344 FF. 2L Davis — The Great Barrier Reef of Australia. 



if the uplifts bad been everywhere of the same amount, the 

 continent would have been broadened thereby, and the coastal 

 lowland today would show successive littoral belts of younger 

 and youno;er marine sediments, more or less eroded. The 

 absence of such belts indicates that, while the interior high- 

 lands were uplifted, the adjoining sea floor either stood still or 

 subsided. 



Let it be noted in passing that the absence of littoral belts of 

 marine sediments suffices to disprove the possibility to which 



Fig. 4. 



some credence appears to be given by Australian investigators, 

 that the uplift of the highlands was not actual but only appar- 

 ent, and that the sloping land really stood still while the sea 

 sank to lower and lower levels ; for in such case at each sink- 

 ing the marine sediments previously deposited would be laid 

 bare, and although they would be worn down to lowlands in 

 each interval of local peneplanation, they would still be visible 

 today in the littoral zone. JS^o such belts are to be seen ; 

 hence the supposition that the land gained height because the 

 sea surface sank is excluded ; the continental mass, not the sea 

 surface, must be the chief seat of movement. 



Furthermore, had the coastal lowland and the adjoining sea 

 bottom stood still while the inner highlands rose, the present 



