Section 82 The Necessity Of Volcanoes1
The2 remarkable proofs which modern geology has presented of vast accumulations of heated3 and melted matter4 beneath the earth’s crust5, make it evident that (S. 3, N. 2) volcanoes are essential6 to the preservation of the globe. If (App. § 36) there7 were no safety-valves through8 the crust, such vast accumulations of heat would rend asunder9 even10 a whole continent. Volcanoes are11 those safety-valves12, more than two hundred of which are scattered13 over the earth’s surface. But if no such passages14 existed (see S. 27, N. 8), nothing could prevent the15 pent-up gases from accumulating till they had (Impf. Subj.) gained strength16 enough to rend a whole continent, and17 perhaps the whole globe, into fragments.—Rev. Prof. Hitchcock.
Notes
1 Use the gen. of the def. art.
[2] Use the attributive construction explained in S. 48, N. 6, and say ‘The by (von, followed by the def. art.) modern geology presented (auf´stellen) remarkable proofs of (von) a vast accumulation’, etc.
3 erhitzt.
4 matter = masses.
5 Erdrinde, f.
6 essential = necessary; to = for.
7 ‘There is’ and ‘there are’, used in a general sense, are generally rendered by the impers. v. ‘es giebt’.
8 Say ‘in the earth’s crust’.
9 auseinan´derreißen.
10 sogar.
11 are = form.
12 Here follow the words ‘of which’.
13 verteilen.
14 passages = openings.
15 the — accumulating = the accumulation of the pent-up (ein´sperren) gases.
16 Kraft, f.; enough, hinreichend, adj., to be placed before the noun ‘strength’.
17 ‘and’ here ja. The verb ‘to rend into fragments’ (auseinan´derreißen, of which form the Supine, S. 1, N. 2) must of course be placed at the end of the whole passage.