210 No Strata upraised by Vesuvius. 



not much altered, it retired a little, but came back to its old 

 place. Don Onofri Bunster, who, on the night of the earth- 

 quake, was walking on the shore at Valparaiso, in front of 

 his house, had a mind to go up on the hill, but could not, so 

 great was the quantity of falling dust and stones: he repaired 

 to his boat therefore, and with some difficulty got aboard ; this 

 done, he made observations on the motion of the sea ; on sound- 

 ing, the depth was thirteen fathoms ; he heaved the lead a se- 

 cond time, and the depth was no more than eight fathoms : this 

 alternate ebbing and flowing lasted the whole night, but did not 

 the slightest harm on shored 



These are the only cases I remember to have met with in 

 which the testimony of eye-witnesses has been adduced to prove 

 tJie rise of land by earthquakes. That such rise may have ta- 

 ken place at different times without being recorded, perhaps 

 even without being observed, is not very improbable ; but if I 

 am to pronounce a verdict according to the evidence, I believe 

 there is not as yet one well authenticated instance in any part of 

 the world, of a non- volcanic rock having been seen to rise above 

 its natural level in consequence of an earthquake. 



Before I quit this subject, it may not be amiss to mention, 

 that, on comparing the times at which the successive shocks took 

 place in Chili, as given by Mrs Graham, and the other autho- 

 rities to which I have had occasion to refer, the discrepancy is 

 extraordinary. 



I have already intimated in a few words, my opinion as to the 

 sense in which land can be said to he elevated by means of vol- 

 canoes. Of these, Vesuvius is, perhaps, the most constantly ob- 

 served ; and among the innumerable authors who have described 

 its effects, from the time of Pliny down to the present day, not 

 one pretends that the Apennine limestone, close at hand, has 

 been in the least raised by that volcano. We shall do well to 

 bear this in mind, when we have occasion to consider the height 

 at which tertiary shells are found on Etna. That those shells 

 belong to beds thrown up by Etna, is a doctrine founded upon 

 induction, not upon experience. As far as experience goes, we 

 have no reason to think that Etna, in its most violent paroxysms, 

 will ever raise those tertiary strata above their present level. 



Leaving these scenes of paroxysmal violence, let us next in- 



