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THE PERMANENCE OF CONTINENTS. 
By J. STARKIE GARDNER, F.G.S. 
‘TT is not too much to say that every spot which is now dry 
JL land has been sea at some former period, and every part of 
the space now covered by the deepest ocean has been land.’ 
This sentence occurs in the latest edition of Ly ell’s Principles of 
Geology , still perhaps the most authoritative text-book on the 
subject, and the view it expresses has been generally received 
as an article of faith by geologists until within a few years, or 
even months ago. 
Lately a change of view has taken place, and now many 
distinguished men hold the completely opposite opinion that 
oceans have been permanent from the remotest times, and that 
continents are, and have ever been, fixed lands, subjected to 
ceaseless modifications of form. Among the most conspicuous 
partisans of the new theory are Sir Wyville Thomson, Prof. 
Geikie, and Mr, Wallace; and the latter especially seems to 
have collected together and presented in his fascinating book, 
Island Life , every kind of evidence that tends to support it. 
Nothing appears to have escaped him, yet the whole when 
summed up must seem to every geologist to fall far short of 
proof. Still, although the evidence upon which the theory is 
based is as yet wholly insufficient, it by no means follows that 
the theory itself is improbable. 
The chief evidence upon which the Permanence of Continents 
at present rests, is purely geological. It is argued that the 
whole of the sedimentary rocks are littoral deposits, or those of 
inland seas ; and if this can be maintained, the theory would, 
almost as a matter of course, be accepted. Mr. Wallace, there- 
fore, endeavours by every means to prove it. 
Chief among deposits hitherto supposed to be oceanic, is the 
Chalk ; and to the discussion of this formation, accordingly, almost 
a whole chapter is devoted. Mr. Wallace expresses the belief 
that, far from the Chalk sea representing a wide ocean with a 
