two bodies. When the distance between the 
ring and the earth lessened the moment of momentum remained constant. 
In other words, the more the system contracted the faster it revolved. 
This acceleration was the result of what is known to us as the law 
of the conservation of moment of momentum. 

" The apparent anomaly of accounting for an accelerative effect 
by a retarding cause disappears when it is considered that any check to 
the motion of bodies revolving round a centre of attraction causes them 
to draw closer to it, thus shortening their periods and quickening their 
circulation." Agnes M. Clerke, "History of Astronomy During the 
Nineteenth Century," 3d ed., pp. 115-116. 

The late James E. Keeler, Director of the Lick Observatory, proved 
by his observations with the spectroscope in 1895, that Saturn's rings 
rotate. According to the undulatory theory, light consists of a series 
of waves; the spectroscope enables us to measure and count these, and 
if we find on counting them that there are too many, we know that the 
source from which the light comes is approaching, but on the other 
hand, if the number is too few, then we know that it is receding. 
Keeler proved that one side of Saturn's rings were approaching and the 
other receding. He also proved that the inner edge of each ring 
rotates faster than the outer. 



EGYPTIAN MYTHS 233 

was half a maid and half a serpent, and withal a bloodthirsty- 
wench, had a child, the Sphinx, who was also half woman 
and half lion, mild jet fierce. The Grecian beast, unlike the 
Egyptian Sphinx, had wings. This shows that it was a 
flying canopy. The Thebans suffered in its dreadful maw 
and asked the question, Will it ever die ? They saw a change 
coming over it, hence it seemed a riddle. What would be 
the end ? The mild conditions were passing away. (Edipus, 
or swollen-foot, the whirling cloud-belt, was seen to drop and 
go slower and slower. As youth needs another prop in old 
age, so the canopy needed something. Longevity, which had 
been man's portion under the greenhouse roof, now ended, 
and the ancients said the cause was that the Sphinx, or 
canopy, had cast herself upon a rock. (Edipus thus killed 
his father; that is, he stopped the upper or revolving ring; 
also his mother and his wife, who were also sky-forms. 

Tragic as this ending was, the story is full of beautiful 
vapor-belt canopy lore. For instance, in his old age, (Edipus 
was comforted by the presence of his daughter, Antigone, 
she who was born opposite, the pale light that appears over 
against the darkening canopy gone blind. His sons are said 
to have disputed for the throne of Thebes, which was origi- 
nally a walled city of the canopy. Undoubtedly the Egyptian 
and Grecian cities were named for it. 17 Seven heroes warred 



"Nothing can be plainer than that the names attached to regions 
and personified appearances in the sky were transferred by the ancients 
to terrestrial localities. For instance, to locate the original Olympus 
as a many-peaked earthly mountain would simply embarrass the imag- 
ination. How could the following vivid picture be explained? 

evil-minded Juno, full of guile! 

Thy arts have made the noble Hector leave 
The combat, and have forced his troops to flee. 

1 know not whether 't were not well that thou 
Shouldst taste the fruit of thy pernicious wiles, 
Chastised by me with stripes. Dost thou forget 
When thou didst swing suspended, and I tied 
Two anvils to thy feet, and bound a chain 



234, THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

against its mighty gate, but the battle ended without their 
taking it. However, there soon after came a day when the 
great city fell and perished as all sky scenes had to in those 
strenuous days. The change arrived and slow-foot was the 
cause. 

For the same reason that (Edipus was called swollen- 
foot, Vulcan was made lame, and as the canopy of vapor 
dissipated its fire went out; thus he also, as the story goes, 
fell from heaven. 

The slowing of the speed of the canopy made it appear 
on earth that it was actually going backwards, which fact is 
recorded in many myths; thus it is said that Cacus, when 
he stole the oxen of Geryon, dragged them backward by their 
tails to his cave. 

"Achilles was invulnerable in all parts save the heel. 
This hero seems indubitably to have been the solar deity, 
and, as in the case of Baldur, Siegfried, Eustam, etc., could 
be wounded only in one place. The heel here is symbolic, 
indicating that he is vulnerable only from behind. So Baldur 
falls struck by a dart from his blind brother Hb'dur (the dark- 
ness). Siegfried is wounded by Hagene (the thorn) in the 
spot between his shoulders where the broad linden leaf had 
stuck when he was bathing himself in the dragon's blood, by 
which he was made in all other points invulnerable. 

" So in the Algonquin myth of the Summer-maker who 
had broken through the sky into the heaven-land beyond, and 
brought down to earth the warm winds, the birds, and the 



Of gold that none could break around thy wrists? 
Then didst thou hang in air amid the clouds, 
And all the gods of high Olympus saw 
With pity. They stood near, but none of them 
Were able to release thee. Whoso came 
Within my reach I seized, and hurled him o'er 
Heaven's threshold, and he fell upon the earth 
Scarce breathing. 
Bryant's Homer's Iliad, bk. xv, 19 ff. 



EGYPTIAN MYTHS 235 

summer, it is said that, pursued by the dwellers in heaven, 
he was at last wounded by their arrows in his one vulnerable 
spot, viz., in the tip of the tail. The shining Manitu and 
Kwasind also could be wounded only in one place, in the 
scalp or the crown of the head." 18 

Ovid tells us that a day was lost. The standing still of 
the sun (Joshua x) is a like reminiscence: the shiner actually 
did appear to stand still. It is significant that the record is 
accompanied by a description of the falling stones, for of 
necessity a canopy reaching this stage must begin to break 
up. This is the record: 

" And it came to pass, as they fled from before Israel, 
and were in the going down to Beth-horon, that the Lord cast 
down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekah, and 
they died: they were more which died with hailstones than 
they whom the children of Israel slew with the sword. * * * 

" And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the 
people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not 
this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still 
in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a 
whole day. 

" And there was no day like that before it or after it." 19 
Jasher was probably another Zeus; a great dim memory of 
a terrible time was no doubt bound up in this lost volume. 
Another account of falling material is found in Deut. xxviii : 
23-24, 29, as follows : 

" Thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and 
the earth that is under thee shall be iron. The Lord shall 
make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven 
shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed. 
* * * And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind 
gropeth in darkness." 



M Charles De B. Mills, " The Tree of Mythology," p. 55. 
19 Joshua x:ll, 12, 14. 



236 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

We have now seen that the hope of the Egyptians was 
stayed upon ' Osiris Found.' When he was dead Typhon 
ruled the sky, and the Grecian myth has shown us that his 
child was the Sphinx. 

Yea, Egypt is the grave-yard of the past, 
And here 's the Sphinx with his cold stony lips 
Touched by the finger of Dame Silence, who 
Rules o'er this land of ruin and of dust. 

Plainly a sphinx-temple was a place wherein to worship 
the cold spirit of the falling vapor-sky. The great sphinx at 
Ghizeh faces to the east, as though to catch the first glimpse 
of the day : 

In eagerness he gazes like to one 

That's guessing of the future and expects 

An end that's coming, and a new-born sun. 

Her head a woman, for she was quite mild, 

His tail a lion, for he turned out fierce 

As nearer to the earth he flew in death. 

And by him stands the three great pyramids, 

Memorials of the day of stablished things 

The shadow of the turning earth upon, 20 

A canopy which seemed forever fixed. 

A cloudy mountain which received its light 

At night-time from beneath; where dwell the shades; 

From the dead sun, from the great under-world. 

At midnight this division of the rays 

By the earth's shadow cast a cone-like form, 

A pyramid athwart the darkened sky. 

" The Hellenic and Eoman myths concerning the ' World- 
mountain ' were numerous, but in later times not a little 
confused, as Ideler has learnedly shown. By some, as for 
example Aristotle, it was identified with the Caucasus, and 
it was asserted that its height was so prodigious that after 
sunset its head was illuminated a third part of the night, and 
again a third part before the rising of the sun in the morning. 
This identification explains the later legend, according to 
which, in order to prove his rightful lordship of the world, 

80 James i:17. 



EGYPTIAN MYTHS 237 

Alexander the Great plucked 'the shadowless lance' (the 
earth's axis) out of the topmost peak of the Taurus Moun- 
tains. More commonly the mount is called Atlas, or the 
Atlantic mountain. Proclus, quoting Heraclitus, says of it: 
* Its magnitude is such that it touches the ether and casts a 
shadow of five thousand stadia in length. From the ninth 
hour of the day the sun is concealed by it, even to his perfect 
demersion under the earth." 21 

This shadow-mountain, which only appeared at night, 
seemed to stand in the inverted heavens; to the right and 
left of its cone were two great wings of light, with their 
apexes downward. 

"Draw me (the nocturnal sun), infernal ones! . . . 

" Retreat towards the eastern heavens, towards the dwell- 
ings which support Sar, that mysterious mountain that 
spreads light among the gods (or, that I may spread light 
among the gods?), who receive me when I go forth from 
amongst you, from the retreat." 

