William Lotvthian Greefi. — Hitchcock. g 
surface with the smallest volume. Hence a collapsing spher- 
ical envelope "tends to adopt that form which most quickly 
and permanently disposes of the excess of its linear dimen- 
sions about the diminishing volume of the contents which 
support it." The force producing collapse is simply the 
weight of the earth's crust. 
Possibly the above statements are not adequate to pro- 
duce conviction in some minds. A word from a geologist 
may be of avail. Mr. E. D. Preston, of the United States 
Coast and Geodetic Survey, read a paper upon "Recent Pro- 
gress in Geodesy" before the Philosophical Society of Wash- 
ington, April 30, 1898, printed in January, 1899, in which he 
takes the ground that recent measurements of arcs in Amer- 
ica, Europe and Asia indicate a "greater curvature than would 
be required on an oblate spheroid of the dimensions of our 
earth;" and that the "theory which seems to provide most con- 
sistently for the phenomena" is the tetrahedral one. If the 
geodesists agree in drawing such conclusions the geologists 
will follow suit and express great pleasure in having such dif- 
ficult questions settled for them satisfactorily. 
Only one geological, matter will be mentioned. The 
theory can be applied to the solution of problems in the evo- 
lution and distribution of life about the southern terminations 
of the continents. Similarities in the life in America, Africa 
and certain islands somewhat antipodal to us may now be ex- 
plained, as well as an ancient ice age, described in a recent 
number of the American Geologist.* 
Published Writings of W. L. Green. 
1. Extinct coast craters of Oahu. Sandwich Island Monthly, Nos. 
I, 2, and 3, for April, May, and June, 1856. 
2. On the cause of the pyramidal form of the outline of the southern 
extremities of the great continents and peninsulas of the globe. Edin- 
burgh New Philosophical Journal, 1857. 
3. Vestiges of the molten globe. Parti. London, 1875. 
4. The southern tendency of peninsulas in connection with the re- 
markable preponderance of ocean in the southern hemisphere. Letter 
to Sir John Lubbock. Honolulu, March, 1877. 
*C. H. Hitchcock, Ancient glacial action in Australasia, Ajiril, iSgg. 
