THE PENDULATION THEORY 895 



pole5, where they are zero. A point on the oscillation circle, which 

 lies 10,000 meters helow sea-level when under the equator, would, 

 by the time that it has come to lie at the pole (after a rotation of 

 90°), lie 10,000 meters above sea-level. It must be remembered 

 that every point on the globe is nearest to the pole as it crosses 

 the culmination circle, which, together with the ends of the axis 

 of rotation, may be regarded as having a fixed position in space. 

 At the moment of crossing, therefore, the point has its greatest 

 elevation above sea-level, while, as it passes away from the culmina- 

 tion circle, the sea-level will rise, where previously, during the ap- 

 proach, the sea-level fell. This seems to be illustrated by Florida, 

 which at present lies under the culmination circle. The eastern 

 half has a rising sea-level and would, therefore, be passing away 

 from it, while the western half has a falling sea-level, i. e., the land 

 emerges, and this section would, therefore, be approaching the 

 culmination circle. All this would indicate that the earth is swing- 

 ing in such a way that the north pole is migrating toward Behring 

 Sea, which thus becomes a region of emergence, and away from 

 the Greenland-Iceland region, where, it has been supposed, the pole 

 had its location in Pleistocenic time. (Fig. 245.) (See ante, Chap- 

 ter II.) 



Owing to the proximity of Florida to the oscillation poles 

 (where emergence and submergence are zero), the total amount 

 of oscillation of the sea was never great, and hence old coral 

 reefs which grew near the surface go only to the depth of 50 

 feet. In Funafuti, on the other hand, which lies not far from the 

 oscillation circle (under which the greatest variation of sea-level 

 occurs), the reef corals grew to a depth of more than 600 feet. 

 (See ante. Chapter X.) The coral islands of the North Pacific lie 

 in the quadrant approaching the pole and the culmination circle, 

 and hence they show at the present time a retreating sea-level ; as 

 in the case of the Hawaiian Islands. The islands of the South 

 Pacific, on the other hand, are moving toward the equator, and 

 hence, in this case, submergence is taking place. In the Indian 

 Ocean, again, the region north of the present equator is one of 

 rising sea-level (submergence of reefs and islands), while that 

 south of the equator is one of falling sea-level (emerging reefs). 

 This would explain why the Maldives, north of the equator, are 

 apparently being submerged, while the Cocos Islands to the south 

 are rising out of the water. 



The regions around the oscillation poles were always tropical 

 regions, as compared with the regions near the oscillation circle. 

 In the former, therefore, life conditions changed little and slowly. 



