54 THE FIGURE OF THE EARTH 



sidence. It will be seen that the line which forms the 

 axis of the African-Asiatic land is very symmetrically 

 placed with regard to the Archaean masses it passes 

 through in its course ; tw T o of these are situated upon 

 it ; one of them borders the Ked Sea, the other forms 

 the nucleus of Asia ; symmetrically placed on each side 

 of it, diverging at about equal angles, are the Archaean 

 ridges of the Ural and Thibet, while outside these the 

 Scandinavian mass on the one hand, and the Indian 

 peninsula on the other, approximately correspond. 



In its continuation over the opposite hemisphere, this 

 great circle crosses the Pacific 'Ocean in its greatest 

 length, as previously it had traversed the land mass of 

 the opposite hemisphere ; in so doing it passes near 

 the great abyss, which lies off the Japanese coast, and 

 through South America, close to the place where this 

 continent rapidly curves near its southern extremity from 

 a north and south course to one due east and west. 

 This locality is also not far from the gap by which 

 the Pacific enters the South Atlantic. The other great 

 circles also present interesting peculiarities, which will 

 be obvious to the geologist by mere inspection. 



The general course of events in the transformation of 

 the physiognomy of our planet would thus appear to be 

 as follows : Soon after the birth of the moon it acquired 

 a form like that of a pear, and so consolidated ; the 

 aqueous atmosphere then condensed and gave rise to an 

 ocean, which was deepest about the neck of the pear. 

 This was the ancestor of the existing Pacific ; it formed 

 a broad girdle round the globe, with a smaller continental 

 mass in the middle on one side, and a much larger con- 

 tinent on the other, or the land hemisphere. We may 

 speak of this as the primitive form of the earth. The 

 land hemisphere then collapsed, partly along an annulus, 

 concentric with the Pacific, and now represented by a 



