294 On the Physical Geology of the United States, §c. 
mountains, mountain chains and continents, and produce all the 
phenomena of contortion, wrinkling, folding and crushing of the 
strata, that are so strikingly exhibited in the eastern parts of the 
United States. 
That both the causes above stated have acted in times past, 
and will continue in time to come, can scarcely be doubted. 
The phenomena of both these causes necessarily follow from the 
refrigeration of the globe. Subsidence of parts of the earth’s crust 
may, and probably have caused extensive elevation of others; 
but we know of no other cause that could produce this effect, 
except the fractured crust permitting water to penetrate to the 
heated interior of the earth, to generate steam sufficient in ten- 
sion and quantity to effect the results observed ; and we know 
not how the crust could be fractured except by coptenatien and 
by collapse upon the contracted nucleus. 
at some portions of the crust of the globe have been suc- 
cessively elevated and depressed, is beyond all doubt. Numer- 
ous instances have been observed during the historical epoch,* but 
the geological evidences of similar facts on a large scale, are as 
strong as if they had come under the direct observation of man. 
That the elevation of one part was accompanied in times past 
by depression in others is probable theoretically, and we know 
that such facts have occurred paroxysmally during the historical 
era, asin the case of the Ullah Bund. Similar effects are now in 
progress secularly, as the coast of Sweden, which is gradually 
rising, and has been for a long period; the coast of Greenland, 
* A few examples may be adduced for illustration. 
Ist. An ear in the Misdasrpy, and a large extent of the swamp near New 
Madrid, sunk he year 1811. The Mississippi wet over the 
ne site of the island, and the sunken portion of the swamp is now a lake. 
- In the year 1819, a tract of land of about two thousand square ie near the 
ona of the Indus at Sindrea sunk below the level of the sea, and an adjoining 
tract i miles long, called the Ullah Bund, was raised about ten feet above its 
former le 
3d. In a year 1692, the town of Port Royal in Jamaica sunk during an earth- 
quake. The ships in the harbor floated from their anchorage and drifted over the 
site of the town, which remains permanently submerged. The part of the town 
where ee quay was located sunk several hundred feet. 
4th. In 1638, iy sige of Euphemia in Calabria sunk during an earthquake. 
A se occupies its 
5th. The coast i 3 Chili in South America was elevated suddenly during an 
earthquake i in 1822, over an extent of two hundred miles in length an 
fifty miles in breadth into the interior. At one place some distance back from the 
& 
