324 SEE— THE CAUSE OF EARTHQUAKES. iOctobeng, 



quacy of the contraction theory to account for the elevations of 

 mountains actually observed upon the earth. In the case of a solid 

 globe, he finds (p. 122) that the average height of the elevations 

 would be only six and one-third feet. By the theory of probabilij;y 

 we easily see that this would absolutely prevent individual elevations, 

 even when exceptionally favored by circumstances, from attaining 

 any considerable height. In the appendix to the second edition, page 

 58, he examines the mean elevations which will result from the 

 hypothesis of a liquid substratum, and finds that when the radial 

 contraction is 12 miles, " the mean height of all the elevations, due 

 to the corresponding corrugation of the matter above the level owing 

 to secular cooling, is about 44 feet." '* It appears," he adds, '' there- 

 fore as the result of the investigations in this chapter, that the 

 hypothesis of a liquid substratum does not afford such an increased 

 amount of compression as to render it possible to attribute the 

 elevation of mountains to contraction through cooling in that case, 

 any more than in the case of solidity." 



When one recalls that our actual mountains are many hundreds 

 and even thousands of times higher than the mean elevations re- 

 sulting from the contraction theory, it is readily seen how utterly 

 devoid of foundation that theory really is. Considerations adduced 

 in the writer's paper on the rigidity of the heavenly bodies show that 

 the radial contraction of twelve miles used by the Rev. O. Fisher 

 is probably at least twelve times too large; so that the highest ad- 

 missible mean elevations due to shrinkage would be only a very 

 few feet. 



It need scarcely be added that the Rev. O. Fisher must be 

 given the chief credit for showing by long and patient research 

 the inadequacy of this time-honored theory, which was originally 

 suggested by Elie de Beaumont in 1829, and was no doubt a direct 

 outgrowth of Laplace's nebular hypothesis. 



We thus seem compelled to abandon the contraction theory en- 

 tirely, and to explain both peaks and ranges with their striking 

 parallelism to the coast by upheavals occurring near the sea, due to 

 the explosive power of steam, which has heaved up the mountains 

 from beneath. The mountains apparently show this mode of forma- 

 tion, and it explains with equal satisfaction cordilleras and ranges,. 



