274 T. C. CHAMBERLIN 



from the borders toward the interiors of the smaller water-filled 

 basins, whether these smaller basins arise from diastrophism or 

 from any other source, and whether they are indentures of the 

 borders of the continents or lie within them as mediterranean basins. 

 In these smaller basins the shelves are usually narrower and the 

 slopes are liable to be higher because the backward distribution of 

 the sediments is less effective since the surface agitation and the 

 circulatory currents are generally feebler, but this difference of 

 slope is not inevitable nor universal. 



There is this further dift'erence, that in the intra-continental 

 basins the land surrounds the water bodies and they are, in an areal 

 sense, the minor elements, while the oceans surround the continents 

 and, in an areal sense, are the major elements. In the intra- 

 continental basins, the feeding areas are generally large compared 

 with the depositional areas. The growth of the terraces is centrip- 

 etal and their borders constantly diminish, while the growth of 

 the circum-continental shelves is centrifugal and their borders 

 constantly increase. While these are only features that have a 

 quantitative bearing, they are worthy of passing notice because by 

 far the larger part of the subaqueous strata that have been studied 

 in detail by geologists are of the intra-continental or epicontinental 

 order. The study of the circum-continental growths is a field to 

 which less ample attention has been directed. 



Before the foreset beds are left, some special features may well 

 be considered but they are reserved for a later article. 



