CHANGE OF EARTH'S AXIS OF NOTATION. 55 



taining respectively the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. 

 And such a meridional division of land and water, we 

 suggested in volume i., would naturally result from a 

 change of the earth's axial rotation, from any axis 

 to a new axis at right angles to the position of the 

 old axis. Arid, in fact, if in this sketch we have 

 correctly described the action of the forces which we 

 have brought into play on our hypothetical globe, 

 then it would appear from the actual conformation 

 of the outer crust of the earth, that such a change of 

 the axis of rotation as we have above mentioned, has 

 occurred not once only, but many times. In such 

 case the wave-like conformations observed by Admiral 

 Fitzroy must have been formed since the occurrence 

 of the last change of axis : these comparatively 

 modern undulations intersecting older similar undu- 

 lations, and obliterating, to a greater or lesser extent, 

 the traces of their original conformation. 



Let us consider how such a change of axis as that 

 just mentioned would affect the configuration of the 

 hypothetical globe which we have been describing. 

 By such a change the position of the poles of the 

 new axis would be in opposite points of the old 

 equator: and the new equator would intersect the 

 old at points ninety degrees from each of those poles. 

 The equatorial diameter between those points would 

 then be greater than that at right angles to it ; for this 

 latter would be the line of the former axis of rota- 

 tion. And centrifugal force, carrying the water to 



