A GRASP OF GEOLOGIC TIME. 163 



Such are indications of a gradual emergence of the east- 

 ern border of the continent, producing a very considerable 

 extension of the land. The growth of the land is, however, 

 only approaching a condition which has heretofore existed. 

 The records and traditions of the Chinese carry us back to 

 a time when Corea was continuous westwardly with the 

 mainland. The Gulf of Pe-chili and the Yellow Sea had 

 no existence. The great delta-plain extended to the Japa- 

 nese islands. Indeed, the hydrographic maps of the Chi- 

 nese waters demonstrate that the continental surface ex- 

 tends strictly to the submerged ridge running from Nipon 

 through the Liu-Kiu islands to Formosa. Here is the 

 proper rim of the basin of the Pacific. Traditions exist 

 of the former extension of the continent far toward this 

 limit. Here, then, is an area equal to the half of Europe, 

 over which the forefathers of the Chinese extended their 

 migrations, on which they built cities and founded dynas- 

 ties, and which mankind have lived to see sunken beneath 

 the Pacific, and the memory of which had been almost for- 

 gotten.* 



The geological history of eastern Asia diverts our at- 

 tention to great hydrographic changes which have taken 

 place in the region southeast of China, and not improbably 

 since man has been an occupant of the earth. Southeast 

 of Asia lies the great Malay Archipelago. It includes the 

 great islands of Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes, the Philippines 

 and New Guinea. Still farther southeast is the continent 

 of Australia. The numberless islands of this archipelago 



* Accessible information on geographical and hydrographical changes in 

 China is contained in Professor R. rumpelly's memoir in the Smilhsonian 

 Contributions to Knoirledr/e, xv, art. iv; Am^?'. Jour. Sci.^ ii, xlv, 219; and in 

 papers by A. S. Bickmore, Amer. Jour. Set., xlv, 209, and Martin, Anifr. Jour. 

 Sci., xlvii, 100. See, also, Von Richtholen, China., 12, 85-87. 