" To the inverted infernal mountain seem to apply the 
expressions in chapter one hundred and fifty of the e Book 
of the Dead:' " 

We have said that it is not likely that the ancients, unac- 
quainted with Newton's law of gravitation, could have pic- 
tured a pendent under-surf ace to the earth, so it follows that 
the midnight appearance of the mountain is here referred to. 

" Oh, the very tall Hill in Hades ! The heaven rests upon 
it. There is a snake or dragon upon it: Sati is his name," 
etc. The presence of the snake and the fact that heaven rests 
on the Hill of Hades confirms our supposition that a world 
under the horizon was not dreamt of. 

" In another chapter of the same book a place is spoken 
of as ' the inverted precinct, which place is Hades.' " As 
heaven, according to the text cited above, rests on Hades, the 
locality of this precinct is fixed in the inverted night-sky. 

21 William F. Warren, "Paradise Found," pp. 135-136. 



238 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

The translator of another text, called the ' Book of Hades/ 
describes a ( pendent mountain/ which can hardly be any- 
thing other than Ap-en-to, the inverted mountain of Hades. 

On the other hand, the expression ' underworld ' is con- 
tinually used in the writings and lore of the ancients, so 
that beyond question the great inverted wings of light shin- 
ing up from below gave the peoples of those days an inkling 
of a region lying beneath. Our contention is that this place 
is not the mythological abode of the shades. The following 
shows the confused notions relative these two regions, the 
night-mountain, Hades, and the true underworld. 

" The god advancing in a reversed position " (in a certain 
New Zealand legend) " is the sun in the Underworld. The 
image exactly accords with an Egyptian scene of the sun 
passing through Hades, where we see the twelve gods of the 
earth, or the lower domain of night, marching towards a 
mountain turned upside down, and two typical personages 
are also turned upside down. This is an illustration of the 
passage of the sun through the Underworld. The reversed 
on the same monument are the dead. Thus the Osirified 
deceased, who had attained the second life, in the Ritual, 
says exultingly, ' I do not walk upon my head.' The dead, 
as the Akhu, are the spirits, and the Atua (of the New 
Zealand legend) is a spirit who comes walking upside down. 
Massey elsewhere states that the earth 'was considered flat 
by the first myth-makers,' who in his scheme appear to have 
been Egyptians." 22 A flat world does not bring any support 
to those who believe Hades was located in the nether hemi- 
sphere. In the ' Eitual ' the Osirified dead says, " I do not 
walk upon my head." Had a pendent world been dreamt of, 
everything would have been considered upside down. 

In Genesis i : 16 there are two great lights mentioned ; 
the greater ruled the day and the lesser the night. Egyptian 

IUd., pp. 124, 125, 126. "Records of the Past," vol. x, p. 88. 
" The Natural Genesis," London, 1883, vol. i, p. 529. 



EGYPTIAN MYTHS 239 

mythology is full of references to the night-time as a time 

of shade: 

A weird a fearful time, those hours of night, 
With spook-like spectres shivering in the sky, 
The canopy a sheeted envelope, 
Ghosts and hobgoblins drifting in mid-air, 
The ka or double visiting the tomb. 

The shadow, or dark mountain, seemed much higher at 
night, and as its mass seemed to rise out of the realm of 
shades, it was only a step for the ancients to associate it with 
the dead, hence when they made patterns of it, these pyra- 
mids or likenesses naturally became tombs. The chambers, 
built into them, wherein the withered mummies awaited the 
coming back of their ka, were simply imitations of the halls 
wherein the dead sun hid himself in the dismal mountain. 
We erect memorials in our graveyards to-day in the shape 
of broken columns or shafts, which signify to us a life cut 
short by death. The pyramids suggested to the ancients 
pretty much the same thought, hence they built them over 
the chambers of their dead. 

The same rectangular arrangement of temples which pre- 
vailed in Egypt held also in Chaldea. They lifted their eyes 
to the mountain in the sky ' the Father of Countries/ and 
imagined it the abode of the gods, the future home of every 
great and good man, ' a land with a silver sky.' The story 
of the building of the tower of Babel is the story of an effort 
on the part of the people to get into this home, as it were, 
surreptitiously. In the New World there were similar tales. 
Donnelly says: 

" There is also a clearly established legend which singu- 
larly resembles the Bible record of the Tower of Babel. 

"Father Duran, in his MS. ' Historia Antiqua de la 
Nueva Espanaf A. D. 1585, quotes from the lips of a native 
of Oholula, over one hundred years old, a version of the 
legend as to the building of the great pyramid of Cholula. 
It is as follows : 



240 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

" In the beginning, before the light of the sun had been 
created, this land (Cholula) was in obscurity and darkness, 
and void of any created thing; all was a plain, without hill 
or elevation, encircled in every part by water, without trees 
or created thing; and immediately after the light and the 
sun arose in the east there appeared gigantic men of deformed 
stature and possessed the land, and, desiring to see the nativ- 
ity of the sun, as well as his Occident, proposed to go and 
seek them. Dividing themselves into two parties, some jour- 
neyed to the west and others toward the east ; these travelled 
until the sea cut their road, whereupon they determined to 
return to the place from which they started, and, arriving at 
this place (Cholula), not finding the means of reaching the 
sun, enamoured of his light and beauty, they determined to 
build a tower so high that its summit should reach the sky. 
Having collected materials for the purpose, they found a 
very adhesive clay and bitumen, with which they speedily 
commenced to build the tower; and, having reared it to the 
greatest possible altitude, so that they say it reached to the 
sky, the Lord of the Heavens, enraged, said to the inhabitants 
of the sky, ' Have you observed how they of the earth have 
built a high and haughty tower to mount hither, being 
enamoured of the light of the sun and his beauty? Come 
and confound them, because it is not right that they of the 
earth, living in the flesh, should mingle with us.' Imme- 
diately the inhabitants of the sky sallied forth like flashes of 
lightning; they destroyed the edifice, and divided and scat- 
tered its builders to all parts of the earth." 23 

Another enigma of the pyramids is the fact that they are 
usually orientated roughly according to the cardinal points. 
However, when we consider the evidence that their builders 
naturally followed the design in the heavens, this result is 
logical. 



28 Ignatius Donnelly, "Atlantis/' 21st ed., pp. 200-201. 



EGYPTIAN MYTHS 241 

The fact that the four faces do not exactly conform to 
the cardinal points has been set down as bad management or 
neglect on the part of the builders, but when it is remem- 
bered that they built according to the pattern in the sky, and 
that they viewed this pattern from various angles and at 
various stages of its collapse, it will be seen that this accusa- 
tion is unjust. The oldest of the pyramids, as shown by the 
texts, is located north of Abydos. It belonged to Sneferu 
and was erected in the Fourth Dynasty; the latest belonged 
to the princes of the Twelfth Dynasty. 24 The construction 
of these monuments was therefore a continuous work, lasting 
some thirteen or fourteen centuries. During this long period 
the orientation of the cloud-mountain, which was ever drift- 
ing northwards, must have varied considerable. Tombs 
known as mastabas, which conveyed the same idea as the 
pyramids, were built before the Fourth Dynasty. Their 
angle is 75 and the pyramid angle from 50 to 55. 

Piazza Smyth contended that the angles of the* Great 
Pyramid of Cheops contain factors from which can be cal- 
culated the distance of the sun from our earth. Unwittingly, 
if the ancient builders built true, to their model, this- data 
has been handed down to us. 

Another remarkable piece of testimony from this ancient 
pile at Ghizeh is found in the fact that if one should go down 
the entrance passageway and then turn around and look out 
he would find himself gazing into the northern sky, which 
was probably the only spot of the clear blue visible at the 
time of the erection of this great monument. Perhaps Alpha 
Draconis, which was then (2170 B. 0.) the North Star, and 
which was a very distinguished feature of the polar-egg or 
opening, may have shone right down this passageway when 

M G. Maspero, "Manual of Egyptian Archaeology," trans. Amelia 
B. Edwards, 1895, p. 132, see also p. 140. 
16 



243 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

the pyramid was built. Be this as it may, this egg-shaped 
opening is recorded in the myths of nearly all the ancients. 
It is called by the Greeks " Isles of the Blessed." 

The poets have mistaken the locality of this sky-hole, 
owing to the fact that they naturally associated it with the 
sunset glory. We say naturally, for after the fall of the 
canopy it was the only sky-scene that could be compared to 
the original ruddy isle of Erytheia, on which the bright oxen 
(clouds) of Geryon were pastured. It was the isle of the 
Hesperides, and the apples were the stars seen in its clear 
expanse. Job draws a distinction between ' The Island of 
the Innocent ? and the other countries of the world (xxii : 
30). Ovid draws one between ' The Earth ' and the rest of 
the globe. Plainly the ancients had an idea that terra firma 
was in some way united with the canopy. 

