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

by Stephen Bowers

CONCLUSIONS REACHED.

1. All terrestial waters were held in suspension.

2. This rotated as a part and parcel of the earth—a primeval atmosphere of great complexity of material.

3. This suspended matter gathered in the earth’s equatorial heavens, and on condensing contracted and segregated into rings which revolved independently.

4. The waters on high fell in a succession of stupendous cataclysms.

5. The first ocean was impregnated with mineral and metallic salts.

6. It required a vast lapse of time for rings to fall. Each ring continued to revolve as a belt about the earth with a decreasing velocity as it spread toward the poles and overcanopied the earth.

7. The smoke or unconsumed carbon that arose from the earth, darkened the upper vapors and formed bands or belts.

8. The moon retarded the rings, causing them to fall upon the earth, and it then receded from our planet.

9. The Archaean metalliferous deposits are so located as to be inexplicable by the old theory of aqueous denudation.

10. The Silurian beds, and particularly the order of their occurrence utterly refutes the idea that they were derived from pre-existing beds.