604 T. C. CHAMBERLIN 



the protruding portion would raise the sea level somewhat more 

 than one hundred meters, an amount sufficient, in the lowered 

 state of the continents, to notably extend the marine area and 

 change the distribution of life. 



Here, then, hypothetically are two systematic causes tend- 

 ing to produce universal changes in the relations of sea to 

 land, the one dependent on the accumulation of shrinkage 

 stresses by reason of the effective rigidity of the earth, and 

 the other dependent upon erosion during relatively quiescent 

 stages. Now, if by the compilation of great masses of data 

 the disturbing effects of local warping can be eliminated, a 

 means of intercontinental correlation, independent of the pale- 

 ontologic, and fundamental to it, may be obtained. By com- 

 bining the dynamic with the paleontologic the testimony of 

 both may be enhanced and the significance of the latter greatly 

 increased. 



The application of the method obviously requires the mass- 

 ing and handling, quantitatively as well as qualitatively, of all 

 possible data from all parts of the world, and can only give 

 results of the highest order of trustworthiness when the mapping 

 of the whole earth approaches completion, but there is reason to 

 believe that initial results of no small value might even now be 

 secured if all existing data could be marshaled. 



The constitutional states of the atmosphere furnish a third 

 source of hope of supplementary means of correlation. If the 

 view that the atmosphere originally contained all or the larger 

 portion of the elements which have been taken from it, notably 

 the carbon dioxide, and that its history has been one of continu- 

 ous depletion, and that, aside from a slow decline in temperature, 

 climatic changes have been due merely to local agencies, be cor- 

 rect, there is little ground of hope for results of much value in 

 correlation. But if, on the other hand, as recently postulated, 1 



*A Group of Hypotheses Bearing on Climatic Changes. Jour. Geol., Vol. V, No. 

 7, October-November 1897. 



The Influence of Great Epochs of Limestone Formation on the Constitution of 

 the Atmosphere, Jour. Geol., Vol. V, No. 6, September-October 1898, pp. 609-621. 



An Attempt to Frame a Working Hypothesis of the Cause of Glacial Periods on 

 an Atmospheric Basis, Jour. Geol., Vol. VII, Nos. 6, 7, and 8, 1899. 



