THE HUMAN SPECIES, 45 



strate a continued declination of the south and east 

 coasts of Asia, the case appears entirely reversed, from 

 the lofty central mountain hinge, northward to the 

 shores, facing the Arctic Sea. Chinese documents, of 

 remote antiquity, report the land to have terminated 

 at no great distance beyond the mountain chain of 

 Northern Tahtary ;* skeletons of whales having been 

 found 800 miles inland, up the Lena. 



The enormous loads of debris which some rivers, 

 amongst the largest in the world, incessantly pour forth 



* According to the Chevalier Paravey, north-eastern 

 Asia was still rising within the few last centuries. The 

 shadow of a gnomon, set up in 1260, by order of Kobi-lay, 

 emperor of China, proves, that the northern coast then 

 ranged between the 63d and 64th degrees of north latitude, 

 whereas, now it is above 70 degrees. Memoir read at the 

 Geographical Society, 8th Feb. 1841 ; see Biblioth. Orien- 



tale d'Herbelot, t. iv. p. 171 ; Hedenstro3hm. M. Arago 



remarks, that the ice has greatly accumulated in the Arctic 

 Seas within the latter centuries, and rendered navigation 

 round the polar extremity of Nova Zembla totally imprac- 

 ticable, although the foregoing travellers maintain, that the 

 cold in eastern Siberia decreases sensibly ; and this opinion 

 is in perfect accordance with the gradual rising of the Polar 

 shore ; for that must increase the power of the sun's rays 

 very considerably, on the oblate spheroid surface of the 

 Arctic Circle. Strahlenberg notices the entire hull of a 

 keeled ship being found in the Barabinsk, between six and 

 seven hundred miles from the sea. Wrangel observed 

 drift-wood above the highest sea level, upwards of 50 versts 

 inland, and other phenomena of risings of the surface. See 

 Eeise. 



