276 Effect of Loeal Attraction on Geodetic Operations. - 



theory : though the three deflections are all small, they are towards the 

 sea, the largest of them being at Fuglenoes, which is very near to the 

 North Cape, and has a large expanse of ocean above it. 



19. The least that can be gathered from the deflections of these coast- 

 stations is, that they present no obstacle to the theory so remarkably sug- 

 gested by the facts brought to light in India, viz. that mountain-regions 

 and oceans on a large scale have been produced by the contraction of the 

 materials, as the surface of the earth has passed from a fluid state to a con- 

 dition of solidity — the amount of contraction beneath the mountain- region 

 having been less than that beneath the ordinary surface, and still less than 

 that beneath the ocean-bed, by which process the hollows have been pro- 

 duced into which the ocean has flowed. In fact the testimony of these coast- 

 stations is in some degree directly in favour of the theory, as they seem to 

 indicate, by excess of attraction towards the sea, that the contraction of the 

 crust beneath the ocean has gone on increasing in some instances still fur- 

 ther since the crust became too thick to be influenced by the principles of 

 floatation, and that an additional flow of water into the increasing hollow 

 has increased the amount of attraction upon stations on its shores. 



Murree, Punjab, 

 August 20, 1863. 



