206 Meaning of the Term Elevation. 



A torrent brings down a quantity of alluvial matter, and the 

 plain on which it rests is said to be elevated. 



An opening occurs in the earth ; ejected ashes, scoria9, and 

 lava accumulate around it ; a Monte Nuovo is formed ; and the 

 area it occupies is said to be elevated. 



By the persevering labour of polypi, a coral reef gradually 

 attains the surface of the ocean ; and the fabric so constructed 

 is said to be elevated, 



A porous rock covers a rock that is not porous ; the rain fil- 

 ters through the superincumbent bed ; springs break out in the 

 subjacent; and at last, for want of support, the porous rock, 

 originally horizontal, acquires an inclined posture, one end be- 

 ing directed upwards, the other downwards ; and the whole is 

 said to be elevated. 



An earthquake takes place at the mouth of a river ; the sea is 

 violently affected ; a bar is formed at the entrance of a harbour 

 from the washing in of new alluvion, or from some obstruction 

 to the escape of the old ; where a ship floated, a barge is 

 a-ground ; and the land is said to be elevated. 



Such instances of elevation are common and incontestible ; 

 but elevation of this kind is quite different from that which forms 

 the subject of my present inquiry. 



By the term Elevation, I mean only the removal of any given 

 object from a lower level to a higher level ; consequently it is 

 necessary, before I speak of an object as elevated, that I should 

 be prepared to shew two things : first, the level at which it has 

 stood ; secondly, the level at which it stands. 



That I might form a right opinion of the theory, the merits 

 of which I am about to investigate, I have endeavoured to de- 

 termine the site, the number, and the magnitude of those multi- 

 farious objects to which the attribute of elevation is continually 

 applied. The attempt has proved unsuccessful : they are inde- 

 finite in place, in form, and in dimension. That mountains 

 should be elevated is not surprising, but we are familiarized also 

 with valleys of elevation.* In ancient times an island (Delos, 

 for example), would alternately emerge from, and plunge be- 



• Valleys of this nature are properly called by Mr Scrope " valleys of ele- 

 vation and subsidence," or more concisely, " anticlinal valleys." See Scrope 

 on Volcanoes, p. 213, 



