On the Physical Geology of the United States, §c. 297 
In the southern hemisphere we do not find indications of such 
extensive upheaving action in the same parallels of latitude. 
The southern coast of New Holland, New Zealand, the Vulcan 
Mountains in South America, the Snow Mountains near the Cape 
of Good Hope, and a few islands lying between 30° and 50° 
south latitude, might be adduced as affording some degree of ac- 
cordance with what has been noticed in the northern hemisphere. 
Any considerable increase in the velocity of rotation of the 
globe on its axis, would first tend to bury the equatorial regions 
beneath the ocean, in consequence of the water obeying imme- 
diately the impulse of centrifugal force ; while the crust of the 
globe, if not too rigid, would gradually yield to the influence of 
the same force until the form of equilibrium due to the new con- 
ditions should be restored. The flattening of the polar regions 
and the increased equatorial diameter would tend to make the 
Strata press towards the equator and produce not only fractures at 
intermediate points as before alluded to, but also to elevate them 
along the lines of fracture above the level of the sea. 
The elevation of islands, mountain chains, and continents, and 
subsidence of other parts beneath the level of the sea, seem to be 
the necessary and legitimate consequences of the secular refrig- 
eration of the earth. 
Profs. Rogers in April, 1840, stated to the Association of Ame- 
rican Geologists, as one of the results of their labors in Pennsyl- 
vania and Virginia, that the mountain region of those states con- 
tained numerous examples of folded stratification in which the 
Strata had been arched, and finally folded over in one direction. 
The under part of each fold had its strata reversed in relative 
position from that in which they were formed, and also reversed 
in superposition when compared with the upper part of the folded 
mass. This almost surpasses credibility, but it has been found 
to be very generally true in the most disturbed parts of the prin- 
cipal axis from Carolina to Vermont, and is now admitted, I be- 
lieve, by all who have investigated the facts. 
These folded and reversed strata all dip to the E. S. E. and 
S.E., usually at high angles. This fact of the strata dipping to 
the eastward, and apparently pitching under the primary rocks 
was long a stumbling block, and led to various mistakes in the ~ 
relative ages of the sedimentary rocks. ‘The broken up, crushed 
and folded strata, were supposed to be far older than the same 
rocks which were undisturbed. 
