GERMAN OCEAN, OR NORTH SEA. 335 



Another view has been suggested as applicable 

 to the distribution of the surplus waters produced 

 by the gradual filling up of the bed of the ocean. 

 These waters, in place of being elevated in any 

 sensible degree, may be naturally disposed to find 

 their level in the great Polar Basins, or oblate por- 

 tions of the surface of the globe which are known 

 to exist next the poles. The oblate figure of the 

 earth at the poles makes these imaginary points 

 the nearest to the centre of the earth, and conse- 

 sequently, with regard to level, they are also the 

 lowest. It therefore appears to follow, that any 

 filling up of the bed of the sea near the equator, 

 or at a distance from the poles, will have the effect 

 of promoting the retiring of the surplus waters to 

 the polar regions by their own gravity, while the 

 centrifugal force occasioned by the earth's diurnal 

 motion, will prevent their being farther removed 

 from the equator, without a corresponding eleva- 

 tion of the waters in the great polar basons. 



In this manner, such an accumulation of water 

 may, at a former period of time, have taken place 

 at the then Poles of the Globe, as to have altered 

 the position of these points, and given rise to the 

 Flood or temporary general overflowing of the wa- 

 ters over the earth's surface, producing a change in 

 the beds of the seas or oceans of former times. In 

 this way may have been produced many of the 

 phenomena observable in the crust of the earthy 



