PERMANENCE OF THE OCEAN 97 



restored to their original position above the sea, they will 

 constitute a very considerable tract of land, and this 

 situated in the very middle of the Pacific Ocean. Such- a 

 prospect could not fail to be unpleasing to those who 

 believed in the immutability of the ocean. 



Of late years, however, this doctrine of "permanence" 

 has begun to look a little threadbare. In a theoretical 

 restoration of the distribution of land and sea during the 

 Jurassic times, Neumayr has treated it with scant con- 

 sideration, since he represents the North and South 

 Atlantic, as well as the Indian Ocean, as then to a great 

 extent occupied by land, and it is now very generally 

 supposed that this land did not disappear to make way 

 for existing seas till a comparatively late period in the 

 history of the earth. Bold as Neumayr showed himself 

 in the treatment of these oceans, he had not the temerity 

 to take liberties with the Pacific. This he and geologists 

 in general are disposed to regard as having maintained 

 its existing features from a very early period : * of this 

 ocean, and of it alone, would they exclaim, "Such as 

 Creation's dawn beheld, thou rollest now." 



Darwin's theory, as we have seen, does not hesitate to 

 recall to existence land in the middle of even this ocean ; 

 this is its unforgivable offence it lays sacrilegious hands 

 on the Pacific, and thus attacks the doctrine of " per- 

 manence " in its stronghold. 



While the recent controversy on Darwin's theory was 

 at its fiercest, and both sides seemed equally persuaded 

 that the truth was theirs and must prevail, it occurred to 

 me that a simple solution might be obtained by sinking 

 a bore-hole through some well-characterised atoll, and 



* I find I have underestimated the courage of this brilliant thinker. 

 Neumayr has indeed proposed to bridge the Pacific by a continent 

 joining Eastern Asia and Western North America in order to explain 

 the similarity irj the faunas of these two regions. 



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