1906.] 



SEE— THE CAUSE OF EARTHQUAKES. 



313 



parallel to the shore. We may, therefore, without appreciable 

 error put 



P' = 



and 



(io)«« * ' 



p. P', P"=i: (decillion)^ 

 In the other three continents, Europe, Asia, Australia, the lay 



Fig. a 



of the mountains is such as to justify us in taking P'", P^^'. P'^ = 

 P. P' . P" . And, therefore, for the whole world, we may safely take 



P. P\ P". P'". P'\ P'' = i: (decillion)i- 



This number is so infinitesimally small, or the divisor is so 

 fabulously large, that it becomes an absolute certainty that the paral- 

 lelism of the mountains to the seashore depends on a true physical 

 cause, and that cause can be nothing but the action of the sea itself. 

 Since the mountains always tvall in the land, it follows that they 

 are erected by the sea, through injection of the coast by lava ex- 

 pelled from under the ocean bed. Accordingly, it follows that the 

 crust is bent parallel to the seashore by a true physical cause. 



