212 F. B. TAYLOR ORIGIN OF THE EARTH^S PLAN 



The recentness of the breaking up of Atlantis, as described by Sness, 

 accords well with the conclusion that the rifts around Greenland are of 

 recent date. The continent was pulled asunder apparentl}^ toward the 

 southwest and southeast along a line passing southward from Cape Fare- 

 well and dividing around Greenland so as to leave it unmoved. 



Penck, after enumerating many similarities between Europe and east- 

 ern North America, remarks that these similarities are not superficial. 



"In a very remarkable way these two sides of the Atlantic repeat the same 

 structural features ; there is an astonishing symmetry, as Eduard Suess has 

 shown so clearly." "It is very interesting to see how the Appalachian region 

 ends at Newfoundland, forming the projecting eastern corner of North Amer- 

 ica, and just opposite in south Ireland, in south Wales, in Cornwall, and in 

 Brittany the belt of the old Hercynian Mountains of Europe begins. One 

 seems to be the continuation of the other, and such an excellent geologist as 

 Marcel Bertrand maintained that we have here to deal with the two ends of 

 one very extensive belt of mountains which extended through the North 

 Atlantic Ocean. But we must not forget that the missing link between both 

 ends of these supposed Diountain chains is longer than their known extent.'" 



No doubt some portion of each of these mountain chains is now sub- 

 merged beneath the Atlantic. But it seems probable that a considerable 

 part of the present oceanic interval is due to Tertiary and perhaps to 

 older crustal movements which divided the original chain near Green- 

 land and carried the parts away on divergent lines — to the southeast and 

 the southwest. In a later work, referred to below, Suess again dwells 

 particularly upon the remarkable similarities on the two sides of the 

 Atlantic. 



In the southern hemisphere South America appears to have crept away 

 to the northwest and Australia to the northeast, but these two continents 

 are nearly 180 degrees apart. Africa holds a medial position remotely 

 suggesting a relation similar to that of Greenland to North America and 

 Europe, but in reality the similitude fails, because Africa is tropical. 



Tertiary crustal Movements in the Southern Hemisphere 



australia 



Passing by Africa and the Antarctic land, there are only two conti- 

 nents in the southern hemisphere, and they are relatively small. Present 

 knowledge of them is rather meager. 



In its continental type Australia resembles Asia. Both are roughly 

 symmetrical in form, so far as relates to Tertiary diastrophism, whereas 

 South America resembles North America, being unilateral or asymmetri- 



T Both passages from Science, February 26, 1909, pp. 322-323. 