" On the- western margin, of the- earth, by the stream of 
Ocean, lay a happy place named the E-lysi-an Plain, whither 
mortals favored by the gods were transported without tasting 
of death, to enjoy an immortality of bliss. This happy region 
was also called ' Fortunate Fields ' and the ' Isles of the 
Blessed.' " 25 

They need not the moon in that land of delight, 

They need not the pale, pale star; 
The sun is bright, by day and night, 

Where the souls of the blessed are. 
They till not the ground, they plow not the wave, 

They labor not, never! oh, never! 
Not a tear do they shed, not a sigh do- they heave ; 

They are happy for ever and ever ! * 

Wherever pyramid worship is found, one or more of these 
features is in evidence. The teocalli of Cholula covers more 
than twice the ground-space of Cheops. It is orientated, and 
in a vast hollow chamber under the structure- was found two 
skeletons. The Mexican pyramids at Cholula and at Tula 
are said to resemble marvelously certain Assyrian and Chal- 



Bulfinch, " Age of Fable," Scott, p. 3. * Pindar. 



EGYPTIAN MYTHS 343 

dean temples. 27 One of these teocalli glorified Quetzalcoatl 
the good canopy who as a god was reputed to have made 
flowers grow profusely. Originally Mexicans offered fruits 
and flowers to him, but afterwards his nature changed, so to 
propitiate him they offered human sacrifices. Quetzalcoatl 
reminds the investigator of the prince of Tyrus, the covering 
cherub. 

The Spaniards also found two pyramids at San Juan 
Teotihuacan, one of which was dedicated to the sun and the 
other to the moon, but evidence was found that an older cult 
had been superseded. In one of these a passageway ter- 
minated in two small pits or wells, showing that they were 
used as tombs. Nearby are many smaller mounds. The two 
great ones are orientated east and west. 

The great pyramid mound of the Incas on the banks of 
the Moche River is 800 feet long and 150 feet high, and has 
preserved up to this time the secret of its erection. The 
Mound Builders have left similar relics in the North Ameri- 
can Continent. In western Illinois, at about the centre of 
the river flats known as the American Bottom, are a number 
of mound-groups. Cahokia, a truncated pyramid, is the 
largest individual mound; it covers over fourteen acres, or 
more than is covered by the largest Egyptian Pyramid. 

" The great mound at Seltzertown, Mississippi, is of such 
dimensions as almost to preclude the belief of its artificial 
origin. It is a truncated pyramid, about 600 feet long and 
400 broad at its base, and covering nearly six acres of ground. 
It is placed very nearly in reference to the cardinal points, 
its greater length being east and west. Its height is forty 
feet, accessible by a graded way which leads to a platform of 
four acres on the summit. From this platform rise three 
conical mounds, one at each end and one in the centre. Both 



"Prescott, "Conquest of Mexico," book iii, ch. vi. Scientific 
American Supplement, No. 645. Foster, " Prehistoric Races of the 
United States of America," 6th ed., p. 345. 



244 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

of the extreme mounds are truncated, the westernmost ris- 
ing to the height of forty feet, and the easternmost is some- 
what less." 28 

Our author goes on to show that certain of these mounds 
were used as burial places. He says : " The temple-mounds 
were also used as sepulchres. In that at Seltzertown, Dr. 
Dickeson found ' vast quantities of human skeletons/ and 
Mr. Hill, the former owner of the Cahokia Mound, in sink- 
ing a well on its platform, encountered charcoal at the depth 
of twenty-five feet. The Grave Creek Mound, which is in 
the form of a truncated cone the flattened area on top being 
fifty feet in diameter, and therefore coming under the classi- 
fication of temple-mounds was found to enclose two vaults 
originally constructed of wood, which contained human skele- 
tons." 29 

" The Grave Creek Mound, twelve miles below Wheeling, 
in West Virginia, is the most notable of all those in the Ohio 
Valley. 

" It is seventy feet in height by nine hundred in circum- 
ference, and is destitute of lines of circumvallation. In 1838 
Mr. A. B. Tomlinson, the owner of the premises, carried a 
drift along the original surface of the ground to the centre 
of the mound, and sank a shaft from the summit to intercept 
it. ' At the distance of one hundred and eleven feet/ he 
states, in a pamphlet published after the completion of the 
exploration, ' we came to a vault, which had been excavated 
before the mound was commenced, eight by twelve feet and 
seven in depth. Along each side and across the ends, upright 
timbers had been placed, which supported timbers thrown 
across the vault as a ceiling. These timbers were covered 
with loose unhewn stone, common to the neighborhood. The 
timbers had rotted and had tumbled into the vault. 



* J. W. Foster, " Prehistoric Races of the United States of America," 
6th ed., p. 112. 

"Hid., pp. 186-187. 



EGYPTIAN MYTHS 245 

In this vault were two human skeletons, one of which had no 
ornaments; the other was surrounded by six hundred and 
fifty ivory (shell) beads, and an ivory (bone) ornament, six 
inches long. 

" In sinking the shaft, at thirty-four feet above the first 
or bottom vault a similar one was found, enclosing a skeleton 
which had been decorated with a profusion of shell-beads, 
copper-rings, and plates of mica.' 7 30 

All this goes to show that the same idea of death was 
associated with the dismal cloud-mountain by the Mexicans, 
Peruvians, Mound Builders, and Egyptians. So it was also 
in Babylonia, the colossal zikkurats lifting their lofty sum- 
mits in honor of the same cloud-mountain. 

Herman Y. Hilprecht says : " I have recently found 
evidence that, like the Egyptian pyramid, the Babylonian 
stage-tower (or step-pyramid) without doubt was viewed in 
the light of a sepulchral mound erected in honor of a god." 
Our author adds : " I am also inclined to see a last remi- 
niscence of the Babylonian zikkurat in the meftul, the char- 
acteristic watch-tower and defensive bulwark of the present 
Ma 7 dan tribes of Central Babylonia." 31 

Daniel G. Brinton tells of a like tower built by the lord 
of Tezcuco, which to our minds also reflects the old source 
of inspiration. Brinton says : " Nezahutal erected a temple 
nine stories high to represent the nine heavens, which he 
dedicated ' to the Unknown God, the Cause of Causes. 7 This 
temple, he ordained, should never be polluted by blood, nor 
should any graven image ever be set up within its 
precincts. 77 32 

The type of the holy cloud-mountain was reproduced in 



80 IUd., pp. 190-191. 

81 " Explorations in Bible Lands During the Nineteenth Century/ 



p. 287. 

82 " The Myths of the New World," 3d ed., p. 73. 



246 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

every palace and temple of Babylonia, 33 sometimes by build- 
ing it as an artificial mound with trees and plants watered 
from above; again, on a larger scale by the zikkurat or 
' Mountain Peak/ the later device being a sort of pyramid of 
three, five, or seven stages. 

" One of these is the zikkurat to Nin-girsu at Lagash, 
which Gudea describes as ' the house of seven divisions of the 
world ' ; the other, the tower at Uruk, which bore the name 
' house of seven zones.' The reference in both cases is, as 
Jensen has shown, to the seven concentric zones into which 
the earth was divided by the Babylonians. It is a conception 
that we encounter in India and Persia, and that survives in 
the seven ' climates ? into which the world was divided by 
Greek and Arabic geographers. It seems clear that this 
interpretation of the number seven is older than the one 
which identified each story with one of the planets." 34 

This leads us into another field of research, and in pass- 
ing it may be well to glance at the significance of this mys- 
tical number. Jastrow adds : " The suggestion is worthy 
of consideration whether the name ' seven directions of 
heaven and earth ' may not also point to a conception of 
seven zones dividing the heavens as well as the earth. One 
is reminded of the f seven ' heavens of Arabic theology." 35 
One is also reminded of the seven ropes that twirled the sky- 
mountain of the Hindus. 

Heaped were the mountains in heaps. The serpents began to twine 
There were seven of these ' Fiery Phantoms/ that twirled away at the 

line, 

Over them rushed heaven's ocean, Anu a river broad 
Which flowed round this world of ours, around where the monster clawed. 



83 The palaces were veritable terrestrial paradises. The name shows 
the origin, for paradise (in Sanskrit, para desa) means literally high 
land. 

84 Jastrow, "Keligion of Babylonia and Assyria," ch. xxvi, pp. 
619-620. 



EGYPTIAN MYTHS 247 

Ea, alias the ' House of the Waters,' lived in this ocean vast, 
An * Exalted Fish ' they called him, in the story of Vishnu cast. 

The fact that this great mountain always turned upon 
its axis in an easterly course is probably the reason why the 
following strange passage occurs in the Book of the Dead. 

It's written in the ' Ritual ' " Retreat, 
Retreat," it says, " Unto the eastern heavens, 
Unto the dwellings which support the mount 
That great mysterious mountain that spreads light 
Among the gods," high in the northern sky. 

