226 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the outer arches of the earth are relaxed, and the crust sinks. In 

 that case, three views are conceivable respecting the relations of 

 land and sea : either both parts sink alike, or the land sinks more 

 than the sea, or the sea than the land. In the first case, the rise of 

 the sea will be only that caused by the contraction of its bed, 

 which, being dependent on the slighter contraction of the surface 

 of the globe, is of relatively little importance ; in the second case, 

 the sea would spread over the lower lands, rising to appearance, 

 while in fact its level has diminished on account of the wider 

 diffusion of its waters ; or, in the third case, the sea would retire 

 on account of the falling of its level. 



These things alone could hardly have produced the observed 

 results, had there not been important circumstances associated 

 with them which in times of quiet worked in their favor. The land 

 is being uninterruptedly swept off, and is gradually as a whole be- 

 coming lower and lower from the top. The rock falls from the 

 heights, the brooks and rivers take fragments in their course 

 and drag the chips of weathering and of their own planing-work 

 into the sea. The land is reduced by denudation, the sea rises by 

 the action of the deposits oh its bottom. Extensive lowlands are 

 at last formed as the result of the washings, so that large districts 

 may be put under water by slight shrinkings of the land. When 

 these are overflowed by the sea, the deposits rise on its bottom, 

 stratum by stratum, till, after a long time, they nearly reach the 

 level of the water. Then a slight sinking of the sea-bottom suf- 

 fices to reduce the water to its old level ; and the alternation of a 

 washing away of the soil and the conversion of the overflowed 

 territory into dry land begins anew. Translated for the Popular 

 Science Monthly from Das Ausland. 



* 



THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND. 



By Dr. WILLIAM C. CAHALL. 



THAT " wonderful pacifick year 1660 " witnessed the restora- 

 tion of the house of Stuart and the organization of the Royal 

 Society. 



After twenty years of civil wars, Cromwell, and Puritanism, 

 ihe English people, with the surfeit which invariably follows the 

 prolonged discussion of one idea, turned with avidity to the gay 

 court which Charles II brought with him into Whitehall. Peace 

 came, commerce flowed on undisturbed, and from the strictest 

 religion the national pendulum swung to license, skepticism, and 

 debauchery. 



Fortunately, it was but a part of England which fell into these 



