| 30 J li is also held by some that there are no valid reqsons for earihquakes and that they are only instances for man's misfortune. Just as it is not possible to predici the birth and death of living creatures, the reasons whereof it is difficult lo analyse Or explain, so also, in the case of this peculiar phenomenon of nature, men can only guess but cannot definitely ascerlain any reason for ils origin. Such explanations, however, cannot salissy the people of the modern scientific world. Some geologists of the present day hold that a kind of atomic energy, like air-currents, is always püssing round the eurih. This curreni produces a slight remor or vibration of the earth, but the degree of its inlensity is loo small to be sell by living creatures and ils existence can only be ascorlained with the help of delicole instruments. But none has so far been able to lell us when and how this alomic energy will be so tremendous as to cause an earthquake. There is also a belief curreni in the present-day world, a belief which is shared by many, that the interior of the earth is saturaled with vapours of various kinds. Through the agency of the internal heat of the earth, which is noi constant in all places and at all times, these vapours explode with tremendous force and are the cause of earthquakes. Bui none has so far