Such was the substance of the direction given to the 
dead to guide them on their skyward journey to the ' Blessed 
Land.' In the pyramid built for King Teta (about 3300 
B. C.) the following text occurs: " Teta comes to the two 
heavens, Teta arrives at the two earths, Teta treads upon 
the herbage growing under the feet of Seb, he traverses the 
road of Nu-t." 36 

The mountain chambers, the Hall of Two Truths, and 
Set or Seb, the verdant earth, are all depicted before 
the departed Teta, and he is told that he must traverse the 
road of ISTu-t; that is, the sky-road. This sky, according to 
some, extended overhead like an immense iron ceiling, and, 
according to others, like a huge shallow vault. For this 
reason " iron, like many other things in Egypt, was pure or 
impure according to circumstances. If some traditions held 
it up to odium as an evil thing, and stigmatized it as the 
( bones of Typhon,' other traditions, equally venerable, 
affirmed that it was the very substance of the canopy of 
heaven. So authoritative was this view, that iron was cur- 
rently known as ' Ba-en-pet/ or the celestial metal." 37 

It was plain even to the ancients that such a sky could not 
remain unsupported in space, therefore Nu-t was supposed 



"Scientific American Supplement No. 1075. 

87 G. Maspero, "Manual of Egyptian Archaeology," trans. Amelia B. 
Edwards, 1895, p. 196. 



248 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

to be sustained in her lofty position by her arms and legs. 
These made four pillars; accordingly their temples were 
planned to illustrate this idea. " The columns, and if need- 
ful the four corners of the chambers, stood for the pillars. 
The roofj vaulted at Abydos, flat elsewhere, corresponded 
exactly with the Egyptian idea of the sky. Each of these 
parts was, therefore, decorated in consonance with its mean- 
ing. Those next to the ground were clothed with vegetation. 
The bases of the columns were surrounded by leaves." 38 
The vaulted roof sometimes contained stars. At others ser- 
pents, the various names of which are ' Fire Face/ ' Flaming 
Eye/ < Evil Eye/ etc. 39 

The Egyptians kept a festival to commemorate the sus- 
pension of the sky by the ancient god Ptah, ' the Opener/ 
who was venerated as creator of the world. J. Norman 
Lockyer says: 

" About 5300 B. C. we seem almost in the time of the 
divine dynasties, and begin to understand how it is that in 
the old traditions Ptah precedes Ka and is called ' the father 
of the beginnings, and the creator of the egg of the Sun and 
Moon.' " 40 After Ptah came the great Sun-god Ka, whose 
father was Nu or E"u-t. Ka waged war against the demon 
of darkness called Apap or Apapi, who was a serpent. He 
journeyed over Nu-t's back, traversed over the road of Nu-t. 

This Nu-t is represented in her drawings as a female 
figure spanning the heavens, her finger-tips touching the one 
horizon and her toes the other. !N"u-t, like all the canopies, 
was the ( mother of the gods. 7 In the Hindu and Babylonian 
myths we have seen that the vapor-belt was credited with 
being the source of life both in the heavens and in the earth. 
The canopy diffused the solar rays and diffusion seems to 



38 Ibid., p. 90. m llid., p. 164. 

40 "The Dawn of Astronomy," ch. xxxi, p. 318. Brugsch, "Religion 
und Mythologie," p. 111. Pierret, " Salle Historique de la Galerie 
Egyptiewne" (du Louvre), p. 199. 



EGYPTIAN MYTHS 249 

have made confusion, for with each new aspect of light a 
new god was born. Thus the list was ever being increased, 
and yet, after all, how many gods were there? Many were 
closely related and many more may be proved to be actually 
identical. For instance, Hathor, the cow-headed (i.e., cloud- 
headed) was worshiped at Denderah. She was born out from 
and in the cloud, and is certainly only another aspect of the 
arched Nu-t. She also, like Nu-t, is said to have been the 
i mother of all living/ but what is of more importance is 
that she is identified with Aphrodite and corresponds to 
Jshtar, and some enthusiasts have even gone so far as to say 
that her cult can be traced in the worship of the aborigines 
of North America, but this similarity is only a witness of the 
common phenomenon personified and deified both in the east 
and in the west. As Aphrodite was the goddess of eternal 
light, it is probable that Hathor was that aspect of perpetual 
illumination seen in Nu-t and which the Hindus recorded by 
saying that " Agni was Yaruna and was Indra too." 

Sometimes Nu-t is represented double, a larger stretching 
over a smaller one. The outer one is studded with stars. 
The inner one, however, is plainly a band of water. These 
wheels within wheels suggest a firmament above and below, 
and they show us the evolutionary process by which it came 
about that the vapor-belt was looked upon as the ' mother.' 
Ascending and descending on E"u-t's curved back, athwart 
the vaulted sky, are boats containing the gods. These, of 
course, were shells of light (halos) surrounding the heavenly 
orbs. 

These boats or halos seen ascending and descending on 
Nu-t's body were the origin of many customs and myths. At 
first baris or barks sustained on the priest's shoulders were 
carried in procession. 

In these, " hidden from the sight of every profane eye, 
were supposed to be stationed those renowned gods descended 
from the Yedic Aria upon the land of Kemi at successive and 



250 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

unknown epochs: Ph-t-ah, or Agny, meaning fire; Ph-Ra, 
an equivalent of Re, Ra, Ri, La, El, the sun (i.e., shiner) ; 
Jom, an equivalent of Om, Aom, and Homa; Sevek, i.e., 
Siva; and Asiri, the equivalent of Asura. These were the 
Indian deities and titles with which the analogy of the Egyp- 
tian gods and goddesses is thus indicated." 41 

These baris also contained the local conceptions of the 
gods, many of them half monster, half woman. 

Menes, according to the historical record, is the first king 
of the first dynasty. He was reputed to be " the successor 
of Asiri, the son and god of the dead ; he belongs to the first 
Vedic tradition, like the Sanskrit Manu, son of the Sun and 
brother of the Asura Yama, the god of the dead; like the 
Manes of Lydia, son of Cronus ; like the Cretan Menos, son 
of Zeus; the Minyas of lolcus, son of Titan, and the Manus 
of Germany, son of Chaos." 42 

But to return to the custom of taking the gods around in 
boats. In Egypt the display naturally sought the waters of 
the Nile, and as the whole procedure was associated with 
death, it was not long before funeral rites began to develop 
along the same lines. Thus sacred barks were built, after 
the model of the bari, in which the mummy was conveyed to 
its last resting place, the idea being that as the gods floated 
in boats over the canopy-sea, so also their sacred dead were 
required to journey. " In their effort to restore the dead 
men to the happy island-home, the heavenly land beyond the 
water, the Norsemen actually set their dead heroes afloat in 
boats on the open ocean." 43 The world wide conception 
being that the canopy-sea was connected with the terrestrial 
ocean. The island-home refers to the Isles of the Blessed, 
the egg-hole of the north. 



41 F. De Lanoye, "Wonders of Art and Archaeology in Egypt 3300 
Years Ago," p. 78. 
"Ibid., p. 287. 
48 Poor, "Sanskrit and Kindred Literatures," pp. 371, 372. 



EGYPTIAN MYTHS 251 

In the boat in which the sun-god of Egypt took his daily 
ride on the Nile, a shrine was placed amidships, which was 
covered with a veil to conceal him from the eyes of the 
spectators. 

Looking at the original diurnal journey of the sun across 
the canopy, the record shows that he was at one time lost, as 
it were, in the folds of Apapi. G. Maspero says : " After 
the fifth hour, the heavenly ocean became a vast battle-field. 
The gods of light pursued, captured, and bound the serpent 
Apapi, and at the twelfth hour they strangled him. But this 
triumph was not of long duration. Scarcely had the sun 
achieved this victory when his bark was borne by the tide 
into the realm of the night hours." 44 

It is interesting to find that this custom has continued 
down to the present day, and it is instructive, for it shows 
us with what tenacity an idea is passed from one generation 
to another. We may well surmise that any such relics sur- 
viving the last thousand years may have come down through 
indefinite ages. Two illustrations of the present-day sur- 
vivals will suffice. The khedive of Egypt still sends to Mecca 
as an annual gift a tabernacle, known as Mahmal, that pre- 
sents the outline of a ship. We find the other illustration in 
India. Frank S. Dobbins says: 

" As of almost all the gods, Ganesha (the elephant god) 
has his festivals, when the people come together in great 
crowds to do him honor. At one of these annual festivals 
they bring forth the god Ganesha, place him in a boat, and, 
accompanied with other boats containing priests and musi- 
cians, they row up and down the Ganges. The great crowds 
of people lining the shore fill the air with their shouts and 
songs, and the occasion is one of exuberant joy." 4a 

Modified by art, beautiful stories have grown from the 

44 "Manual of Egyptian Archaeology," trans. Amelia B. Edwards, 
p. 164. 

""Gods and Deyils of Mankind," p. 269. 



252 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

same myth. ' Lohengrin ' is one of these. With a few alter- 
ations, we give it as told by Charles De B. Mills. He tells 
us that: 

" Lohengrin is one of those heroes, half unearthly, who 
come, men know not whence, and are first seen sleeping in a 
boat upon a river. Lohengrin was son of Percival, and he 
heard once the peal of a bell far away, untouched by human 
hands, in the temple of the Grail at Montsalvatch. That 
peal was a signal that help was needed. He arose and was 
starting, not knowing whither he should go. Foot in stirrup, 
ready to mount his horse, he saw a swan on the river, drawing 
a ship along. ' Take back the horse to its stable/ said he. 
' I will go with the bird, whither it shall lead.' Five days 
he was on the water, drawn in his boat not only, but supplied 
with nourishment by the faithful bird. At the end of this 
time, they came where the lists were opened by Frederick 
Von Telramund, a brave knight, who would fight against any 
champion she might bring forward for possession of Elsa of 
Brabant, who had refused his suit. Lohengrin undertook 
the defense of the Lady, fought, prevailed, slew Frederick, 
and in return was offered her hand and the duchy. He 
accepted it on condition : she must never ask his race. Hap- 
pily they lived together for a time, but one night, piqued with 
curiosity and stung with insinuations and reproaches she 
had heard, she did put the fatal question. 

