32 Where did Life Begin? 



ward, carrying all kinds of marine life from 

 the pole toward the equator with them. 



It may be well in this connection to allude 

 to another fact seriously affecting the bottom 

 currents from the pole toward the equator 

 of both air and ocean. By reason of the re- 

 volution of the earth upon its axis, a given 

 point upon its surface i,ooo miles south of the 

 north pole moves to the eastward at the rate 

 of about 260 miles an hour, while another 

 point in the same meridian at the equator 

 would be moving to the eastward a little more 

 than 1,000 miles an hour; so every cubic 

 yard of air and water which starts in a bottom 

 current from the polar regions for the equator 

 must, before reaching the equator, acquire an 

 eastward motion of about 750 miles an hour. 

 The tendency, therefore, of all bottom currents 

 of air and ocean moving to the south, is to 

 press to the westward every obstacle met 

 with in its course, and the result, both as to the 

 currents and all movable things they come in 

 contact with, would be to give them a south- 

 western course and movement. 



Now it is a strange coincidence, if nothing 



