Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 November 1884 — A Great Drought. [ARTICLE]

A Great Drought.

Richard A. Proctor says that the age of the earth is placed by some at 500,000,000 years, and still others of later time, among them the Duke of Argyll, place it at 10,000,000 years, None place it lower than 10,000,000. knowing what processes have been gone through. The earth must have become old. Newton surmised, although he could give no reason for it, that the earth would at one time become perfectly dry. Since then it has been found that Newton was correct. As the earth keeps cooling it will become porous, and great cavities will be formed in the interior which will take in the water. It is estimated that this process is now in progress so fdfc that the water diminishes at the rate of the thickness of a sheet of writing paper a year. At this rate, in 9,000,000 years the water will have sunk a mile, and in 15,000,000 years every trace of water, will have dissapeared from the face of the globe. -*