xgo7.] AND CONTRACTION OF THE EARTH. 299 



expulsion of lava from under these trenches has raised the adjacent 

 ridges, and when thus undermined the sea bottom has sunk down. 

 This may be inferred with entire confidence and certainty not only 

 from the relative situation of the trenches and adjacent ridges, but 

 also from the great earthquakes and accompanying seismic sea 

 waves observed in these regions within historical times. No other 

 interpretation of the phenomena than the one we have given is really 

 possible. If, however, any one should still cling to the old theory that 

 the shrinkage of the earth is an effective cause in modifying the 

 surface of our globe, let him explain why the shrinkage should take 

 place in these long narrow trenches and be accompanied by the ele- 

 vation of adjacent ridges. The elevation of the ridge shows that 

 matter is pushed under it, and the sinking of the bed of the adjacent 

 trench shows that the sea bottom is undermined. It therefore incon- 

 testably follows that lava is expelled from under the trench and 

 pushed under the adjacent crust, upheaving it into the form of a 

 ridge. Thus mountain ranges are formed in the sea and eventually 

 raised above the water; and hence they run so exactly parallel to 

 the shore. Earthquakes, volcanoes, mountain formation, formation 

 of islands and plateaus, the feeble attraction of mountains, and great 

 seismic sea waves, — six great classes of phenomena not heretofore 

 closely associated, — are referred to one common cause, namely, the 

 development of steam beneath the earth's crust, owing principally 

 to the secular leakage of the ocean bottoms. The discovery and 

 verification of this z^era causa of the principal phenomena of the 

 earth's surface ought to enable us to extend the domain of useful 

 knowledge, and to give a better basis to many of the physical 

 sciences. 



Blue Ridge on Loutre, 



Montgomery City, Missouri, July 2, 1907. 



