The Earth's Shifting Crust by Charles Hapgood - wire of information

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EARTH'S SHIFTING CRUST
present levels of the ice. As matters stood before the development
of nuclear methods of precision dating, this evidence
appeared conclusive. It certainly argued strongly
that the
icecap was greater in the past.
We are now able to take a different view of the matter.
Now we know that this icecap is largely of very recent growth.
We know, too, that before a preceding temperate age in
Antarctica there was another icecap, and that there were
several icecaps during the comparatively short period of the
Pleistocene alone. We can assume, moreover, that the ice
centers of the different ice sheets were in different places, so
that the distribution of the ice its thickness in different
places would be different from now, even if the total amount
of ice were about the same. (See Figure VII.)
If the question is asked, Cannot we tell from the appearance
of the striations, and other evidences of ice action on
the Antarctic mountainsides, how long ago they were made?,
the answer is No. The processes of weathering and erosion
in Antarctica are slow. The striations, even if they were very
old, could look as if they were made yesterday. Henry, in the
White Continent, discussing the visit of Rear Admiral
Cruzen in 1947 to a camp at Cape Evans that had been abandoned
by Scott more than thirty-five years before, throws
some light on this peculiarity of Antarctica:
. . . From the camp's appearance, the occupant might have left
only within the past few days. Boards and rafters of the cabin looked
as if they had just come from the saw mill; there was no rot on the
timbers; not a speck of dust on the nailheads. A hitching rope used
for Manchurian ponies looked new and proved as strong as ever
when it was used to hitch the
helicopter. Biscuits and canned meats
still were edible, though they seemed to have lost a bit of their
flavor. A sledge dog, which apparently had frozen to death while
standing up, still stood there looking as if it were alive. A London
magazine, published in Scott's day and exposed to the elements since
his
departure, might have been printed that morning (206:44).
The same factors intense cold, with absence of the destruc-
tive process of alternate melting and refreezing, and absence