Produced by deaurider, Barry Abrahamsen, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) THE EARTH’S BEGINNING ------------------------------------------------------------------------ WORKS BY SIR ROBERT S. BALL, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S. THE STORY OF THE HEAVENS. With 24 Coloured Plates and Numerous Illustrations. New Edition. 10s. 6d. THE EARTH’S BEGINNING. With 4 Coloured Plates and Numerous Illustrations. New Edition. 7s. 6d. THE STORY OF THE SUN. With 11 Full Page Coloured and other Plates and Numerous Illustrations. 7s. 6d. STAR-LAND. Being Talks with Young People about the Wonders of the Heavens With Rembrandt Frontispiece and 94 Illustrations in Text. 7s. 6d. CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED, London, New York, Toronto & Melbourne. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: AN ENGLISH SUNSET TINGED BY KRAKATOA. (_From a Drawing made at Chelsea at 4.40 p.m. on Nov. 26th, 1883, by Mr. W. Ascroft._)] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ THE EARTH’S BEGINNING BY SIR ROBERT S. BALL, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S. Lowndean Professor of Astronomy and Geometry in the University of Cambridge, Author of “Star-Land,” “The Story of the Heavens,” etc. etc. WITH FOUR COLOURED PLATES AND NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS NEW EDITION CASSELL AND COMPANY, LIMITED LONDON, NEW YORK, TORONTO AND MELBOURNE MCMIX ------------------------------------------------------------------------ First Edition October 1901. Reprinted December 1901, 1903. Enlarged Edition 1909. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ------------------------------------------------------------------------ FOREWORD