A stellar body, occupying the position of the Polestar, or of a star in a corresponding position at the South Pole, might be invoked as the agent, provided such star could approach within proper distance of the earth to exert sufficient attraction. Then the Sial crust might be withdrawn from the opposite part, over the more resistant Sima, and become concentrated into a polar hemisphere of land.. In this process the rocks would become intensely folded, and a compressed and changed Sial would result, and, as the Sial-sphere is such an insignia ficant part of the whole, without essentially disturbing the position which the earth occupies in space.
"This may be illustrated by a simple experiment. If one covers a globe with a closely fitting coat of thin cloth, representing the Sial crust, and withdraws it from one half of the globe into a folded crust on the other half, a definite pattern of folds would result, somewhat like the folds of a half-closed globular paper lantern.
If these folds are compared with the ascertained trend lines of the oldest rocks on earth, a certain similarity will be "found. There is at present no mathematical or astronomical proof that the process outlined was possible but, until some other satisfactory explanation has been found to account for all the phenomena, we may use the "Polar Control" theory as d working hypothesis.
We have now an earth with a hemis sphere of land round one of the poles, probably the South Pole, and a hemisphere of sea round the North Pole. The floor of the sea was the surface of the relatively smooth Sima-sphere, and the surface of the land the folded and eroded Sials-phere. On the latter came into existence the long extended continental troughs or geosynclines, depressions in the surface parallel to the outer margin and of great length, but only from 100 to 200 miles in width.
Relative Positions in Space this is surrounded by sphere; and this again by the Sial-sphere. Outside this highest rock sphere is the sphere of water, which, it the continents were flattened out to a continuous level surface, and if the amount of water were not essentially different from what it is today, would form a universal ocean or primitive Hydro-sphere, the great primitive shoreless sea of the earth with an average depth of about 1.65 miles. And last of all, round the shell of water is the gaseous shell or Atmo-sphere, which, however, probably differed from the air of today in containing much of the carbon (in the form of carbon dioxide which is now locked up in vegetation and in the coal-beds of the earth. This primitive earth of many concentric shells turned on an axis which maintained throughout all time essentially the inclination to the plane of its ecliptic that it holds today.
Transformation of Spheroid It will naturally be asked how was the transformation of this primitive spherald of concentric shells into this modern earth of separate lands and seas brought about. In other words, what caused the lands to emerge from the seas? Although we may feel certain that this was brought about in the past by the compression of the Sial crust, thereby producing depths for the concentration of the sea-water, the cause for this happening is still to seek.
Two theories that have been put forward to account for this have now been discarded; the one is that the Sial sunk down and was absorbed in the Sima, thus forming the depths for the concentration of the water; the other that the Pacific basin is the scar left when the moon was torn If ina given period of time the location of the pole on the land mass: has moved, this means that, as the earth's axis and its two poles always Occupy the same relative position in space, the Sial crust has drifted an equal amount in the opposite direction. Now this might have but little frictional effect, if the Sial were resting on top of the Sima and simply gliding over it. But since the Sial is immersed for more than six sevenths of its thickness in the heavier, resistant Sima, the movement of the outer crustal edge against it, and its ploughing through it, under irresistible pressure of the. moving Sial mass, must inevitably result in the deformation of the outer margins of this mass. There will be an up-bowing of the marginal rim and a corresponding depression of the belt inside the rim.
The former movement produces the old land, and the latter the ge: cline, which will steadily subside, while the rivers will steadily fill it up with sediment, The pressure of this accumulation of sediment on the crust beneath combined with the counter-pressure of the heavier resistant Sima to the lateral movement of the crust will buckle up and overthrust the strata of the geosyncline, thus producing a mountain range.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.