1864. | Geology and Paleontology. 329 
Austen, in the ‘ Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society,’ and the 
rise of land in Australia. It is easy to understand how corals could 
build up in the course of time great masses of limestone, the difficulty 
is to account for the breaking up of ancient sea-bottoms, and their 
upheaval above the level of the ocean-surface. Now, of Australia, it 
has been known for several years that the whole coast is slowly but 
surely rising; and in the southern part, the railway between Adelaide 
and the port is said to have risen 4 inches in 12 months. This 
elevation is participated in by all the neighbouring islands; at Green 
Island in Bass’s Strait, and in Tasmania, there are old sea-beaches 
100 feet above high water. And one of the most remarkable and sug- 
gestive facts in this recent elevation is, that the movement, without 
tremblings, quakings, or shocks, is so rapid that bones of animals, and 
pottery thrown out of the first emigrant ships, mixed with shingle and 
sea-shells, are raised above the reach of the tide. ‘This uprising has 
progressed to the extent of 300 feet since the present mollusca inhabited 
the coast. In New Zealand, too, the land is being jerked up as it is 
on the western coast of America. From these topics Mr. Belt goes to 
the superficial deposits of sand, gravel, and clay, that are spread over 
the greater part of Great Britain ; the evidence afforded by which seems 
to indicate in some places upheavals, in others depressions. Con- 
vinced that some general law must govern these movements, Mr. Belt 
has collected and collated, from various sources, sections of deposits 
from different parts of England and Scotland ; and to render the move- 
ments more intelligible, has depicted them by means of curved lines, in 
a similar manner to those used by meteorologists to indicate the fluc- 
tuations of the barometer. Movements of the earth’s surface are in this 
way depicted from examples taken from the most southern part of 
England, and from the other extremity of the island, 350 miles apart, 
and for the purpose of showing how general these movements have been 
another diagram is given of the changes of level in Nova Scotia in 
recent geological times, and another of a portion of North America, 
when the land stood, at one time at least, 500 feet higher than it does 
now. These few widely-separated examples are sufficient to prove 
what was well known before, the general instability of the earth’s 
crust, but the diagrammatic method of showing these elevations is 
very suggestive of the utility of symbolizing earth-movements in this 
way for comparison. 
The western coast of the Peloponnesus is a region little known to 
geologists, and every detail from thence is consequently valuable. We 
are glad, therefore, to see that an interesting sketch by Dr. Weiss, the 
Professor of the University of Lemberg, in Gallicia, of a journey made 
by him in that district, has been laid before the Imperial Institute of 
Vienna. He notices many very productive localities for Tertiary fossils, 
which, by a proper exploration, he thinks would lead to very interesting 
results—although the fossils are abundant, the Doctor, in consequence 
of the wretched social condition of the country, made but a scanty 
collection, and is unable to give even an approximately full account of 
its physical aspect. From the town of Zante the view extends over 
the Bay of Gastuni to Katakolo, the highest point of which is marked 
