56 INTERSECTIONS OF FRACTURES. 



the equatorial regions would cause it to accumulate 

 in two great oceans whose central points would be 

 over the poles of the former axis : and those oceans 

 would be separated meridionally by a belt of land 

 lying along the line of the former equator. Then, 

 supposing the outer crust of the earth to be sufficiently 

 pliant, the configuration which the action of the 

 forces before described would tend to restore would 

 be modified by meridional undulations. For those 

 undulations which, before the change of axis, formed 

 the zones of land and water running parallel to the 

 old equator, would after that change, of axis lie meri- 

 dionally, or at right angles to the new equator. 



In this new position, under the action of the forces 

 which caused the former configuration, a portion of 

 the former equatorial regions would be sustained to 

 form the new Antarctic continent, and the opposite 

 part depressed to form the basin of the Arctic ocean. 

 And also ; from the central parts of one of the 

 great oceans, there would gradually be upraised the 

 crest of the undulation which had formed the old 

 Antarctic continent; and about the central parts of 

 the other of the great oceans there would gradually 

 be upraised the crest of the undulation which had 

 encircled the former Arctic ocean. The undulating 

 tendency of lateral pressure, acted upon by the vis 

 inertiae forces resulting from axial rotation and 

 orbital motion, would then tend to raise a new 

 series of meridional undulations intersecting, at right 



