CHAPTER X 



THE EARTH FRAME 



IT was the teaching of our childhood that, if 

 we divided the earth into land and water, and 

 allotted one-quarter to the former and three- 

 quarters to the latter, we should have the pro- 

 portionate distribution of these elements. Too 

 many of us, perhaps, accepted the statement 

 literally, and when we looked upon the map, 

 vaguely wondered if the water floated the earth 

 or the earth the water. Even in maturer years 

 it is not easy to realize that all the water is on 

 the surface, that the earth's hollows and de- 

 pressions hold it as in cups, and that after all, 

 it is the earth and not the sea that is the domi- 

 nant body. The volume of the sea is enor- 

 mous, to be sure, and that of the air is still 

 more so ; yet the land is not moved by them, 

 but is the mover. It is the central body around 

 which air and moisture gather the solid upon 

 which these surface-coverings rest. 



The form of the earth is, of course, globe- 

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Earth and 



