Natural History of Volcanos and Earthquakes. 275 
The latter phenomena are so much the more important the 
more frequently they occur. We can, therefore, have no diffi- 
eulty in admitting most earthquakes to have been the causes of 
such elevations. Many coasts, as is well known, bear evident 
marks of having been raised in former times. Thus Vetch* ob- 
served on the coast of the island of Jura, in Scotland, six to 
seven terraces one above another, the lowest at the level of the 
sea, the highest about forty feet above it, all covered on their 
horizontal surfaces with pebbles like those which the sea still 
throws up. Mr. Smith of Jordanhill has also pointed out, that 
in a former time an elevation of the west coast of Scotland has 
taken place.t Peron noticed a similar phenomenon on the coasts 
of some islands in the neighborhood of Van Diemen’s Land. 
Many other instances of this kind occur, which present traces 
of elevations, some of them perfectly incontestable,{ others very 
Probable.§ In conformity with this, are also the assertions of the 
inhabitants of Olaheite,|| and those of the Moluccas, that their 
islands still continue to rise. 
The latest earthquakes, which, in the month of February, 
1835, destroyed a great part of Chili, (Conception, and many 
other towns,) offer also evident proofs of elevations occasioned 
through their agency. Some days after this devastation the sea 
did not rise to its ordinary level, the difference amounting to four 
or five feet in height. This difference decreased gradually ; in 
the middle of April it was still two feet. The fact that the isl- 
and of Santa Maria has risen nine feet, proves the actual eleva- 
Hon of the country. Near Tubul, southeast of Santa Maria, 
the country has risen six feet, and the island of Mocha seems to 
have risen about two feet. 
The gradual elevation of Scandinavia and Finland is pecu- 
liarly interesting. More than a century ago, Celsius called at- 
tention to this phenomenon, and endeavored to account for it by 
ere eld es 
Geological Trans. Sec. Series, v. i. part ii. p. 416. 
+ Phil. Mag. 
Wermerian Soc. vol. viii. part i. in the press. 
+ Dolomieu Oryktol. Bemerk. dber Calabrien. Frankf. u. Mainz 1789, p. 157. 
ii. P. 115, 
I Correspondence Astronomique, v. X. p- 266. = 
MW Poggendorff’s Ann. t. ii. p. 444, according to Prof. Reinwardt. 
Naatical Magazine, No, 49 and 51.. March and June, 18936. 
v. x. p. 136; Jameson’s Phil. Journal, vol. xxv. p. 378; and Mem. 
rochi in Biblioteca Italiana 1821. Sept. Breislak Reisen in Campanien, t. 
1 - 
