268 PROFESSOR EDUARD SUESS 



Brazil, finally on the shores of central and southern Africa, in east 

 India; and, in fact, over such extraordinarily vast regions that it 

 became impossible longer to explain such transgressions of the sea, 

 according to the older views of Lyell, by means of the elevation and 

 depression of continents. 



Through this and similar observations the newer idea has recently 

 come into prominence that some general change must have occurred 

 either in the shape of the hydrosphere or in its entire volume. It was 

 seen that by the forming of a new oceanic depth, due to sinking, a 

 certain amount of the hydrosphere was drawn off into the new depres- 

 sion, and that at the same time there appeared to be a general land 

 elevation, or, more correctly, there must have resulted a general 

 sinking of the beach lines. The older view of the numerous oscilla- 

 tions of the continents has also given way more and more to the 

 teachings of marine transgressions, and through the denudation of 

 continents, a more exact examination into the actual mountain move- 

 ments has become possible. 



If one were to assert that the Alps are folded, but that the Bohe- 

 mian Mass is not, and that because of this there has resulted a dam- 

 ming up, then this assertion would not be exact. The Bohemian 

 Mass is also folded, and there is at present no known portion of the 

 earth's surface of which at least the archaic base is not folded. The 

 difference, however, consists in this, that the folding has ended early 

 at certain places; at others it has continued into a later or very late 

 time, and possibly has also continued with a change in the ground- 

 plan. 



In this respect central Europe shows a quite peculiar arrangement. 

 The oldest folding is seen in the gneiss of the western Hebrides. 

 Younger and of pre-Devonic age are the folds of the Caledonians, 

 which can be traced down to Ireland. On these, farther south, are 

 ranged the Armoricanian and Varischian folds, which embrace south- 

 western England, Normandy and Brittany, the Central Plateau, the 

 mountains of the Rhine, and the Bohemian Mass, inclusive of the 

 Sudetes. Its principal folding was accomplished before the close of 

 Carboniferous time, but minor movements of various kinds have 

 followed. The Alps and Carpathians even underwent decided folding 

 in the Miocene. Each part has moved northward toward the pre- 



