140 M. E. Biot 071 Earthquakes. 



gether with a catalogue of the earthquakes, and the moun- 

 tainous elevations and depressions which have been observed 

 in the Celestial Empire. Concerning this memoir, M. Bous- 

 singault, in his own name, and in that of MM. Arago and 

 Elie do Beaumont, presented a report, which we shall now 

 (from L'Institut, 21. Mai 1840) present to our readers. 



In the former part, the author examines the facts and tra- 

 ditions collected in the archives of literature, concerning two 

 great inundations which have devastated the Chinese world. 

 The more recent of these reaches back as far as the twenty- 

 third century before our era, and the older is obscured in the 

 heroic period. M. Biot undertakes to explain these catastro- 

 phes by the same phenomena of elevation, the traces of which 

 have been pointed out by M. de Humboldt in that part of 

 Central Asia which borders on China. The chief considera- 

 tion upon which he maintains this opinion, is the coincidence 

 whicli exists between the direction of the principal axis of the 

 great American Cordillera, and the general direction of the 

 Chinese ranges. It is this identity of direction, together with 

 the similitude and frequency of the terrestrial commotions, 

 which have led M. Biot to conclude, that very probably the 

 crust of the earth is still but little consolidated, and, conse- 

 quently, not very stable throughout the extent of this great 

 circle, and that, therefore, there may have been a simultaneous 

 elevation in the Cordilleras of the Andes and these Chinese 

 mountain ranges which have the same direction. 



This correspondence of the principal chains of the Asiatic 

 and American continents, had not hitherto been pointed out 

 in a way that was at all precise or satisfactory. Regarding the 

 cause of the extreme mobility of the surface in these countries, 

 perhaps it is to be discovered, remarks the reporter, in that 

 volcanic zone which embraces so extended a portion of our 

 planet, and in which we find comprehended the high moun- 

 tainous ranges which constitute the most salient projections 

 of both these continents. In truth, this zone forms an im- 

 mense mountainous elevation, which runs between the Pacific 

 ocean on the one hand, and the continents of America and 

 Asia on the other, following, from Chili to the Burmese em- 

 .pire, the direction of a great semicircle of the earth. This 



