CHAPTER X 
THE EARTH FRAME 
Ir was the teaching of our childhood that, if 
we divided the earth into land and water, and 
allotted one-quarter to the former and three- 
quarters to the latter, we should have the pro- 
portionate distribution of these elements. Too 
many of us, perhaps, accepted the statement 
literally, and when we looked upon the map, 
vaguely wondered if the water floated the earth 
or the earth the water. Even in maturer years 
it is not easy to realize that all the water is on 
the surface, that the earth’s hollows and de- 
pressions hold it as in cups, and that after all, 
it is the earth and not the sea that is the domi- 
nant body. The volume of the sea is enor- 
mous, to be sure, and that of the air is still 
more so; yet the land is not moved by them, 
but is the mover. It is the central body around 
which air and moisture gather—the solid upon 
which these surface-coverings rest. 
The form of the earth is, of course, globe- 
197 
Earth and 
sea. 
