262 SEE— FURTHER RESEARCHES ON [April 24, 



volcanic forces acting under this island, and under the continent, as 

 was shown during the earthquake of 1835," says the great naturalist. 



As such views have been carefully set forth by the greatest of 

 original investigators, from Aristotle to Darwin, it is remarkable 

 to witness the puny efforts which have been made to belittle these 

 forces. A gentleman holding a university position, in a public 

 address at Boston, recently likened the shock of an earthquake to 

 the jar experienced by an insect attached to a reed which was bent 

 till it snapped. According to this authority the earthquakes are 

 due to the snapping of the rock of the earth's crust in the bending 

 produced by secular cooling. Is it necessary to point out the mis- 

 leading character of the comparison made, and this lecturer's utter 

 inability to grasp the phenomena of nature? 



An equally common fallacy is to ascribe these tremendous dis- 

 turbances to inequalities of surface loading, due to geological and 

 meterological causes. Such views seem the more surprising, be- 

 cause formerly they have proceeded from physicists of eminent 

 learning. But at least partial excuse may be found in the universal 

 acceptance of the theory of secular cooling heretofore, and in the 

 proved rigidity of the globe, which naturally led to the supposition 

 that the crust was adjusting itself to the shrinking sphere. 



Before the development of the theory of ocean leakage no ade- 

 quate theory presented itself to investigators, who had unfortu- 

 nately not discriminated between the great and small earthquakes. 

 With a false premise and such an indiscriminate mixture of phe- 

 nomena, real progress was difficult, if not impossible. 



§ 54. Darwin's Remarks on the Forces zi'Jiich Uplift Continents. 

 — In the extract quoted from Professor Suess, § 39, allusion has 

 already been made to Charles Darwin's attempt to explain the origin 

 of mountains by the direct observation of nature. His paper " On 

 the Connection of Certain Volcanic Phenomena in South America 

 and the Formation of Mountain Chains and Volcanoes as the Effect 

 of the Same Power by which Continents are Elevated " ( Transac- 

 tions of the Geoloi^ical Society, Vol. V^ 1838, pp. 601-631) led 

 Darwin to the conclusion : 



" That tlic form of the fluid surface of the nucleus of tlie earth is sub- 

 ject to some change, the cause of zvhich is entirely uiilmozvn and tJie effect 

 of zvJiich is slow, intermittent, but irresistible." 



