98 EEA OF THE SUPERFICIAL FORMATIONS. 



Fragments, for example, of the granite of Shap Fell are found 

 in every direction around to the distance of fifty miles, one 

 piece being placed high upon Criffel Mountain, on the oppo- 

 site side of the Solway estuary ; so also are fragments of the 

 Alps found far up the slopes of the Jura. There are even 

 blocks on the east coast of England, supposed to have travelled 

 from Norway. The only rational conjecture which can be 

 formed as to the transport of such masses from so great a dis- 

 tance, is one which presumes them to have been carried and 

 dropped by icebergs, while seas existed upon the space between, 

 their original and final sites. Icebergs do even now carry off 

 such masses- from the polar coasts, which, falling when the re- 

 taining ice melts, must take up situations at the bottom of the- 

 sea, similar to those in which we find the erratic blocks of the 

 present dry land. 



While the diluvium and erratic blocks clearly suppose a part 

 at least of the present land to have at a comparatively recent 

 time been sunk to a considerable depth in the sea, there is 

 another set of appearances which as manifestly show the steps 

 by which the land was made afterwards to re-emerge from that 

 element. These consist of terraces, which have been detected 

 near, and at some distance inland from, the coast lines of 

 Scandinavia, Britain, America, and other regions ; being evi- 

 dently ancient beaches, or platforms, on which the margin of 

 the sea at one time rested. They have been observed at 

 different heights above the present sea-level, from twenty to 

 twelve hundred feet ; and in many places they are seen rising 

 above each other in succession, to the number of three, four, 

 and even more. The smooth flatness of these terraces, with 

 generally a slight inclination towards the sea, the sandy com- 

 position of many of them, and, in some instances, the preserva- 

 tion of marine shells in the ground, identify them perfectly 

 with existing sea-beaches, notwithstanding the cuts and scoop- 

 ings which have at frequent intervals been effected in them by 

 water-courses. The irresistible inference from the phenomena 

 is, that the highest was first the coast line ; then an elevation 

 took place, and the second highest became so, the first being 

 now raised into the air and thrown inland. Then, upon 

 another elevation, the sea began to form, at its new point of 

 contact with the land, the third highest beach, and so on down 

 to the platform nearest to the present sea-beach. Phenomena 

 of this kind become comparatively familiar to us, when we hear 

 of evidence that the last sixty feet of the elevation of Sweden, 



