For Zoographers Only 307 



The formerly prevalent belief of the permanence 

 of ocean basins has been shaken by the utterances of 

 some of the greatest geologists of our day, while many 

 positively assert that what is now deep sea of more 

 than I GOG fathoms was dry land within comparatively 

 recent geological epochs. 



He continues (p. 21): — 



Amphibians are affected in the same manner by 

 sea-water as slugs are. The accidental transportal of 

 an amphibian from the mainland to an island is there- 

 fore almost inconceivable. The presence of frogs, 

 toads, and newts in the British Islands, in Corsica and 

 Sardinia, indicates, if nothing else did, that all these 

 islands were at no distant date united with the con- 

 tinent of Europe. 



These quotations show that the belief held by the writer 

 is not an unusual one, for certainly the fauna of the Greater 

 Antilles is vastly richer in species than on the islands just 

 mentioned. 



For the person who may be interested to continue read- 

 ing on this general subject I can recommend Dr. Schuchert's 

 Historical Geology of the Antillean-Caribbean Region. This 

 appeared in 1935 and not only is fascinating reading but 

 contains a series of maps showing the distribution of the 

 land areas in past geologic times which lend great support 

 to the thesis which I have been defending for so many 

 years. 



Now a word further regarding isostasy. There is hardly 

 a principle in geology concerning which there is greater 



