272 SEE— FURTHER RESEARCHES ON [April 24, 



and plateaus west of the Rocky Mountains were all formed through 

 the uplift of the land by the Pacific Ocean, 



28. The North American Plateau is larger, but correspondingly 

 lower than those in Asia, so that the volume of material involved 

 in the two uplifts is comparable. Thus all the great plateaus of 

 the globe are due to the action of the sea, in the course of immeas- 

 urable ages. The slowness of the process conveys the best con- 

 ception of the vast interval of time since the consolidation of the 

 globe. 



29. Charles Darwin long ago held that " the forces which slowly 

 and by little starts uplift continents and those which at successive 

 periods pour forth volcanic matter from open orifices are identical." 

 He showed that the southern end of South America has recently 

 risen from the sea, and Professor Suess has shown that the univer- 

 sal lowering of the strand line throughout the principal countries 

 gives a similar indication for all the lands of the globe. 



30. If one end of a continent can be raised by earthquake forces 

 depending on the sea, then obviously a whole continent can be raised 

 by these forces; and similar uplifts can occur for all the continents 

 in both hemispheres. The vast vertical walls of granite so often 

 found rising from the sea in South America and elsewhere have 

 clearly been uplifted by earthquakes. 



31. We therefore reach the conclusion that the forces which 

 have raised the mountains, islands and plateaus, have also raised 

 the continents and established the equilibriimi of the globe between 

 the land and water hemispheres. This force is nothing else than 

 common steam, operating through the expansion of molten rock be- 

 neath the crust and arises principally from the secular leakage of 

 the ocean bottoms. 



32. The main effect of earthquakes is the production of more 

 land. The continents are being lifted out of the sea, in spite of 

 erosion, as we see by the withdrawal of the oceans to a greater 

 and greater distance from old mountain chains, such as the Rocky 

 Mountains and Appalachians in America and the Alps in Europe. 



33. But for this uplift of the land by the leakage of the oceans 

 none of the higher forms of life could have developed upon the 

 earth. The climate and drainage of all continents have been largely 



