Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1900. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER II THE PERMANENCE OF THE GREAT OCEANIC BASINS That the great Oceanic Basins, as well as the land areas of the globe, have persisted throughout a large portion, if not the whole, of known geological time, is a proposition which has been accepted by writers of such eminence, and is supported by so many distinct lines of evidence, that it seemed likely to become one of the established teachings of geology. Professor Dana was led to it by a study of the development of the North American Continent; Darwin upheld it from his study of Oceanic Islands, and the facts he adduced have since been strengthened by the discovery that the two supposed exceptions to the generalisation that no ancient sedimentary rocks occur on such islands--Rodriguez and St. Paul's Rocks--are no exceptions at all. Two successive heads of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, Sir Andrew Ramsay and Sir Archibald Geikie, have advocated similar views; while Mr. John Murray, of the Challenger, holds that the vast mass of evidence now accumulated as to the nature of the deposits on the floors of the great oceans, indicates that they are distinct in character and origin from any of the widespread formations which make up the series of the sedimentary rocks. Coming to the subject from a totally different point of view, that of the physicist and mathematician, the Rev. Osmond Fisher arrives at similar results. In the latest issue of his important work, " Physics of the Earth's Crust," he gives as one of his conclusions--" and lastly, that the great oceanic and continental areas have never changed places "; and, in the summary of the whole work, he says: "The occupation of an entire hemisphere by one great ocean is a remarkable circumstance, and we have seen reason for believing that this is a v...