" Lohengrin sorrowfully called his children together, 
kissed them, and said : e Here are my horn and my sword, 
keep them carefully; and here, my wife, is the ring my 
mother gave me ; never part with it.' At break of day, the 
swan reappeared, drawing the boat, Lohengrin reentered and 
disappeared, nevermore to return. 

" This story ought to be transparent enough. It is the 
reproduction of the old, old tale, the prince wedded to the 
dawn (or, rather, the sun wedded to the canopy, for it seems 
that the original myth dealt not with the daily occurrence 



EGYPTIAN MYTHS 253 

but with the yearly phenomenon). He had rescued the 
maiden, marries her, but cannot remain with her; he comes 
in a boat (a shell of light, a halo), and he also goes in a 
boat, drawn by the faithful swan that swims the cerulean 
seas. There is a close relation of this tale with those of 
Melusina, of Undine, of Pururavas and Urvasi, Eros and 
Psyche, etc. ' Lohengrin ' is one of a family of stories cele- 
brating Knights of the Swan." 46 

46 " The Tree of Mythology," pp. 91-93. 



CHAPTER XVII 

MYTHS OF GREECE AND ROME 

News ! what news ? Has it in truth then ended, 

The term appointed for that wondrous sleep? 
Has Earth so well her fairest brood defended 

Within her bosom? Was their slumber deep? 
Not this our dreamless rest that knows no waking, 

But that to which the years are as a day? 
What! are they coming back, their prison breaking, 

These gods of Homer's chant, of Pindar's lay? 

Olympia? Yes, strange tidings from the city 

Which pious mortals builded, stone by stone, 
For those old gods of Hellas, half in pity 

Of their storm-mantled height and dwelling lone, 
Their seat upon the mountain overhanging 

Where Zeus withdrew behind the rolling cloud, 
Where crowned Apollo sang, the phorminx twanging, 

And at Poseidon's word the forests bowed. 

Ay, but that fated day 
When from the plain Olympia passed awayj 
When ceased the oracles, and long unwept 
Amid their fanes the gods deserted fell, 
While sacerdotal ages, as they slept, 
The ruin covered well ! 1 

JUST as in the case with the other nations, the beings 
called gods by the Greeks are only personifications of the 
powers and objects of nature, and the legends likewise are 
only representations of the courses of nature and its 
operations. 

The farther back the myths are traced, the more closely 
the gods become associated with the scenes of the canopy. 
Thus the Greek sky-god, Zeus, corresponds to the Hindu sky- 
god, Dyaus. The word is derived from the root ' dyu/ which 



'Stedman's "News From Olympia.' 
254 



MYTHS OF GREECE AND ROME 255 

means ' to shine.' He was the ' Heaven father ' called by the 
Hindus Dyaus-pitar, by the Romans Diovis-pater or Jupiter, 
by the Greeks Zeus-pater. Uranus means i the coverer.' His 
name is derived from the root ' var.' He is identified with 
the Hindu Varuna, the vault of heaven. 2 Hera comes from 
the Sanskrit root ' svar ' the bright sky. Cannes, half man, 
half fish, was an Eastern god, the Lord of Darkness. His 
name is derived from the Hindu Anu. Apollo may be 
derived from a Sanskrit form, Apa-var-yan or Apa-val-yan, 
and may mean ( one who opens the gate of the sky.' 3 At 
some remote period, probably, the ancestors of the Greeks 
said : " The one who opens the gate of the sky pursues the 
burning one (Dahana)." This soon assumed the form, 
Apollo courted Daphne and she fled from him and was turned 
into a laurel tree. The significance of the tree in mythology 
will be enlarged upon later when we come to consider the 
World-ash of Scandinavia. 

Some other scholars Schroder, for instance- think that 
Apollo is derived from the Yedic Saparagenya, an epithet 
of Agni. This again brings us to the canopy, as Agni was 
the light seen in the great world-blanket. It is strange, but 
the theft of fire seems to be the theme-root in both cases. 

Herodotus says : " Whence each of the gods sprung, 
whether they existed always, and of what form they were, 
was, so to speak, unknown till yesterday. For I am of 
opinion that Hesiod and Homer lived four hundred years 
before my time, and not more, and these were they who 
framed a theogony for the Greeks, and gave names to the 
gods, and assigned to them honors and arts, and declared 
their several forms." * * * " Indeed, the names of 
almost all the gods came from Egypt into Greece; for that 
they came from barbarians I find on inquiry to be the case ; 
and I think they chiefly proceeded from Egypt." 4 

'Hopkins, "Religions of India," pp. 166, 167. 

3 Max Mtiller, ii, 692-697. 4 B. ii, 50, 53, Gary's translation. 



256 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

The astronomical systems of the Egyptians and the 
Greeks also show clearly the effects of a common origin, the 
original sky-canopy ring system. " F. A. Paley aids the 
imagination of his readers as follows : ' We might familiarly 
illustrate the Hesiodic notion of the flat circular earth and 
the convex overarching sky by a circular plate with a hemi- 
spherical dish-cover of metal placed over it and concealing it. 
Above the cover (which is supposed to rotate on an axis) 
live the gods. Bound the inner concavity is the path of the 
sun, giving light to the earth below." 5 

Aristotle tells plainly that the sky was solid. The great 
philosopher of Stagia said : " The universe is a fixed point ; 
the central point is earth, and above it is a bounding field." 
" Stars," he added, " are fixed to it like studs." Euclid and 
Cicero also taught that the stars were fixed in a solid sphere. 
The astral note from Egypt comes from Claudius Ptolemseus. 
His ' Heavens of the Spheres ' were composed of nine con- 
centric circles, including the fire ring. All of which were 
of glass. This latter, or fire-ring, seems to have been a remi- 
niscence of the fire or sunlight seen in the old canopy when 
Agni was Yaruna and was Indra too. It was located nearer 
to the earth than any of the other spheres. This whole 
peculiar astronomical conception undoubtedly grew out of 
the old method of thought, and it was not until the time of 
Seneca that the question was raised against it. How heret- 
ical the following must have sounded : " Is the sky solid 
and of a firm and compact substance ? " They had always 
been taught that it was. 

In connection with the idea of concentric rings, it is 
interesting to find that the Finn cosmogonists actually be- 
lieved that the world was one huge egg, the sky the shell, and 
the yolk the earth. The Norsemen contended that the sky 
was Ymer's skull, the earth his flesh, and the rocks his bones. 



8 "The Epics of Hesiod, with an English Commentary," London, 
1861, p. 172. 



MYTHS OF GREECE AND ROME 257 

It is significant that Ymer seems originally to have meant 
the sea the word being akin to the Latin mare. 6 The 
Hindus supposed that the world stood on a turtle's back. 
Ruskin says : " The tortoise shell, the image of the dappled 
concave of the cloudy sky." Cooper says : " With reference 
to the turtle, there is probability in the view that the name 
of this animal was first given as a symbol of the world, the 
upper shell representing the sky, the under shell the earth, 
and the body between the two the atmosphere." 7 

Between the shells of the turtle we can imagine that 
Chaos ~Nox and Darkness reigned. Erebus, or blackness, 
was a veritable existence. All the cosmogonies begin with 
this ' Age of Darkness.' Orpheus says : " From the begin- 
ning the gloomy night enveloped and obscured all things that 
were under the ether. The earth was invisible on account 
of the darkness, but the light broke through the ether and 
illuminated the earth." 

Sanchoniathon was a Phosnician and only fragments of 
his writings survive. He tells us that " the beginning of all 
things was a condensed, windy air, or a breeze of thick air, 
and a chaos turbid and black as Erebus. Out of this chaos 
was generated Mot, which some call Ilus, but others the 
putrefaction of a watery mixture. And from this sprang all 
the seed of the creation, and the generation of the universe. 
* * * And when the air began to send forth light, winds 
were produced and clouds, and very great defluxions and 
torrents of the heavenly waters." 

Berosus, the Babylonian whose records have been pre- 
served in the temple of Belus, says : " There was a time in 
which there existed nothing but darkness and an abyss of 
waters, wherein resided most hideous beings, which were pro- 
duced of a twofold principle." 



8 Cooper, " Serpent Myths," p. 17. 

7 Charles De B. Mills, " The Tree of Mythology," pp. 34, 35. 
17 



258 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

" From the ' Laws of Menu/ of the Hindus, we learn that 
the universe existed at first in darkness." The following text 
is taken from the Vedas : " The Supreme Being alone ex- 
isted; afterward there was universal darkness; next the 
watery ocean was produced by the diffusion of virtue." 

