It is frequently a query how the distribution of fish is so general
even in the most obscure lakes and springs rising and running from
points so isolated as to apparently preclude such specimens from
getting there. It seems strange that some species would exist at the
head of a stream and not inhabit it throughout. Seas and lakes may,
and do exist, without any visible outlets to the ocean, and yet are
plentifully supplied with varieties of fish. Now what may be a rational
explanation of how they got there. It cannot seem right to say that
they originally existed in an adjacent sea or the nearest approach
to the ocean, as they are not found in any adjacent waters and are
entirely peculiar to their locality, having no neighbors akin. It
does not seem as if such would be the case if they became isolated
by some remote upheaval and change of surrounding Earth’s surface,
as this would only divide up the family and spread the species like
immigration from the eastern to the western states.
As asked before, where do these blind fish come from in caves where
streams do not seem to have any connection with surface waters? Where
do the many specimens come from in the island lakes all over the world?
To all these questions there seems a simple answer when we accept the
idea that the center of the Earth is the womb that is developing and
sending out through every pore, seam, crevice and crack some new seed
and form of life to develop a new and strange existence to us on the
outside.
It is a Scriptural idea that “We are born of water.”
Creatures that have their inception in the bowels of the Earth cast
their eggs as the fish and reptile spawn in our rivers. These eggs or
spawn or seeds of life in whatever form are taken in the currents that
course through the different strata of the earth by centrifugal force
and pressure, taking almost any amount of time in their hermetically
sealed transit before they reach an atmosphere in which to develop
into a new existence. Any lake, spring, or fountain of water that is
a living stream fed by the inexhaustible sources within, may have
from that varied storehouse and laboratory of nature any specimen of
fish, scale, skin, shell or reptile of any form, that no adjoining or
neighboring water may develop.
The spawn or egg may be destroyed on its outward passage or held back
by influences preventing its maturity; or landed on the surface under
unfavorable conditions of climate, air, and properties in the water.
Why do shad not exist anywhere in similar coast waters? Where do they
come from and is the Gulf Stream to be credited with their origin?
Where do the different schools of blue fish, mackerel, herring and
numerous other fish find their headquarters to breed, and why after
seeking other waters for a season, return to some place that seems to
be their “sweet home”?
Was Seth Green the pioneer in transportation of spawn to distant waters
for their incubation? It is more than likely that he was not; with all
credit due to the great service his genius has rendered.
What is said of the dissemination of fish, shells, and reptiles may be
consistently said of vegetation.
The earth is filled with the seed of every plant and tree and shrub
that ever sprang into life in any place, clime or time. Dig to whatever
depth you will, the substance you throw out, whether earth or stone,
when exposed to the air, will produce some growth of vegetation.
Frequently something entirely new and different from the surrounding
vegetation. To assume that streams, winds, and birds carry and
distribute all the seeds to their different localities where found in
an isolated condition, is too much for human credulity. On the tops of
mountains, where streams do not run uphill on the surface, where the
birds seldom fly, and on spaces impossible for seeds to be carried by
winds, you find species peculiar to their altitude, atmosphere and soil.
Through the channels that eternally pour from never ending supplies,
and in which storehouse are mingled the seeds from every valley, plain
and mountain top of our Earth; from this source they can be scattered
and mixed in every inch of the soil which composes our Earth from
center to surface, and when brought into contact with our atmosphere
start into new and varied existences.
The question may be reasonably asked if many of the reptilian specimens
attributed to remote antiquity as belonging to our Earth’s surface,
may not be specimens from an interior world, and even now have
representatives of their existence there?
Certain plants and growths require specific treatment and conditions.
Wherever pond lilies, peppermint, cattails, flag-root, cresses, and
moss in wells are found is unfailing proof of living fountains of water.
The ocean furnishes every facility of transportation through the
co-operative system without and within. The millions of seed that
mature in different climes on the surface are dropped and carried by
floods and currents into the main ocean. Some sink and lie buried
for ages, retaining their germs of life, for the outer ocean has its
regular currents and motions to such an extent, it would not make a
general distribution of seed in countless years.
Through this avenue passing under the ice belt, every variety is more
or less drawn into this general receptacle which, in turn carries them
inward and outward, and in course of time filters them in their course
into every inch of the earth through which the water passes; which is
in this way the medium of transportation.
By this means every spoonful of earth is in time prepared to give
growth of new life to any plant or tree that has ever existed when
exposed to the influence of air and heat or even cold, to revive its
species.
In passing to the surface, like the spawn of fish, they may pass
through localities of such excessive heat as to destroy their life
germs, as is undoubtedly the case with the spawn that should travel
through waters like geysers of Iceland or the Yellowstone Park or
waters similar to these, whose streams that flow away always show a
dearth of fish.
With the Earth formed like this, the writer claims it to be on the
principle of a globe for a gas jet, open on both sides and presenting
as it turns inward a funnel shaped entrance, which is without doubt
over 1,500 miles across; this passage would be just as vast to the eye
as the size of, or distance to, the fixed stars, the eye losing all
conception of measure, and a thousand miles is just as much beyond our
scope of vision as a million.
In almost any position you can imagine the Earth to revolve around the
Sun, one of these sides or ends must be partially and at times wholly
exposed to the Sun’s rays, and the effect, it seems natural to suppose,
would make the interior horizons light as the exterior. The water, it
is believed, on any body acts as a reflector and is a giver of light
from every planetary body in some degree.
It is all gas, to talk about the gaseous condition and nature of the
Sun, and “other worlds than ours.” They would at best be a very poor
investment and not worth the labor and genius of a power able to
create; 160 acres of good land in any productive locality would be
worth more than 1,000 such whirling pyrotechnics of space.
It is altogether too presumptive to suppose that our little Earth
with all its boasted cities, and boroughs thrown in, can be the only
habitation for poor, vain and sinful man.