90 THE HISTORY OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC 



in the Arctic regions, and a great weight of new sediment is 

 being deposited along the borders of the Atlantic, especially 

 on its western side ; and this is not improbably connected with 

 the earthquake shocks and slight movements of depression 

 which have occurred in North America. It is possible that 

 these slight and secular movements may go on uninterruptedly, 

 or with occasional paroxysmal disturbances, until considerable 

 changes are produced. 



It is possible, on the other hand, that after the long period 

 of quiescence which has elapsed, there may be a new settlement 

 of the ocean bed, accompanied with foldings of the crust, es- 

 pecially on the western side of the Atlantic, and possibly with 

 renewed volcanic activity on its eastern margin. In either 

 case, a long time relatively to our limited human chronology 

 may intervene before the occurrence of any marked change. 

 On the whole, the experience of the past would lead us to ex- 

 pect movements and eruptive discharges in the Pacific rather 

 than in the Atlantic area. It is therefore not unlikely that the 

 Atlantic may remain undisturbed, unless secondarily and in- 

 directly, until after the Pacific area shall have attained to a 

 greater degree of quiescence than at present. But this subject 

 is one too much involved in uncertainty to warrant us in follow- 

 ing it farther. 



In the meantime the Atlantic is to us a practically permanent 

 ocean, varying only in its tides, its currents, and its winds, which 

 science has already reduced to definite laws, so that we can 

 use if we cannot regulate them. It is ours to take advantage 

 of this precious time of quietude, and to extend the blessings 

 of science and of our Christian civilisation from shore to shore, 

 until there shall be no more sea, not in the sense of that final 

 drying-up of old ocean to which some physicists look forward, 

 but in the higher sense of its ceasing to be the emblem of un- 

 rest and disturbance, and the cause of isolation. 



I must now close this chapter with a short statement of some 



