Ragnarok : the Age of Fire and GravelDonnelly, Ignatius
Science
Ragnarok : the Age of Fire and Gravel
Donnelly, Ignatius
Atlantis (Legendary place); Comets; Drift
It will not disprove my theory. It will simply indicate that the
_débris_ did not, as I have supposed, strike the earth
instantaneously, but that it continued to fall during twenty-four
hours. If the comet was split into fragments, if there was the
"Midgard-Serpent" as well as the
{p. 396}
"Fenris Wolf" and "the dog Garm," they need not necessarily have
reached the earth at the same time.
Another says:
"You supposed in your book, 'Atlantis,' that the Glacial Age might
have been caused by the ridges radiating from Atlantis shutting off
the Gulf Stream and preventing the heated waters of the tropics from
reaching the northern shores of the world."
True; and I have no doubt that these ridges did play an important
part in producing climatic changes, subsequent to the Drift Age, by
their presence or absence, their elevation or depression; but on
fuller investigation I find that they are inadequate to account for
the colossal phenomena of the Drift itself--the presence of the clay
and gravel, the great heat and the tremendous downfall of water.
It may be asked,
"How does your theory account for the removal of great blocks,
weighing many tons, for hundreds of miles from their original site?
The answer is plain. We know the power of the ordinary hurricanes of
the earth. "The largest trees are uprooted, or have their trunks
snapped in two; and few if any of the most massive buildings stand
uninjured."[1] If we will remember the excessive heat and the
electrical derangements that must have accompanied the Drift Age, we
can realize the tremendous winds spoken of in many of the legends. We
have but to multiply the hurricane of the West Indies, or the cyclone
of the Mississippi Valley, a hundred or a thousand fold, and we shall
have power enough to move all the blocks found scattered over the
face of the Drift deposits or mixed with its material.
[1. Appletons' "American Cyclopædia," vol. ix, p. 80.]
{p. 397}
Another asks:
"How do you account for the fact that this Drift material does not
resemble the usual aërolites, which are commonly composed of iron,
and unlike the stones of the earth?"
I nave shown that aërolites have fallen that did not contain any
iron, and that could not be distinguished from the material native to
the earth. And it must be remembered that, while the shining
meteoroids that blaze in periodical showers from radiant points in
the sky are associated with comets, and are probably lost fragments
of comet-tails, these meteoroids do not reach the earth, but are
always burned out, far up in our atmosphere, by the friction produced
by their motion. The iron aërolite is of different origin. It may be
a product of space itself, a condensation of metallic gases. The fact
that it reaches the earth without being consumed would seem to
indicate that it belongs at a lower level than the meteoric showers,
and has, consequently, a less distance to fall and waste.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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