264 THE BORDERLAND OF SCIENCE. 



continents, on the direction of the mountain chains 

 which traverse them, and on the distribution of land 

 and water,' then we must look upon the earthquake as 

 the most important of all those agencies which tend to 

 the renovation of our terrestrial globe. So far from 

 dreading lest the earth's subterranean forces should 

 acquire new energies, we ought rather to fear lest they 

 should lose their force. We may, therefore, gladly 

 hail the Opinion of the great geologist who asserts that 

 4 the energy of subterranean movements has always 

 been uniform as regards the whole earth. The force 

 of earthquakes,' adds Lyell, c may for a cycle of years 

 have been invariably confined, as it is now, to large but 

 determinate spaces;' gradually, however, this force shifts 

 in position, so that other regions, for ages at rest, 

 become ' in their turn the grand theatre of action.' 



(From the CornMl Magazine for July 1868.) 



THE ANTARCTIC REGIONS. 



THERE are parts of our earth of which we know less 

 than of the moon, or even of some of the planets. 

 The eyes of the astronomer have looked upon the 

 unattainable summits of the lunar mountains ; he has 

 studied the arid wastes which lie within the lunar 

 craters ; he has measured the light which these regions 

 reflect nay, even the degree to which they are warmed 

 under the blazing sun of the long lunar day. Passing 



