The evidence is exceedingly strong, and perhaps irresistible,

to the effect that the Earth is now solid, or acts like a
solid, from surface to center, with possibly local, but on the
whole negligible, pockets of molten matter here and there; and
further, that the Earth existed in a molten, or at the least a
thickly plastic, state throughout a long part of its life
The evidence is exceedingly strong, and perhaps irresistible,
to the effect that the Earth is now solid, or acts like a
solid, from surface to center, with possibly local, but on the
whole negligible, pockets of molten matter here and there; and
further, that the Earth existed in a molten, or at the least a
thickly plastic, state throughout a long part of its life. The
nucleus, whether gaseous or meteoric, from which I believe it
has grown, may have been fairly hot or quite cold, and the
materials which were successively drawn into the nucleus may
have been hot or cold: heat would be generated by the impacts
of the incoming materials; and as the attraction toward the
center of the mass became strong, additional heat would be
generated in the contraction process. The denser materials have
been able, on the whole, to gravitate to the center of the
structure, and the lighter elements have been able, on the
whole, to rise to and float upon the surface very much as the
lighter impurities in an iron furnace find their way to the
surface and form the slag upon the molten metal. The lighter
materials which in general form the surface strata are solid
under the conditions of solids known to us in every-day life.
The interior is solid or at least acts as a solid, because the
materials, though at high temperatures, are under stupendous
pressures. If the pressures were removed the deep-lying
materials would quickly liquefy, and probably even vaporize.