MY DEAR DR. BOWERS: I have read with much interest thy compendium of
“The Earth’s Annular System,” as published by me in 1886. A synopsis
of that work can give but a meager idea of the grand conception of the
annular evolution of the earth. “The Annular Theory” stands on the
immutable truth that worlds evolve according to invariable law.
This compels us to admit that all worlds are made alike, in the general
changes they undergo. Just as a bud evolves into a flower of the most
delicate construction and architectural order, so a world launched
from the same designing Hand must move in the same line of eternal
order, and under the law of natural uniformity develop and grow into a
completed world.
This also leads us to the conclusion that if one world possess at
any time an annular system, then all worlds must possess a similar
appendage during some period of their existence. Consequently that
simple fact that the planet Saturn possesses at this time an annular or
ring system is proof that the earth once had a similar appendage. For
we must either admit this truth or we must admit that the planet Saturn
has not evolved thus far along a line of nature’s uniformity, but is
today a victim of accidental conditions. This law refuses to admit.
But “The Annular Theory” does not rest on these grounds alone. A
universe of _invariable order_ pronounces it an immutable truth. The
judgment of the chemist and philosopher is positive that a rotating
world cannot pass from the molten state to the present condition of the
earth without undergoing annular changes.
Since the publication of “The Earth’s Annular System” I have had
opportunities of examining more minutely the subjects treated of
therein and have secured the most overwhelming evidence that the theory
there proposed is in the main correct and will stand the test of all
time. I have found, outside the realm of physical science, the most
positive evidence that primitive man actually saw at least two rings
revolving about the earth, named them and worshiped them as gods. These
relics I have rescued from the wreck of ages, and _with_ these I will
prove the fact that this earth once had a complex system of Saturn-like
rings.
Thus in the end the geologist and astronomer will be compelled to admit
its truthfulness whether they desire to or not. I have found among the
ruins of ancient Egypt, Babylonia, India and China annular fossils, the
identification of which settles at once and forever this great question.
Again, I need not point the geologist to the mysteries of the glacial
epochs, which grow darker and darker as he looks for a competent cause
for their production. He must know that the great ocean of vapors that
hovered for unknown time over the earth in the loftiest heights of
the atmosphere, such as now are seen on two of our neighbor planets,
could not have fallen to the earth without covering it in the higher
latitudes with measureless masses of snow, resulting in excessive
refrigeration. I need but point him to the fact, proven by the coast
surveys of the world, that the oceans have encroached upon the land
to such an extent since the last glacial epoch that they stand now
fully thirty fathoms deeper than they did in pre-glacial times. I need
only point him to that grand clock-work of worlds shining from the
firmament--every scintillating point, every rolling sun, is a witness
of nature’s eternal order, and proclaims that uniformitarian principle
of world evolution, by which the philosophic investigator must stand.
The geologist must build on this rock of _uniformity_ in the evolution
of worlds. The earth has evolved along _this_ line, and the wreck of
annular conditions is seen on every page of its rocky volume.
In the year 1875 I published a little volume entitled “The Earth’s
Aqueous Ring.” In it I stated my convictions, and gave reasons
therefor, that all the glacial periods the world ever saw were produced
by supra-aerial vapors descending from an annular system that revolved
about the earth from the remotest geologic ages to the flood of Noah,
which was itself produced by the fall of the last remnants of those
upper waters. These claims I am fully prepared to substantiate,
whatever opposition may be brought against them.
ISAAC N. VAIL,
ELSINORE, Cal., July 6, 1892.