428 



University of California. 



[Vol. i. 



sea-bottom. " The marked and peculiar feature in this occurrence 

 is the fact that the region which went down was the region which 

 had been unloading during the entire Palaeozoic." * Such a move- 

 ment, according to King, belongs to an entirely different class 

 from those which are said to be isostatic in character— a proposi- 

 tion which has been shown to be fallacious. The event here 

 recorded, inasmuch as the movement was local and differential, 

 not due to a general continental uplift nor complicated by great 

 orogenic foldings, stands in conspicuous opposition to the theory of 

 isostasy as applied to restricted areas of the earth's crust. 



General Conclusion. — The considerations presented in the fore- 

 going paper indicate that, while the greater inequalities of the 

 earth's surface, such as the continental arches and the oceanic de- 

 pressions, may exist by reason of isostasy, the mass of available 

 evidence is opposed to the view that denudation and sedimentation 

 are able to produce movements in the earth's crust, as direct conse- 

 quences of the weight of the material shifted. Not only do such 

 superficial processes seem inadequate to initiate deep-seated crustal 

 movements, but, as far as we can see, the movements, even when 

 initiated through other causes, are as indifferent to such processes 

 as is a slumbering volcano to the changes wrought by human 

 tillage upon its flanks. 



Geological Laboratory, 



University of California, April zj, i8g6. 



* Loc. cit , p. 731 . 



