placed her hand to her forehead, and, shaking all things with a _vast trembling_, she _sank down a little and retired below the spot where she is wont_ to be." Here we are reminded of the bridge Bifrost, spoken of in the last chapter, which, as I have shown, was probably a prolongation of land reaching from Atlantis to Europe, and which the Norse legends tell us sank down under the feet of the forces of Muspelheim, in the day of Ragnarok: "And thus she spoke with a parched voice: 'O sovereign of the gods, if thou approvest of this, if I have deserved it, why do thy lightnings linger? Let me, if doomed to perish by the force of fire, perish by thy flames; and alleviate my misfortune by being the author of it. With difficulty, indeed, do I open my mouth for these very words. Behold my scorched hair, and _such a quantity of ashes over my eyes_' (the Drift-deposits), '_so much, too, over my features_. And dost thou give this as my recompense? This as the reward of my _fertility_ and my duty, in that I _endure wounds from the crooked plow and harrows_, and am harassed all the year through, in that I supply green leaves for the cattle, and corn, a wholesome food, for mankind, and frankincense for yourselves. "'But still, suppose I am deserving of destruction, why have the waves deserved this? Why has thy brother' (Neptune) 'deserved it? Why do the seas delivered to him by lot _decrease_, and why do they _recede still farther from the sky?_ But if regard neither for thy brother nor myself influences thee, still have consideration for thy own skies; look around on either side, see how each pole is _smoking_; if the fire shall injure them, _thy palace will fall in ruins_. See! Atlas himself is struggling, and hardly can he bear the glowing heavens on his shoulders. "'If the sea, if the earth, if the palace of heaven, perish, we are then jumbled into the old chaos again. Save it from the flames, if aught still survives, and provide for the preservation of the universe.' {p. 162} "Thus spoke the Earth; nor, indeed, could she any longer endure the vapor, nor say more, and she withdrew her face within herself, _and the caverns neighboring to the shades below_. "But the omnipotent father, having called the gods above to witness, and him, too, who had given the chariot to Phaëton, that unless he gives assistance all things will perish in direful ruin, mounts aloft to the highest eminence, from which he is wont to spread the clouds over the spacious earth; and from which he moves his thunders, and burls the brandished lightnings. _But then he had neither clouds that he could draw over the earth, nor showers that he could pour down from the sky_." That is to say, so long as the great meteor shone in the air, and for some time after, the heat was too intense to permit the formation of either clouds or rain; these could only come with coolness and condensation.