Chap. XIX.] THE SURFACE OF THE EARTH. 211 



described, the surface of the earth should be drawn 

 inwards about the North Pole, bulged outwards 

 about the South Pole, pressed downwards between 

 the South Pole and the equator, and piled upwards 

 between the equator and the North Pole ; because 

 the force returning from the South to the North Pole 

 would, in the southern hemisphere, be pressing the 

 surface of the earth from latitudes of lesser into 

 latitudes of greater circumference ; whereas, in the 

 northern hemisphere, it would be pressing the sur- 

 face from latitudes of greater into latitudes of lesser 

 circumference,^ 



The inde23endent action of each one of the forces 

 I have described is illustrated by the curve lines in 

 Plate XVI. : in which the sphere shows the action of 



^ According to Mr. Croll's work, Climate and Time, already 

 alluded to, the great Southern Ocean exists in consequence of the 

 southern * ice-cap' having moved the earth's centre of gravity 

 southwards ; whereas, according to the argument above, that 

 ocean exists in consequence of the surface of the earth having 

 collapsed in the temperate regions of the southern, and bulged 

 out in those of the northern hemisphere under the influence of 

 the earth's motion through space. 



The latter action is corroborated by the existence of the 

 Arctic Ocean, almost encircled by the lands of the Northern 

 Hemisphere ; and by the Antarctic lands surrounded by the ocean 

 of the Southern Hemisphere ; whereas, the attraction of the water 

 to the Southern Hemisphere by the * ice-cap ' would have tended 

 to leave the Arctic Regions all dry land, and to submerge the 

 Antarctic Regions as much as the South Temperate Zone. The 

 great height of the mountains in the Antarctic Regions, where in 

 corresponding latitudes in the Arctic Regions no land exists, seems 

 at variance with the idea of the ocean having been drawn south- 

 wards by the formation of the ' ice- cap.' 



p 2 



