Page:Aspects of nature in different lands and different climates; with scientific elucidations (IA b29329668 0002).pdf/339

Besides much carbonate of lime and magnesia, Madrepores and
Astræas also contain some fluoric and phosphoric acids 75, 76

Oscillatory state of the bottom of the sea according to Darwin 76-79

Traditions of Samothrace. Irruptions of the sea. Mediterranean.
Sluice theory of Strato. Myth of Lyktonia, and the "Atlantis
broken into fragments" 78-83

On the causes which prevent the sinking down of clouds and precipitation
taking place from them 83-84

Heat disengaged from the crust of the earth while solidifying. Hot
currents of air which in the early ages of the earth, from frequent
corrugations of the strata and elevations of land, may have been
diffused in the atmosphere from temporary fissures 84, 85

Colossal size and great age of some kinds of trees; Dragon tree
of Orotava thirteen, and Adansonia digitata (Baobab) thirty-two
English feet in diameter. Characters cut in the bark of the trees in
the 15th century. Adanson assigns to some of the Baobab trunks
in Senegambia an age of between 5100 and 6000 years 86-92

Judging by the annular rings, there are yew-trees (Taxus baccata)
from 2600 to 3000 years old. Is it true that in the northern
temperate zone the part of the tree turned towards the north has
narrower annular rings, as Michel Montaigne affirmed in 1581?
Species of trees in which individuals attain a size of above twenty-one
or twenty-two English feet diameter, and an age of several
centuries, belong to the most different natural families 92-94

Diameter of the Mexican Schubertia disticha of Santa Maria del Tule
40-1/2 English feet; the sacred Banyan fig-tree of Ceylon almost 30;
and the oak at Saintes (Dep. de la Charente Inférieure) 29-1/2 English
feet. The age of the oak tree estimated from its annular rings at