Subject to Law 



have in places to ascend undulations like hills, 

 almost high enough sometimes to be called 

 mountains, in other parts to descend declivities. 



Most of us have noticed in a cup filled with 

 water, that the water-surface is not perfectly 

 flat. Close to the sides of the cup may be 

 noticed a distinct rise. It is the same in a 

 tumbler, in a basin, in a slender glass tube. 

 For the sides of the cup or tumbler or tube 

 attract the water, drawing it upward ; and this 

 is known as Capillary Attraction. 



With the ocean the very same thing is seen. 

 If high land borders on deep water, the extra 

 attraction of mountain-masses will act just as 

 the sides of a cup or tumbler will act. They 

 draw upward the water of the ocean to a higher 

 level. When I say that this is "seen," I do not 

 mean that any careless looker-on will be aware 

 of the fact. It has to be discovered by careful 

 measurement. 



In some cases a marked difference has been 

 found. The enormous masses of the Himalayas, 

 for instance, exert a powerful drawing upon the 

 neighbouring sea ; and at the delta of the Indus 

 the ocean-level, in consequence of that attraction, 

 is actually three hundred feet higher than on the 

 coast of Ceylon. 



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