226 Davis — Framework of the Earth. 



tion of Suess's work. It is with the object of calling 

 attention to the completion of de Margerie's translation 

 and to the importance of securing from him the necessary 

 indications regarding the most desirable lines for super- 

 national geological investigation of the earth's frame- 

 work that this essay is prepared. 



The time is fitting for international and super-national 

 work of this kind. Never has the earth as a whole been 

 so closely scrutinized in many relations by its many 

 inhabitants. Never has the need of world-wide investi- 

 gation been realized so fully. Never has there been a 

 broader recognition of the value of international coopera- 

 tion in the solution of great scientific problems. The 

 actual gathering of large international congresses for 

 scientific objects may be delayed for a time by reason of 

 the turmoil that follows the Great "War; and, as is well 

 known, certain nations that have heretofore taken an 

 active part in science will not be invited to attend inter- 

 national congresses for the present; but national and 

 international committees are already at work on various 

 broad questions, and the outlining of truly terrestrial 

 investigations for discussion at the next international 

 geological congress, whatever nations may be invited to 

 take part in it, should not be longer deferred. In view 

 of the leading position that de Margerie may, it is to 

 be hoped, be persuaded to take in relation to the future 

 super-national investigation of the earth's framework, 

 special attention will here be given to the position that 

 he now holds in this great subject. But a retrospect over 

 Suess 's work must first be taken. 



The well-defined object of Suess's studies was to de- 

 termine the general structure of the earth's crust and 

 to infer therefrom the character of the larger move- 

 ments by which the crust has been deformed. The method 

 that he pursued in this great endeavor led him first to 

 examine all pertinent geological records, wherever pub- 

 lished; then to group the relatively local areas therein 

 treated with respect to the larger structural units, usually 

 of super-national dimensions, to which the areas belong; 

 and finally to discuss the manner in which adjacent struc- 

 tural units are related to one another. Thus the work 

 as a whole truly constitutes a treatise on the framework 

 of the earth, and as such it well deserves to be ranked 

 as the greatest geological treatise ever written. It dif- 



