344 Philip Lake — 



It would take too long to discuss the remainder of Wegener's 

 assertions, but these examples are sufficient to show their value. 

 South African geologists ^ have not considered it so obvious as he 

 does that the Cederbergen Mountains are merely a local branch of 

 the Zwarteberg ranges, or that the east to west folds of the latter 

 were ever continued beyond their junction with the former. If 

 they were it would be curious that upon the western coast, directly 

 in the path that these folds would take, the Table Mountain Sand- 

 stone lies nearly flat. 



Even on the assumption that all Wegener's tectonic statements can 

 be justified, we should still have to consider whether the structures 

 on the two sides of the Atlantic can be joined to one another. In 

 his reconstruction they fit very well, but he acknowledges that he 

 has pressed Newfoundland and Labrador strongly towards the 

 north-west and has turned the former through an angle of about 

 30 degrees. The motion of Newfoundland may be admitted as 

 consistent with the hypothesis ; but if, in addition to moving the 

 masses of Sal, we are also allowed to mould them as we will, the 

 coincidences that we deduce become evidence of imaginative powers, 

 not of former realities. 



To test the amount of distortion which is involved in Wegener's 

 reconstructions the most accurate method is to use some form of 

 triangular compasses,^ the three points, of which may be set upon 

 three points of the globe and then transferred, without altering their 

 relative positions, to any other part. But it is easy to obtain a good 

 idea of the distortion by simpler means. Upon a globe stretch a 

 thread from Valentia, in Ireland, to Cape Town. It will cut off a 

 little corner of the Gulf of Guinea. It will be convenient to use white 

 thread and to mark upon it the positions of the three places referred 

 to. Now place the Valentia mark upon St. John's, in Newfoundland, 

 and stretch the thread so that it cuts Cape St. Roque. The mark for 

 the Gulf of Guinea will lie north of Cape St. Roque and the Cape 

 Town mark will be in the middle of the Atlantic, well over 1,200 

 geographical miles from the province of Buenos Aires, where the 

 continuation of the Zwartebergen is supposed to be. To be exact, 

 we should first push Newfoundland against the American coast, 

 which will make matters a little worse, and should take points at 

 the edge of the continental shelf instead of Valentia and St. John's, 

 which will improve them. But it is clear that if the masses are kept 

 rigid and are made to touch in the north, the Zwartebergen cannot 

 be brought within 1,200 miles of the range in Buenos Aires. 



^ Du Toit {S. African Journ. of Sci., vol. xviii, 1921, p. 120) accepts 

 Wegener's views, but does not discuss this point. Schwarz's theory (Geog. 

 Journ., vol. xl, 1912, p. 294) does not require any direct connexion between 

 the South African ranges and those of Buenos Aires. 



^ The ordinary triangular compasses of the draughtsman are of very limited 

 use upon a globe. In a recent letter to Nature, vol. ex, p. 77, I have suggested 

 an easilj' constructed form which is fairly convenient in use. More convenient 

 forms may be devised, but their construction is a httle more difficult. 



