[1.  Bancroft’s “Native Races,” vol. iii, p. 100.

2.  “The Great Ice Age,” p. 184.]

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And all this time the rain fell.  There could be no return of the sun until all the mass of moisture sucked up by the comet’s heat had been condensed into water, and falling on the earth had found its way back to the ocean; and this process had to be repeated many times.  It was the age of the great primeval rain.

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THE PRIMEVAL STORM.

In the Andes, Humboldt tells us of a somewhat similar state of facts: 

“A thick mist during a particular season obscures the firmament for many months.  Not a planet, not the most brilliant stars of the southern hemisphere—­Canopus, the

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Southern Cross, nor the feet of Centaur—­are visible.  It is frequently almost impossible to discover the position of the moon.  If by chance the outlines of the sun’s disk be visible during the day, it appears devoid of rays.”

Says Croll: 

“We have seen that the accumulation of snow and ice on the ground, resulting from the long and cold winters, tended to cool the air and produce fogs, which cut off the sun’s rays."[1]

The same writer says: 

“Snow and ice lower the temperature by chilling the air and condensing the rays into thick fogs.  The great strength of the sun’s rays during summer, due to his nearness at that season, would, in the first place, tend to produce an increased amount of evaporation.  But the presence of snow-clad mountains and an icy sea would chill the atmosphere and condense the vapors into thick fogs.  The thick fogs and cloudy sky would effectually prevent the sun’s rays from reaching the earth, and the snow, in consequence, would remain unmelted during the entire summer.  In fact, we have this very condition of things exemplified in some of the islands of the Southern Ocean at the present day.  Sandwich Land, which is in the same parallel of latitude as the north of Scotland, is covered with ice and snow the entire summer; and in the Island of South Georgia, which is in the same parallel as the center of England, the perpetual snow descends to the very sea-beach.  The following is Captain Cook’s description of this dismal place:  ‘We thought it very extraordinary,’ he says, ’that an island between the latitudes of 54° and 55° should, in the very height of summer, be almost wholly covered with frozen snow, in some places many fathoms deep. . . .  The head of the bay was terminated by ice-cliffs of considerable height, pieces of which were continually breaking off, which made a noise like cannon.  Nor were the interior parts of the country less horrible.  The savage rocks raised their lofty summits

[1.  “Climate and Time,” p. 75.]

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till lost in the clouds, and valleys were covered with seemingly perpetual snow.  Not a tree nor a shrub of any size was to be seen.’”