408 NINETEENTH CENTURY. PT. in. 



sudden catastrophes, but so quietly that no one even notices 

 that nature is at work. 



Then, on the other hand, he pointed out how in our own 

 little island, on the coasts of Yorkshire and Norfolk, the sea 

 eats away the cliffs, so that towns such as Auburn, Hartburn, 

 and Hyde in Yorkshire, which are marked upon old maps, 

 have been entirely washed away, and the ground on which 

 they stood has been spread out on the bottom of the ocean ; 

 and yet this is done so gradually, year by year, that new 

 towns of the same name are built up farther inland, and no 

 one disturbs themselves about the loss. 



Then to account for the huge masses of basalt and lava 

 which are found in the earth's crust, he reminded his readers 

 of the great eruption of the volcano called Skaptar Jokul in 

 Iceland, which took place in 1783. In this eruption the 

 torrent of lava was ninety miles in length, from seven to 

 fifteen miles in breadth, and in some places 600 feet deep, 

 and the whole mass poured out would have made a mountain 

 as big as Mont Blanc. 



He then went on to give accounts of the remarkable 

 earthquakes which have taken place in times of history : 

 the earthquakes in India, in Java, and especially in Cala- 

 bria, in 1783, when new lakes were formed by the sinking 

 in of the ground, and the rivers were made to run in new 

 channels. He showed also how the height of land is some- 

 times changed in volcanic countries ; as on the coast of 

 Italy, near Naples, where the ground on which the famous 

 Temple of Serapis stands can be proved to have been 

 raised and depressed twice even in historical times. 



And besides all these obvious changes which men cannot 

 help noticing, he proved that other quiet and unnoticed risings 

 and fallings of land are taking place ; as, for example, in Nor- 

 way and Sweden, where the land is rising out of the sea in 



