THE COMETARY SYSTEM.

New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 68, 24 March 1843, Page 3

THE COMETARY SYSTEM.

(Concluded.) ' Danger from Comets. —As the comets traverse the planetary regions in ail directions, it is natural to inquire whether there is not a possibility that some one of them may not approach so near the earth as greatly to disturb its motion, or by an actual contact to produce the most disastrous effects. Upon this subject there is no reasonable ground for fear. It is not absolutely impossible that a comet may come in contact with the earth, the probabilities against such an event happening, are as millions to one. Among bodies so small in comparison with the space in which they move, and moving in all velocities, and in orbits that are inclined in all directions, and are of all dimensions, how small must be the probability that any two shall come in contact! Small, however, as this probability is for any one age, if we take into account a long series of ages, the probability may be greatly increased. If we suppose the earth actually to receive such a shock, it is easy to imagine the calamitous consequences. The axis and rotation of the earth being changed, the waters of the oqean would leave their ancient 1 position, and would be precipitated towards the new equator. A great part of the human race and of the lower animals would be destroyed by the violent shock impressed on the terrestrial glpbe. Whole species of animals might be annihilated. All the monuments of human industry and invention would be overthrown. In such a catastrophe we find, too, a cause adequate to account for tlie ocean having overflowed lofty mountains, on which it has left incontestable' evidence of its presence:; and to explain, how the animals and plants of the south may.have existed in the climates of the north, where we find the remains and impressions of them. Lastly, such an event accounts for the recent-, ness of the moral world, the monuments of which go back scarcely 3,000 years. r jQJieyl? tinman race, reduced to a small number*Qfcmtfiyithials, and tb the most miserable condition, woftld for a long time, bfe mainly ocqupled ; in for their preservation, amidsT. the ..wreck which surrounded them, and would Jose all remembrance of arts and science?.; .and when by the progress of .civilization, they/be* came at length sensible of the want of these ?

they would find it necessary to recommence, as if man had been newly placed on the earth. It seems impossible to contemplate the picture of calamity here drawn, without being forcibly struck with this singular coincident :—that if we suppose the period of the comet of 1680 (which in that year made a considerably nearer approach to the earth’s orbit), to be 575£ years; and count back, from the year 1680, seven revolutions, or a period of 4,028 years, we reach the year 2349 before Christ: the year ot the deluge, as fixed by chronologers. —Encyclopaedia of Geography.