PACIFIC CONTINENT. 57 



angles, those previously raised by the action of those 

 same forces. 



If a portion of Brazil be supposed to have formed 

 at one time an Antarctic continent, then the actual 

 configuration of land and water on the surface of the 

 earth presents a striking resemblance with v that 

 which would naturally result from the action of the 

 forces which we have described. But if we have 

 correctly described the action of those forces, then 

 some previous changes of the axis of rotation would 

 be requisite in order to account for the absence of 

 land in the central parts of the Pacific, opposite the 

 equatorial regions of Africa. 



The investigation of this point offers a problem, 

 intricate and interesting, but unsuited to the purpose 

 of this chapter, which is simply to illustrate the 

 universality of the action of the forces which deter- 

 mine the position and movements of the ocean and 

 atmosphere. In these fluids the force of evanescence 

 could leave no visible trace of its action ; but if such 

 force there be, then must the action of that force be 

 recorded in the hardened crust of the earth. And, 

 if our arguments be not erroneous, then does the 

 actual configuration of earth's crust show the action 

 of the forces in the play in the ocean and atmosphere, 

 and confirm that southward motion of the earth which 

 we in the first instance deduced from the observed 



course of the ocean currents. 



* 



VOL. II. F 



