Читать книгу Star-land: Being Talks With Young People About the Wonders of the Heavens онлайн

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Once upon a time a great forest flourished. The sun shone down on this forest, and it was watered by genial showers, while insects and other creatures sported in its shades. It is true that the trees and plants were not like those we now see about us. They were more like ferns and mare’s-tails and gigantic club-mosses. In the fulness of time they died, and fell, and decayed, and others sprang up to meet the like end. Thus it happened that, in course of ages, the remains of leaves, and fruits, and trunks accumulated over the soil. The forest was situated near the seashore, and then a remarkable change took place—the land began slowly to sink. You need not think that this is impossible. Land has often been known to change its level gradually. In fact, a sinking process is slowly going on now in many places on the earth, while the land is rising in other localities. As the forest gradually sank lower and lower, the sea-water began to inundate it, and all the trees perished until, at last, deep water submerged the surface which had once been covered by a fine forest. At the bottom of this sea lay the decaying vegetation.