244 J. Starhie Gardner — Permanence of Continents and Oceans. 



must exercise enormovis pressure, tending to make the greatest 

 depths of the sea permanent, and to continually elevate lines of least 

 resistance into ridges or banks, resulting, where the state of tension 

 is extreme, in isolated volcanic outbursts. The lines of absolute least 

 resistance would probably, however, more generally coincide with 

 sea-margins, because these would be the nearest lines to the area of 

 depression, free from accumulating sediment. Upon coasts, there- 

 fore, while we might expect, and actually find, a tendency to local 

 depression, owing, as I suggest, to littoral sedimentation ; at a few 

 miles inland there should be found a far more important and 

 preponderating tendency to elevation. 



That such a tendency has really existed is apparent from the 

 positions of the chief mountain chains. Considering the very 

 different distribution of seas which prevailed during the periods of 

 elevation of some mountain chains, and the complicated forces at 

 work, it is remarkable how the chief mountains of the world follow 

 the existing, or recently existing coast-lines. In Europe we have 

 the Icelandic mountains on its southern shores, and formed probably 

 when Iceland extended some way north. The Norwegian chain, 

 and the Welsh and Irish mountains follow the coast-line, and were 

 chiefly formed perhaps, when England and Scotland were united 

 to the Continent. The Sierra Nevada, the Cantabrian mountains 

 and the Pyrenees ; the Corsican, Sardinian and Sicilian mountains, 

 the Apennines, Maritime and Dinaric Alps, and the Alps them- 

 selves, were formed when Eocene seas washed their bases. In 

 Asia we find the Mediterranean, the Eed Sea, the Gulf of Aden, 

 the Persian Gulf, and the south shore of the Caspian, margined 

 by mountains. Both sea-boards of Hindustan are followed a little 

 way inland by the Eastern and Western Ghauts, and the Hima- 

 layas skirted the sea at the time of their formation. The Malay 

 peninsula is a mountain ridge, and mountains follow the sinuosities 

 of the Eastern coast of Asia from Singapore to Beh ring's Straits. 

 Eastern and Western Australia also have their coast ranges. 



In Northern Africa there are almost continuous mountains from 

 the south of Morocco to Suez. The Kong mountains follow the 

 coast of Liberia to the Slave Coast. The Cape mountains stretch 

 north at least to Mozambique, and hills seem to line the coast from 

 Zanzibar and meet the northern range at Suez. In America a 

 magnificent range follows the Western coast from Alaska to Cape 

 Horn, and on the east are the Alleghany and Eio de Janeiro 

 mountains. Unless we believe that the principal chains of mountains 

 follow present or past coast-lines by a mere coincidence, we must 

 recognize that some definite law is at work. 



But even more conclusive evidence is derived from the position 

 of active volcanos, for these prove that the fluid layer is actually 

 forced nearest to the surface along coast-lines. The Pacific is almost 

 encircled by a marvellous chain of volcanic vents ; and earthquake 

 regions are also generally in proximity to the sea. 



If the sedimentation going on annually at the bottom of the 

 ocean really produces depression, that is, displacement of the fluid 



