Davis — Framework of the Earth. 225 



Art. XIX. — The Framework of the Earth; by W. M. 



Davis. 



For ten or twenty years past, the discussion of vari- 

 ous large, super-national questions has held an important 

 place in the proceedings of geological meetings and 

 congresses, national and international; but international 

 action of large dimensions has not yet been undertaken 

 with respect to the greatest of all geological problems, 

 the framework of the earth as a whole. Such action 

 should no longer be delayed. Astronomy has very natur- 

 ally anticipated other sciences in internationalizing its 

 studies, because its realm is extra-terrestrial and belongs 

 alike to observers in all nations. Geologists may now 

 to advantage follow the lead of the astronomers and, 

 without hampering individual initiative or interfering 

 with national surveys, attack the problem of the earth's 

 framework in an international spirit, for all countries 

 are parts of the same planet. 



The present essay closes with a somewhat definite 

 proposition towards that end, which may be at once out- 

 lined in this paragraph. The framework of the earth, 

 as determined by all available recorded observations, has 

 been studied in the broadest manner possible by the late 

 Eduard Suess of Vienna; the conclusions reached are 

 summarized in masterful fashion in his great work, ' ' Das 

 Antlitz der Erde. ' ' An English translation, ' ' The Face 

 of the Earth/' has been prepared by Miss Sollas of 

 Oxford and published several years ago; Emmanuel 

 de Margerie of Paris has lately completed a French 

 translation, "La Face de la Terre." Thus the results 

 of the great Austrian's life work are now available in 

 three languages. Some of his generalizations are well 

 established; others are not so well assured for lack of 

 data. The less assured generalizations can be best tested 

 by directing attention to certain significant areas in which 

 observations are wanting. Indications of these signifi- 

 cant areas and of the particular problems that they 

 contain would be welcomed by the geologists of the world 

 as a guide to their future work ; particularly if the indi- 

 cations were made by the one man most competent iov 

 such a task of all men now living; and that man is with- 

 out question the scholarly translator of the French edi- 