The Thlinkeets of British Columbia say : " Very dark, 
damp, and chaotic was the world in the beginning; nothing 
with breath or body moved there except Yehl ; in the likeness 
of a raven he brooded over the mist; his black winds beat 
down the vast confusion; the waters went back before him 
and the dry land appeared. The Thlinkeets were placed on 
the earth though how or when does not exactly appear 
while the world was still in darkness, and without sun, moon, 
or stars." 8 

Pythias, in the early times, before the mariner's compass 
was invented, coasted from Marseilles to the Shetland Isles. 
On one occasion, when he returned, he declared that his 
progress was stopped by an immense black clam or oyster, 
which was suspended in the air. And he further declared 
that if any ship advanced toward it it would be swallowed 
up in its gigantic shell. 

In the Greek cosmogony Chaos gave way to Uranus, the 
shining canopy or coverer, and to Pontus, the sky-ocean. 

It is recorded of Uranus that he hated all his children, 
and directly after their birth he placed them under the 
Tartarian pall; that is, he hid them in darkness. Cronus 
then dethroned him, the new forms supplanting the old. But 
in turn he did even worse by his offspring, for it is said that 
he devoured the first five. In order to save the sixth, Rhea, 
his wife, " succeeded in duping her husband by giving him a 
stone (perhaps rudely hewn into the figure of an infant) 
wrapped in swaddling-clothes, which he swallowed, believing 
he had got rid of another danger. 

'Bancroft, "Native Races," vol. iii, p. 98. Ignatius Donnelly, 
" Ragnarok," pp. 208, 209, 213. 



MYTHS OF GREECE AND ROME 259 

" While the husband was being deceived in this fashion, 
Zeus, the newly-born child (the true sky), was conveyed to 
the island of Crete, and there concealed in a cave on Mount 
Ida. The nymphs Adrastea and Ida tended and nursed him, 
the goat Amalthea supplied him with milk, bees gathered 
honey for him, and in the meantime, lest his infantile cries 
should reach the ears of Cronus, Jlhea's servants, the Curetes, 
were appointed to keep up a continual noise and din in the 
neighborhood by dancing and clashing their swords and 
shields. 

" When Zeus (the true sky) had grown to manhood he 
succeeded by the aid of Gaea, or perhaps of Metis, in per- 
suading Cronus to bring back into the light the sons whom 
he had swallowed and the stone which had been given him in 
deceit. The stone was placed at Delphi as a memorial for 
all time. The liberated gods joined their brethren in a league 
to drive their father from the throne and set Zeus in his 
place." 9 

The age of Cronus is called the ' Golden/ for he was the 
protecting god, blanketing the earth as under a greenhouse 
roof. His name means the ' Dark One.' But as this signi- 
fies nothing in this age, it being unintelligible to modern 
thought, confusion has naturally followed. Thus, Max 
Miiller says he is Time ( ?) ; Kuhn, Midnight-sky; Sayce, 
the sun ; Canon Taylor, Star-swallowing sky ; Tiel, Midnight- 
sky, Under-world, etc. ; Hartung, Sun scorching spring. 
Thus the authorities are set in confusion. Now, in the light 
of the present hypothesis all is clear: the new-born scenes 
were smothered by the dark one, and thus hidden from the 
earth. Bright Zeus (Jupiter), the true sky, alone escaped 
this fate. 

As we have seen, the liberated gods, according to the 
legend, now decided to enthrone Zeus in his rightful place, 
but the Titans, the elder gods, did not acquiesce to this 

"Murray, "Manual of Mythology," 20th ed., pp. 45-46. 



260 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

change of government. These giants sprang from the blood 
of Uranus, the old ring; they were of such monstrous size, 
being closer to the eye than the other sky-forms, and they 
were of such fearful appearance, that it is no wonder that 
the people of Greece thought that they were swallowing up 
all the other gods. They were twelve in number. Amongst 
them were Oceanus, whose very name suggests water, and 
whose children were all mythological rivers, Alphesu, Peneus, 
etc.; his daughters were called the Oceanides. Hyperion 
was another one of the twelve. He seems to have been the 
light in the canopy, for he is credited with being the father 
of Helios, the sun; Selene, the moon; and Eos, or Aurora, 
the dawn. Of course all these lights were first seen in the 
canopy. lapetos, or Japetus, was the father of Atlas, whom 
all know so well because of his bearing the vapor globe on 
his back. lapetus was imprisoned with Cronus, the old vapor 
sky in Tartarus, the black canopy. Cronus is also one of 
the Titans. His wife, Ehea, whose Latin name is Cybele, 
like all the canopies was called ' the mother ? because she 
was the mother of the gods, the Magna Mater. She is of 
the same nature as !N~u-t, with whom she may be identified. 

We have mentioned the fact that the Titans did not 
acquiesce in the change of government brought about by the 
gods liberated from the maw of Cronus, hence war broke out. 
In other words, though the clear sky had appeared, remnants 
of the old canopies still lingered, and these vapor-forms were 
said to be warring with the new gods, who time and again 
slew them. Yet, nothing fearing, these great giants of the 
fallen canopy ever returned to the attack. 

It is said that they took up Ossa (a cloud mountain) and 
piled it on the top of Mount Pelion (another cloud moun- 
tain), and from this great height they sprang upon Olympus, 
the home mountain of the new race of gods. 10 It is then said 

10 The cloud-mountains, of which Olympus was the mightiest, were 
permanent features in the upper atmosphere, and are not to be con- 



MYTHS OF GREECE AND ROME 261 

that these giants drove the gods and heroes down into Egypt, 
that is, into the southern sky, which alone remained clear and 
open from their black, gigantic forms. Apollo, the sun, was 
changed into a crow, a ka, or kaw, a soul separated from its 
body; that is, an outcast hidden in the vapor. Zeus (Jupiter, 
Jove), the pure sky, was changed into a raven; that is, black 
cloudlets floated athwart his fair face. Disguised thus, he 
was sacrificed unto the spirit of the watery waste. Hera 
(Juno) was turned into a red-cow, which recalls to our mind 
the fact that in the Hindu myths lowing kine were clouds. 
Venus, like Ea, was changed into a fish. 

The mountains skipped like rams, the little hills 
Like lambs, or young sons of the flock, the clouds. 
No wonder that the Psalmist asked the sea 
What ailed it, that it fled away and fell. 
The Giants falling covered the pure sky, 
And solid flint was changed into a stream. 11 

After many days Pallas Athene (Minerva), who was the 
offspring of Zeus, without a mother, and whom the records 
tell us sprang from his head completely armed, invented for 
her father thunderbolts. With these he hurried back to the 
war. The open sky brought our modern storm with it, thus 
thunder was a newly invented thing, and it is further re- 
corded that with its might he subdued the giants one and all. 

O Thunderer! O mighty Thunderer! 

O wondrous blue sky that hast come to stay! 

We scarce may think of thee when thou didst dwell 

Above Olympus, when the mind of man 

Knew not and saw not save by sound in ear. 

He heard thy infant voice as thunder speak, 

And, hearing, knew a change was coming soon. 

It seems so strange, O Zeus, that once there was 

A curtain hanging o'er thy face, a veil, 



fused with the fleeting storm forms. These mountains held their 
position under the uplifting influence of a zonal canopy-belt which 
prevented the radiation of their heat, and thus the lighter than air 
vapors were drawn to immense heights. 
11 Ps. cxiv:4-8. 



262 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

And man, so puny, knew, but saw you not! 

To see a god was death to mortals then. 

Behold thy glory filled his troubled dreams! 

A nightmare grand, and yet perchance he waked, 

And, waking, found thy dreamy vapors real! 

Clouds piled on clouds on top of other clouds, 

As mountains heaped on mountains reaching high 

A ladder which the hosts of heaven used. 

So dreaming of a daily sight to him 

Young Jacob felt the God of Nature near. 

Unveiled, uncloaked the Titans all have gone, 

But thou, Thunderer, hast come to stay! 

Personified. Hie! Storm King, rule each shower! 

Pallas Athene, the goddess of Wisdom, it will be remem- 
bered, sprang from her father's head fully equipped for the 
fray. Wisdom burst upon man when the clear sky caused 
their gods to evaporate. 12 She was ' Queen of the Air/ 
as Ruskin says : 

Full many arrows did she turn aside, 

And many heroes by her arrows fell. 

Thus waged the war of falling canopies, 

Thus waged the battle of the changing sea, 

And changes brought with them the light of wisdom. 

Minerva-like, thought after thought sprang up 

From the true sky in burning eloquence 

The visions of the past were now no more. 

Perhaps the greatest event in this last battlefield of the 
gods is Apollo's (the sun's) victory over the serpent-ring, 
Python. In honor of his victory Byron sings: 

"The lord of the unerring bow 
The God of life, and poesy, and light 
The Sun, in human limbs arrayed, and brow 
All radiant from his triumph in the fight, 
The shaft hath just been shot the arrow bright 



12 In our chapter on " Genesis " it will be remembered that the 
cause of the removal of the Eden Canopy was to bring wisdom to man. 
He had eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Natural 
things had therefore to pass away, that he might be led to see the 
spiritual; that he might be led to worship the Creator instead of his 
works. 



