^8 Upraising of the Land of Chili denied. 



south, to the distance of above 100 miles, had been raised above 

 its former level.*" But by what standard was the former level 

 ascertained ? Who, on the morrow of so fearful a catastrophe, 

 could command sufficient leisure and calmness to determine and 

 compute a series of changes, which extended 100 miles in length, 

 and embraced (according to a statement in the Journal of 

 Science), an estimated area of 100,000 square miles? How 

 could a range of country so extensive be surveyed while the 

 ground was still rocking, which it continued to do on that day, 

 and for several successive months ? What was the average num- 

 ber of observations per square mile ? Who made, checked, and 

 registered them ? By what means did the surveyors acquaint 

 themselves with what had been the levels and contour before 

 the catastrophe took place, by which, as we are told, all the 

 landmarks were removed, and the soundings at sea completely 

 changed ? 



Mrs Graham states, that, by the dislodgment of snow from the 

 mountains, and the consequent swelling of rivers and lakes, much 

 detritus was brought to the coast ; and further, that sand and 

 mud were brought up through cracks to the surface. Amid so 

 many agents it should not be easy to assign to each its share in 

 the general result. 



That fishes lay dead on the shore may prove only that there 

 had been a storm. In her published travels, Mrs Graham re- 

 presents them as lying on the beach, which may very well have 

 been thrown up, as the Chesil bank has been, by a violent sea. 

 Some muscles, oysters, &c. still adhered, she says, to the rocks 

 on which they grew ; but we know not the nature or dimen- 

 sions of these rocks, whether fixed or drifted. The occurrence 

 of a shelly beach above the actual sea-level is an observation 

 which must not be lost sight of. I propose to speak of it here- 

 after : in the mean time be it recollected, that these beaches are 

 said to occur along the shore at various heights, along the sum- 

 mit of the highest hills, and even among the Andes. 



Neither in the paper of Mrs Graham, nor in the anonymous 

 account published about the same time in the Journal of Science, 

 can I find any paragraph to justify the position (which, from 

 the seductive character of the work * in which it appears, may, 



• Lyell, vol. i. p. 473. 



