Excerpt from The Vailan or Annular Theory: A Synopsis of Prof. I. N. Vail's Argument in Support of the Claim That This Earth Once Possessed a Saturn-Like System of Rings Jupiter's belts are doubtless aqueous vapor driven from that planet by heat; similar in every respect, probably, to the primitive condition of our globe. This vapor would not all fall at once on the cooling of the earth, but the upper portion would continue to revolve for a long period. All geologists agree that the earth was once in an igneous fluid state, and during that condition all of its waters and whatever else could be vaporized and sublimed by heat, as the less refractory metals and minerals, were driven away from its surface. The foundation of the Annular System was the molten or igneous world. The vaporized water, mineral and metallic elements repelled from it existed as a great vaporized atmosphere that rotated with the earth. If the earth then rotated once in twenty-four hours, so did the atmosphere. Proctor and some others claim that the earth then rotated in three hours; if so, the atmosphere did the same. No matter how long or how short the period of the earth's rotation, the upper vapors rotated with it. Then, when and how did these vapors and other materials composing the atmosphere return to the earth? Geologists generally have claimed that they fell at the close of the igneous period; but the Annular Theory claims that they did not, and it undertakes to explain the phenomena of the geologic, ages and epochs upon this claim. The most eminent scientists agree that the vapors were driven off at least 200,000 miles from the earth, and many claim a distance of 240,000 miles. All of the carbon in the grand casement of aqueous rocks, the vast oceans of oxygen now contained in the silicates, sulphates, carbonates and oxides of the crust, as well as the nitrogen and hydrogen in numerous compounds enormously swelled its volume. But the Annular Theory will claim but 100,000 miles as the atmosphere and that the earth rotated as now, once in twenty-four hours. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.