8 [January, 



Parts of Sweden, Norway, and the shores of the gulf of Bothnia, have been 

 long gradually rising. Also extensive regions of South America have been 

 undergoing a slow but gradual upheaval, during a period of many centuries. On 

 the other hand, the gradual sinking of the coast of Greenland, for the space of 

 more than six hundred miles, during the last 400 years, has been more incon- 

 trovertibly established by actual markings and critical examinations made by 

 the most astute minds. 



Large portions of the earth's surface have been suddenly upheaved, whilst 

 others have as suddenly subsided. 



The whole coast of Chili was suddenly elevated several feet by the earth- 

 quake of 1822, producing terrible commotion in the sea, and sending vast waves 

 over the ocean, which doubtless transported huge masses of rocks many miles 

 from the shore. 



In 1611, an earthquake sank the town of New Madrid, on the Mississippi 

 river, several feet beneath the waters, the vibrations of which continued three 

 months. 



Many other facts of an analogous character might be adduced, but these are 

 sufficient to show that various parts of the crust of the earth are now under- 

 going oscillations, and that it is not at all improbable that the hydrographical 

 basin of the Ohio may have undergone, at some remote period, similar move- 

 ments. 



First we may suppose that there was a gradual subsidence during a period, 

 perhaps, of many centuries, of the whole hydrographical basins of the Ohio and 

 Mississippi rivers, and even extending beyond che limits of their tributary 

 streams. This depression of the land would necessarily lessen the fall of the 

 waters into the Gulf of Mexico, and increase the alluvial deposite. After a cer- 

 tain indefinite period we can readily suppose that this process of subsidence was 

 reversed, and the whole as gradually upheaved, until the rocks were brought 

 to their present altitude, when the oscillation ceased. 



During this slow upward movement the waters would necessarily cut their 

 channels through the alluvial deposite, which had been thrown down during the 

 process of subsidence. 



At the commencement of this upward movement we may suppose a sudden 

 upheaval to have occurred in Beaver county, somewhat analogous to that on the 

 coast of Chili, in 1822, which would produce such commotion and recoil of the 

 waters in Beaver river as to cause them to impinge, with terrific force, against 

 the projecting rocks of the adjacent hills, rive them asunder, and pile thein 

 as they are now found, over its ancient alluvial bed. 



Afterwards, the process of elevation may have been as gradual as that of the 

 shores of the Gulf of Bothnia, which amounts only to two or three feet in a 

 century. 



In corroboration of this view I may mention, that although the rocks are 

 nearly horizontal, yet the hills which skirt the shores of this beautiful 

 stream are often seen cracked from the base to the summit, and the strata, in 

 places, much disturbed. 



Also, the dark, yawning gorges, and broad and deep ravines, cutting entirely 

 through the hills, indicate, I think, that the rocks here of the ancient coal 

 measures have undergone great disturbance since the period of their original 

 deposition. 



Notice of American Animals, formerly known, but now forgotten or lost. 



By John Le Co.nte. 



The writers of the last century have left us descriptions of several animals 

 which modern research has not since been able to detect. In looking over the 

 works of these authors, who favored the world with their knowledge so long 

 ago, it necessarily happens that we find their descriptions more or less imper- 

 fect, either from the insufficient manner in which they were made, or from that 

 brevity of expression which was then fashionable in natural science. Hence 



