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

LIFE 327
continent of Asia, but also because it is mountainous. This
makes it possible, supposing at some time an equatorward
displacement of the island into a warmer latitude, for tem-
perate climate species to ascend into the mountains and so
survive. Such variety of climatic conditions, due to differ-
ences of altitude of different parts of the island, would favor
the preservation of a rich flora and fauna.
Let us contrast with Java the situation of a small island or
island group, such as the Bermudas, the Azores, or the Ca-
naries, where, in general, we find the life forms to be
impoverished. These islands, often far from the nearest
continent, may have been separated from them, of course, for
long periods of time. Now let us suppose one of them, say
the Azores, to be displaced through about 2,000 miles of
latitude in one movement of the crust, in either direction.
Where will the indigenous species go? Obviously, there will
be no refuge for them; therefore, many of them will succumb.
Subsequently, the sea will be an effective barrier to the repopulation
of the islands from the mainland.
As to the distribution of life forms across the climatic
zones, referred to as "bipolar mirrorism," Darwin proposed
an explanation in Chapter 12 of the Origin of Species that
can no longer be accepted. He supposed, % first, that glacial
periods
alternated in the Northern and Southern Hemi-
spheres. This idea has long since been given up. Then, Darwin
reasoned that when there was an ice age in the Northern
Hemisphere, the climatic zones would be displaced southward,
and the temperate zone species would migrate southward.
When that ice age ended, and the climate warmed up,
the temperate species that had migrated southward would
now ascend into the mountains, where they would survive,
in the tropic zone. There are, of course, mountains in the
tropics high enough to be snow-capped the year around;
on these even arctic plants might exist.
The next step, according to Darwin, would be the onset
of an ice age in the Southern Hemisphere. Now the tempera-
ture in the southern tropics would fall, and become temper-