Page:The origin of continents and oceans - Wegener, tr. Skerl - 1924.djvu/16

xii authoritative and accurate results will in a few years be available.

Whatever may be the outcome of these observations and whatever modifications may prove to be required in the author’s views on the evolution of the present configuration of land and sea, he has done most valuable service in directing attention to a new and important element in the transformations that the world has suffered, an element which no one will henceforth be able safely to ignore.

I have elsewhere criticised some of the details of the author’s conclusions. It would be out of place to repeat these criticisms here. My only care has been to ensure that in this translation he should be allowed to state his own case in his own way. With this object the translation has been submitted to Professor Wegener and has been carefully revised by myself and it may be regarded as an accurate and authoritative exposition of his views.

JOHN W. EVANS