324 Dr Buist on the General Vibration, or 



distance inland, almost concealed by the trees and shrubs, 

 are two remarkable points or headlands of coral, from twenty 

 to twenty five feet above the level of the sea. The observa- 

 tory of Port-Louis is built upon a stratum of coral, ten feet 

 above high-water mark. Blocks of coral too vast for being 

 transported by any existing agency are found from 600 to 1300 

 feet inland, and which are cut off from the shore by elevated 

 ridges.* The greater part of tlie numberless coral islands 

 which lie scattered betwixt the Cape of Good Hope and 

 Ceylon, the Chagos Archipelago, Seychelles, Laccadives, and 

 Maldives, appear to have been elevated to their present level 

 by the same upheaval by which the terraces now under consi- 

 deration have been produced, of which I have no doubt abun- 

 dance of traces will be found all along the shores of our 

 eastern seas. Captain Newbold mentions the abundance of 

 this class of phenomena on the coasts of the Mediterranean, 

 where the shell-gravel, as in India, is being cemented into 

 stone. Beaches hardening into stone prevail along the Straits 

 of Messina. t The narrow isthmus connecting the Rock of 

 Gibraltar with the mainland is obviously the result of an up- 

 heaval of the same age. 



5. Amongst the numberless points where evidences of an 

 upheaval are to be found in Scotland, are the following : — 

 The railway betwixt Newhaven and Edinburgh cuts a large 

 bed of shells about twenty- five feet above the level of the 

 sea. A large bed of cockles, obviously in situ, is found at 

 Borrowstounness,! in the Forth, at about 13 feet above 

 high- water mark. Cockles live at from two to five feet be- 

 low low-w^ater. All around the shores of Fife to St Andrews, 

 there are beautifully distinct exhibitions of upheaved beaches, 

 several appearing in succession. § These beaches, which have 

 from St Andrews to Ferry-Port- on- Craig been covered with 

 drift-sand, reappear along the banks of the Tay 10 or 15 feet 

 below the surface of the carse-land, and west-ward bv New- 



* Transactions of the Geographical Society. — Jameson's Journal, 1841. 



t Jameson's Journal, vol. xliv., p. 63. 



J M'Laren. — Jameson's Journal, 1850. 



§ Chambers' Old Sea-Margins. For the sake of brevity I have been com- 

 pelled to speak very generally ; it is with the lowest and most recent sea-mar- 

 gins which I am dealing. 



