The Larger Areas, Coloured
Red And Blue, Are All Elongated; And Between The Two Colours
There Is A Degree Of Rude Alternation, As If The Rising Of One
Had Balanced The Sinking Of The Other.
Taking into consideration
the proofs of recent elevation both on the fringed
coasts and on some others (for instance, in South America)
where there are no reefs, we are led to conclude that the
great continents are for the most part rising areas:
And from
the nature of the coral-reefs, that the central parts of the
great oceans are sinking areas. The East Indian archipelago,
the most broken land in the world, is in most parts an area
of elevation, but surrounded and penetrated, probably in
more lines than one, by narrow areas of subsidence.
I have marked with vermilion spots all the many known
active volcanos within the limits of this same map. Their
entire absence from every one of the great subsiding areas,
coloured either pale or dark blue, is most striking and not
less so is the coincidence of the chief volcanic chains with
the parts coloured red, which we are led to conclude have
either long remained stationary, or more generally have been
recently upraised. Although a few of the vermilion spots
occur within no great distance of single circles tinted blue,
yet not one single active volcano is situated within several
hundred miles of an archipelago, or even small group of
atolls. It is, therefore, a striking fact that in the Friendly
archipelago, which consists of a group of atolls upheaved
and since partially worn down, two volcanos, and perhaps
more, are historically known to have been in action.
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