CHARLES B. WARRING. Dis 
after the continents have been shaped and finally lo- 
cated by this flotation theory, then there is no need of 
this latter theory at all. For such forces acting as de- 
scribed are quite sufficient to elevate and shape the con- 
-tinents without the necessity of our supposing any 
such daring scheme of a continent-raft. 
In closing the discussion Dr. Warring remarked that 
the folding of the rocks was an effect not yet sufficiently 
studied to enable us to say how great it was, but that he 
doubted very much its being as great as had been said, 
viz: that every five miles in breadth had been reduced 
to four, or in other words the continents which now 
measured, roughly speaking, twelve thousand miles 
from east to west, once measured fifteen thousand. 
This, however, was to be settled, not by @ priori 
reasoning, but by measurements. But whatever the 
size of the folds, the question of importance in the 
present connection was the direction of the force 
producing them. Forces parallel to the coasts would 
not effect their trend, neither could they produce 
folds ; such forces therefore may be dismissed from con- 
sideration. ‘'wo facts stand out prominently ; one is 
that the strikes of, say, the Archean folds are parallel 
to each other, and to the adjoining mountain system, 
and the latter parallel to the trend of the coast ; and the 
other fact is, that the direction of the fold-producing force 
must have been perpendicular to the same lines, 7. e., to 
the strikes, and to the coasts. What, then, would be the 
effect of such action? It would result in a movement of 
the coast line, pressing it inward, 7. e., toward the axis 
of continent, but with little disturbance of its trend. If 
every point in, e. g., a north and south line, be pushed 
westward by a force applied perpendicularly, the line 
will move westward but will remain parallel to its first 
position. This is equally true whatever the direction of 
the line. Hence if two lines so acted upon were parallel 
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