104 W. H. Hudleston — E. Margin of N. Atlantic Basin. 



We may thus regard the crust of the earth as still retaining traces 

 of its congenital features in the shape of the great ocean depths, 

 and also in the position of the chief continental areas which have 

 been built up from deposits formed for the most part in shallow seas, 

 though with some important exceptions. On the question of the 

 primal origin of these features we obtain some valuable physical hints 

 from Lord Kelvin ^ in his remarks on that very critical stage in the 

 earth's history when solidification was commencing on the surface. 

 His view is that continents and ocean depths were due to 

 heterogeueousness in different parts of the liquid which constituted 

 the earth's surface before such solidification. The hydrostatic 

 equilibrium, he says, involved homogeneousness in respect to density 

 only, but none in respect of chemical composition : from this 

 heterogeneousness the irregularities of the present surface, he 

 thinks, followed by dynamical necessity. 



No apology is needed for quoting the views of one of the first 

 physicists of the day as to the possible origin of some of the major 

 features of the earth's crust. But it is time, after this diversion, to 

 consider the bearing of Nansen's discoveries in reference to theories 

 of geographical evolution. As already pointed out, the northern 

 boundary of the European continental platform must be sought in 

 Spitzbergen and the Franz Josef Archipelago. At present every 

 detail in connection with this prolongation of the eastern margin of 

 the Atlantic basin is wanting. We know that a shallow sea becomes 

 a deep one, and that is all. But the question arises as to how long 

 in the history of the earth has this feature endured? Is a deep 

 North Polar ocean one of the permanent features of the earth's crust ? 



There are no people so ready to make light of the problems of 

 geographical evolution as the biologists. Whenever a botanist or 

 a zoologist is desirous of explaining the peculiarities of distribution, 

 he is quite ready to conjure up a continent from " the vasty deep." 

 Thus, it is not so long since we heard of a famous botanist requiring 

 a large land area in the Polar ocean. But in the light of recent 

 discoveries we may feel certain that no such land area exists at 

 present ; whilst the great depths recorded by the sounding-lead 

 render it unlikely that land has existed there so recently as to have 

 influenced plant distribution. Even supposing that Greenland 

 belongs botanically to Europe, it is not in the North Polar area 

 that the connection is likely to have been made. Speaking generally, 

 one might say that, since the sea is in possession of the depths, the 

 onus probandi rests with those who would alter the condition of 

 things. Apart from mere surmise, it is by no means easy to prove 

 that a water-space has ever been a land area, though of course 

 the converse of the proposition presents no difficulties. We have 

 abundant evidence that, on the continental side of the suboceanio 

 slope, there have been oscillations of moderate amount, resulting in 

 the formation of terrigenous deposits of many ages in connection with 

 what is now the shallow Barents Sea. If any volcanic island, outside 



1 Annual Address to the Victoria Institute for 1897. 