MYTHS OF GREECE AND ROME 263 

With an immortal's vengeance; in his eye 
And nostril beautiful disdain, and might 
And majesty, flash their full lightnings by 
Developing the glance of Deity." 13 

This picture of the sun personified 
Portrays the universal scene again 
A wheeling and a whirling glory hid 
By heaven's curtains drawn about a lamp, 
Much magnified to many times its size, 
And mock suns keeping company with the real 
All girt with halos and diffused light 
Like luminous bright circles born of fire. 
A heaven-wide battlefield all bloody red 
Revolving world-clouds and a misty haze, 
And towards the pole a helix spinning round 
The Isle of Delos, or the serpent's egg. 
Known in the myths as the waste floating rock, 
The cave-hole of the north, the starry sea. 

This open place is of such mythological interest that our 
readers will pardon us if we digress from our subject in 
order to investigate some of its beauties. " In ancient cos- 
mology the ' door of heaven ' was situated at the North Pole 
of the sky.' 7 14 

Job refers to the open place as the " Island of the Inno- 
cent. " 15 The Tacullies say, God first created an island. 
Greek traditions fix the Upa-Merou as the birthplace of the 
human race, and the Egyptians claim that their ancestors 
came from the Island of Mero. Among the Hindus Meru 
was the land of the gods, the place where deity was shrouded 
in darkness and mystery. Phaeton, whose story was told in 
our last chapter, was a scorching canopy. He was the son 
of Merops, and Theopompus tells us that the people who 
inhabited Atlantis were the Meropes, the people of Merou. 

In the Hindu legends the great battle between Kama and 
Havana, the sun and the canopy, took place on the island of 

u " Childe Harold," iv, 161. Certain liberties taken with the last line. 
14 Khandogya-Upanishad, xxiv, 3, 4, 7, 8, 11, 12. "Sacred Books of 
the East," vol. i, pt. i, pp. 36, 37. "Job xxii:30. 



264 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

Lanka. Kama built a stone bridge which reminds us of the 
Bif rost bridge of the Scandinavians. It was sixty miles long 
and reached to the island. This island again carries us to 
the North Land. It reminds us of Asgard, which lay to the 
west of Europe and was reached by the Bridge. It was to 
the east and west that the pillars of the canopy were seen 
dipping, or, we should say, rising and setting, against the 
horizon. In the Arabian legends we have the scene of the 
world catastrophe described as an island. Here the gods of 
Scandinavia met their doomsday. It was the place where 
the three cloud-mountain chains went out as three roots of 
the great tree Ygdrasil. It was the place of the sacred tree 
of the ' world-mountain ' that the Hindu legends refer to. 
And its top we see was Olympus, below it was hell, and in 
between was the open-eye, Ymer, where Odin left his precious 
eye in pawn. It was the Island of Meru or Merou. 

The Ojibways cross to paradise on a great snake, which 
serves as a bridge. The Choctaw bridge is a slippery pine- 
log. The South American Manacicas cross on a wooden 
bridge. 

" Among some of the North American tribes ' the souls 
come to a great lake ' (the eye-hole or cave) c where there is 
a beautiful island, toward which they paddle in a canoe of 
white stone. On the way there arises a storm, and the wicked 
souls are wrecked, and the heaps of their bones are to be 
seen under the water, but the good reach the happy island." 

" The Slav believed in a pathway or road which led to 
the other world; and, since the journey was long, they put 
boots into the coffin (for it was made on foot), and coins to 
pay the ferrying across a wide sea, even as the Greeks ex- 
pected to be carried over the Styx by Charon. This abode 
of the dead, at the end of this long pathway, was an island, 
a warm, fertile land, called Buy an." 16 

16 Tylor, " Early Mankind," p. 362. Poor, " Sanskrit and Kindred 
Literatures," pp. 371, 372. Donnelly, " Ragnarok," pp. 386, 387. 



MYTHS OF GREECE AND ROME 265 

Ovid's earth was surrounded by the ocean. " And along 
the outer strand of that sea they gave lands for the giant- 
races to dwell in, and against the attack of restless giants 
they built a burg within the sea and around the earth." 

This is the spot where Apollo, or the sun, first appeared, 
hence it was said that he was born there (Isle of Delos). 
His father was Zeus, the pure sky, and his mother Latona, 
or the shade, from whence he was seen to emerge. Latona 
was the concealing hiding thing, the canopy. 

This eye-hole spot where Apollo was born is also the 
Diktaian cave in which the infant Zeus, his father, the clear 
sky, was born. The Lake and the Cave in our nursery tale 
the Lady descending into the Lake and rising from the Cave, 
etc., etc. are in every sense the far-north land, the country 
of the Hyperboreans, from whose caverns the piercing blasts 
of the north wind are said to have issued. 

Many of the myths we have just cited referred to this 
lake as an island. We would now point out that it was like- 
wise of necessity a cave. The Greeks and Egyptians con- 
sidered it the birthplace of their respective races. The fol- 
lowing legends throws some light on the reason why this 
clear-spot was regarded as the beginning place. The Choc- 
taws say that in Nanih waiga, the sloping hill " was a cave, 
the house of the Master of Breath. Here he made the first 
men from the clay around him, and, as at that time the waters 
covered the earth, he raised the wall to dry them on. When 
the soft mud had hardened into elastic flesh and firm bone, 
he banished the waters to their channels and beds, and gave 
the dry land to his creatures." 17 

The Indians, along with the rest of the inhabitants of the 
earth that then was, saw new conditions continually arising 
in the egg-hole. They saw hordes of animals and even strange 
races of their fellow beings coming down from the far north, 
driven forward by some last advance of the departing Ice 
"Brinton, "Myths of the New World," p. 247. 



266 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

age. They saw all this and imagined that these creatures, 
like the sky scenes, had all originated up there in that cave- 
hole region, hence it was to them the beginning place. 

" A parallel to the legend just cited occurs among the 
Six Nations of the North. They with one consent looked 
to a mountain near the falls of the Oswego River, in the 
State of New York, as the locality where their forefathers 
saw the light of day ; and their name, Oneida, signifies ' the 
people of the stone.' 

" The cave of Pacarin-Tampu, the Lodgings of the Dawn, 
or the Place of Birth of the Peruvians, was five leagues dis- 
tant from Cuzco, surrounded by a sacred grove, and inclosed 
with temples of great antiquity. 

" From its hallowed recesses," says Balboa, " the mythical 
civilizers of Peru, the first men, emerged, and in it, during 
the time of the flood, the remnants of the race escaped the 
fury of the waves." 18 

Though the Place of Birth in the above myths has been 
assigned to specific geographical localities, yet it is evident 
from the context that originally the place of beginning had a 
mythological horizon. The egg-hole of the Peruvians may 
have been in the Southern sky. 

Donnelly also gives the following : " The philosopher 
of Oraibi tells us that the people climbed a ladder or magical 
tree from the cave-hole to this world. The firmament, the 
ceiling of this world, was low down upon the earth the 
floor of this world. This was an age of cold and darkness 
and there was as yet no sun or moon." 

Naturally darkness is associated with this cave-hole, 
Latona; the shade kept drawing in closer and closer until 
at last the inner edge was precipitated. During this stage, 
as the Oraibis say, " it was an age of cold and darkness." 
The ancient Britons tell us of the same conditions. They 
say that: 

M " Ragnarok," pp. 201, 202. 



MYTHS OF GREECE AND ROME 267 

" The profligacy of mankind provoked the great Supreme 
to send a pestilential wind upon the earth A pure poison 
descended, every blast was death. At this time the patriarch, 
distinguished for his integrity, was shut up, together with 
his select company, in the inclosure with the strong door. 
Here the just ones were safe from injury. Presently a 
tempest of fire arose. It split the earth asunder to the great 
deep. The lake Llion burst its bounds, and the waves of the 
sea lifted themselves on high around the borders of Britain, 
the rain poured down from heaven, and the waters covered 
the earth." 19 

The blast of poisonous vapor indicates the dispersion of 
the gaseous canopy, which in our scientific chapters was 
figured as floating above the atmosphere. It may have con- 
sisted in part of carbon dioxide, but be this as it may, its 
rupture meant the fall of the cloud-vapors and belts, which 
had attained great heights in the atmosphere, carried upward 
by their own buoyancy. Water-vapor being lighter than 
air, and radiation, and hence condensation, being prevented 
by the overruling blanket, these phenomena of raised moun- 
tain-clouds, and an open lake space in the north, were 
inevitable. When the canopy itself was ruptured, the above 
myth goes on to tell us, Lake Llion, the sky-hole, burst its 
bounds. Many other tribes and tongues and peoples have 
recorded this same break-up. 

