234 ANNUAL, REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, li924 



chains still existed. I do not know what Joly would reply. I know 

 only that he would answer and that the discussion would be endless. 

 ''Dieu a livre le monde aux disputes des hommes." (God has de- 

 livered the world to the disputes of men.) 



For my part, that which keeps me from accepting Wegener's 

 theory and from admitting the great mobility, the total mobility of 

 the continents, is that I believe permanence to be a fact, perma- 

 nence on the face of an earth incessantly changing, of some pro- 

 found characteristic features, always recognizable for hundreds of 

 millions of years, at least since the beginning of the Silurian period. 

 These features are : First, the existence of a very special Pacific do- 

 main around which extends a zone equally very special, that I call 

 the zone Circumpacific ; and, in the second place, the existence of a 

 transverse domain forming a half girdle of the earth, uniting at its 

 two extremities the transverse domain to the Circumpacific, a do- 

 main for a long time occupied by the sea — which was the Tethys — 

 but to-day occupied by two immense chains of mountains of very 

 different ages, nevertheless very nearly parallel and even, some- 

 times superimposed over large areas. Yes, as far as I look into the 

 past I see these two features, permanent or nearly permanent. This 

 large half girdle, sometimes marine, sometimes folded and moun- 

 tainous, and what magnificent mountains ! extending from the An- 

 tilles to the islands of the Malay Archipelago, and, completing the 

 half girdle with a high and large buckle, which puts the finishing 

 touch to the encircling of the earth, this Circumpacific zone made 

 of the combination of the juxtaposition of long, uplifted folds 

 which are the mountains and of the long, depressed folds which 

 are the submarine valleys, this zone perpetually mobile, where volca- 

 noes continually become active or quiescent, and which to-day under- 

 lines this volcanic belt, the belt of fire of the Pacific. I see on the face 

 of the earth many changes, some deformations, but I am struck less 

 by the mobility than by the permanence. It seems to me — oh! I 

 Imow that I may be mistaken — but it seems to me evident and cer- 

 tain that the Pacific has always been in the same place and that 

 only its borders, its depths, and the number and outline of its islands 

 have varied, and I hold also as almost evident, and almost certain, 

 that, if the transverse half girdle is very greatly reduced in its 

 width, perhaps one-half, perhaps two-thirds, by the drawing to- 

 gether of the continents which it separates, it has not varied much 

 in its length. It is that indeed, more than this or that improbability 

 of the explanations of Wegener, or this or that flat denial given by 

 geological observation to the former pretended welding of the two 

 continental borders which face each other; it is that which makes 

 me differ from the German theory, in spite of its undeniable charm 

 and its real beauty. 



