272 PROFESSOR EDUARD SUESS 



folded toward the convex side, but toward the concave side, first 

 westerly, then northerly, and continues west of the Mississippi into 

 the Washita Mountains. 



The second or younger type, the Altai, strikes with decided flexing, 

 narrowed through older horsts, from the Balkans to the Carpathi- 

 ans and the Alps, and at Gibraltar the latter join those bows of the 

 western Mediterranean that are completely reversed. 



Let us return once more to North America. As we have heard, 

 the American term as Laurentia the wide Archean area which 

 embraces the region of the Hudson Bay, middle Canada, and the 

 central part of the United States. The Appalachians to the east 

 and south of this mass, as we have seen, have a concave strike, are 

 folded toward Laurentia, and vanish in the Washita hills. West of 

 Laurentia, also, it is similar. It could have been shown that the 

 Cordillera, whose connection with northern Asia has of course not 

 yet been established, is, on its eastern side, in Canada, also folded 

 toward Laurentia. It, too, bends tow^ard the south with a more 

 and more concave strike; continuing through Mexico, it is folded 

 to the northeast, and then part of its folds finally turn toward Cuba 

 and in the direction of the Antilles. 



Thus on both sides is North America encircled by concave- 

 striking chains of folds. It is as if the folds extended away from 

 Asia and toward Laurentia. This entire grand phenomenon may 

 be illustrated by a comparison. By the eruption of Krakatoa the 

 oceans were moved; long waves proceeded from the place of erup- 

 tion, traveled around the entire earth, and met themselves on the 

 other side of the sphere. This is merely a comparison, not an 

 explanation. 



In the Southern Hemisphere the state of things is wholly differ- 

 ent. For some time it has been known that in East India and South 

 Africa, during Permian and Trias time, there flourished identical 

 land floras — the Gondwana floras. Accordingly, it is concluded 

 that these two continents were once united, and the area was named 

 Gondwana Land. Later such floras were also found in Australia; 

 then in the Argentine Republic. Thus it spread around the south. 

 But the conclusion drawn from this as to the continuity of so great 

 a continent was shattered by the circumstance that not only the 