" The Algonquins believed in a world, an earth, anterior 
to this of ours, but one without light or human inhabitants. 
A lake burst its bounds and submerged it wholly." 20 

The Aztecs prayed to Tezcatlipoca, who was represented 
as a flying serpent that is, they prayed to the canopy, to the 
god of the black waters and their cry was : " Is it possible 
that this lash and chastisement are not given for our cor- 
rection and amendment, but only for our total destruction 



18 <( 



Mythology of the British Druids," p. 226. 
"Ragnarok," p. 222. 



268 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

and overthrow; that the sun will never more shine upon us, 
but that we must remain in perpetual darkness ? * * * 
It is a sore thing to tell how we are all in darkness. * * * 
O Lord, * * * make an end of this smoke and fog. 
Quench also the burning and destroying fire of thine anger ; 
let serenity come and clearness, let the small birds of the 
people begin to sing and approach the sun." 21 

The Chinese historians say that " P'an-ku came forth in 
the midst of the great chaotic void, and we know not his 
origin ; that he knew the rationale of heaven and earth, and 
comprehended the changes of the darkness and the light." 
These annals tell us further of the " Ten Stems " or stages of 
canopy development : " At Wu the Sixth Stem the Dark- 
ness and the Light unite with injurious effects; all things 
become solid (frozen), and the Darkness destroys the growth 
of all things. At Kung the Seventh Stem the Darkness 
nips all things. At Jin the Ninth Stem the Light begins 
to nourish all things in the recesses below. Lastly, at Tsze, 
all things begin to germinate." 22 

This last myth hints at the coming birth of the sun. The 
edges of the cave-hole began to grow bright, so, naturally, 
when the sun did appear they said (in Greece) " Latona or 
the shade was his mother." This part of the development is 
beautifully set forth in the Oraibi legend, some portions of 
which we have already quoted, but, after all, it will be seen 
that the Indians departed further from the ways of nature 
than did the Greeks. We will now cite that portion which 
pertains to the creation of the sun and moon : " Machito, one 
of their gods, raised the firmament on his shoulders to where 
it is now seen. Still the world was dark, as there was no 
sun, no moon, and no stars. So the people murmured because 
of the darkness and the cold. Machito said, " Bring me 



21 Bancroft, " Native Races," vol. iii, p. 204. 

** " Compendium of Wong-shi-Shing," as quoted in " Ragnarok/ 
pp. 210-211. 



MYTHS OF GREECE AND ROME 269 

seven maidens ; " and they brought him seven maidens ; and 
he said, " Bring me seven baskets of cotton-bolls ; " and they 
brought him seven baskets of cotton-bolls; and he taught the 
seven maidens to weave a magical fabric from the cotton, 
and when they had finished it he held it aloft, and the breeze 
carried it away toward the firmament, and in the twinkling 
of an eye it was transformed into a beautiful and full-orbed 
moon ; and the same breeze caught the remnants of fluctuant 
cotton, which the maidens had scattered during their work, 
and carried them aloft, and they were transformed into 
bright stars. But still it was cold ; and the people murmured 
again, and Machito said, " Bring me seven buffalo-robes," 
and from the densely matted hair of the robes he wove 
another fabric, which the storm carried away into the sky, 
and it was transformed into the full-orbed sun. Then 
Machito appointed times and seasons, and ways for the 
heavenly bodies ; and the gods of the firmament have obeyed 
the injunctions of Machito from the day of their creation to 
the present." 23 

The Thlinkeets of British Columbia say that their hero- 
god, Yehl, opened three mysterious boxes, letting out the sun, 
moon, and stars. " When he set up the blazing light (the 
sun) in heaven, the people that saw it were at first afraid. 
Many hid themselves in the mountains, and in the forests, 
and even in the water, and were changed into the various 
kinds of animals that frequent these places." 24 

" The Gallinomeros of Central California also recollect 
the day of darkness and the return of the sun. ' In the 
beginning, they say, there was no light, but a thick darkness 
covered all the earth. Man stumbled blindly against man 
and against the animals, the birds clashed together in the 
air, and confusion reigned everywhere. The Hawk, happen- 
ing by chance to fly into the face of the Coyote, there fol- 

28 Popula/r Science Monthly, October, 1879, p. 800. 
84 Bancroft, "Native Races," vol. iii, p. 100. 



270 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

lowed mutual apologies, and afterward a long discussion on 
the emergency of the situation. Determined to make some 
effort toward abating the public evil, the two set about a 
remedy. The Coyote gathered a great heap of tules (rushes), 
rolled them into a ball, and gave it to the Hawk, together 
with some pieces of flint. Gathering all together as well as 
he could, the Hawk flew straight up into the sky, where he 
struck fire with the flints, lit his ball of reeds, and left it 
there whirling along all in a fierce red glow, as it continues 
to the present ; for it is the sun. In the same way the moon 
was made, but as the tules of which it was constructed were 
rather damp, its light has always been somewhat uncertain 
and feeble." 25 

Naturally, the next stage in these nature-myths sets forth 
the complete triumph of the sun. Innumerable legends cover 
this point, from which we select the following: Cacus was 
a huge giant which inhabited the cave with which we have 
become so familiar. By profession he was a robber, and, as 
the records show, he stole certain swift cows, the oxen of 
Geryon (clouds). His true character is revealed as the fall- 
ing cloud obscuring belt. It is said that he vomited smoke 
and flame when Hercules attacked him. The whole scene 
simply depicts a falling canopy drawing nearer and nearer 
to the eye of the beholder, and so eclipsing the other sky 
forms which floated higher up. He stole them away, hid them 
under his wing, carried them into his cave, etc. Hercules, 
the conquering sun, dispelled all this gloom, killing Cacus 
with his unerring arrows (shafts of sun-light), and so releas- 
ing the cows or canopy forms, which floated higher up. 

The < Popul Yuh/ the book of the Quiches, has a very 
full description of this whole panorama. The final scene is 
as follows: " And the sun and the moon and the stars were 
now all established ; that is, they now become visible, moving 
in their orbits. Yet was not the sun then in the beginning 

* Power's Porno MS., Bancroft, " Native Races," vol. iii, p. 86. 



MYTHS OF GREECE AND ROME 271 

the same as now ; his heat wanted force, and he was but as a 
reflection in a mirror; verily, say the historians, not at all 
the same sun as that of to-day. Nevertheless, he dried up 
and warmed the surface of the earth, and answered many 
good ends." 

Artemis (Diana), the silver moon, Apollo's sister, waa 
born at the same time that her brother was. And seven days 
the sacred swans flew around, encircling the island and the 
lake seven times. It is recorded also that a sacred light was 
diffused over the lake a golden blaze from the holy flaming 
torch or sun itself. The Oraibi legend introduced the thought 
of the seven maidens weaving the seven cotton-bolls, and here 
we have the seven sacred swans guarding the open place, or, 
as it is called, ' the lake/ and we know also, from the myths 
quoted, that this lake was in the sky. Hera (Juno) was 
the jealous spouse of Zeus (Jupiter), and it is recorded that 
she drove Leto (Latona), the mother canopy, from the twins. 
Hera, like Pallas Athene, was a goddess of the air, and, to 
all appearances, the air did drive the vapor shadow away, 
but before her departure the mother entrusted her children 
to the care of Themis, whose name signifies ' Justice.' In 
other words, she placed them under the care of inevitable 
law. 

It was from this spot, where the sacred light of the new 
born sun was first seen burning, that Prometheus stole fire 
which he gave to man, a Titan's gift of love caught from 
the bright sun itself; yet for the act Yulcan chained him to 
the rock-like canopy, and one of the evil birds connected 
therewith daily fed upon his liver. 

Man, however, in this case was not ungrateful. In honor 
of his deed, each year they sent a ship to Lemnos to bring 
back new fire. This ship sailed to Delos to fetch the gift, 
and meanwhile for nine days all the fires in the country were 
extinguished, so that they could be rekindled by the new- 
born flame. 



272 THE ZONAL-BELT HYPOTHESIS 

One of the early adventures of Apollo occurred when he 
was only one year old. Python, a great snake, was coiled in 
nine folds around Parnassus, where the Muses dwelt. The 
bright sun killed him with his arrows, but as Juno had created 
him, this deed only increased her anger against the new-born 
infant. 

Time passed and the ' templum ' or wide expanse in the 
space marked out, the egg-hole or the eye, was cleared. 
Phoebus Apollo, or the ' golden-haired/ came from the sum- 
mit of Olympus and dwelt in this creation of his hand, the 
temple of the sky, the open way, and there as an oracle he 
spoke to man, telling him of the true astronomy and the way 
of creation. Following this pattern, man established the 
Delphic oracle, and many such in imitation of the heavenly. 

Connected with the thought that the old sky was a laby- 
rinth, or puzzle, which the clearing away of the ' templum/ 
or wide expanse, solved to the satisfaction of the early in- 
quirer into the ways of nature, is the great labyrinth which 
was constructed by Daedalus. It was like the lost sky river, 
Mseander, for which the Grecian river is named, which flows 
back on its course, returning to itself. It was a ring or 
spiral vapor-belt, and Daedalus built it for a certain king 
named Minos, a sky-king, though called