RISE OF SWEDEN. 365 



of land in Sweden, satisfied himself by a visit to that country; 

 that it had, for- ages, been in course of elevation in some 

 places, and of depression in others, rising in the northern, 

 and sinking in the southern parts. He arrived at this con- 

 clusion, not only from having ascertained that the land stood 

 higher above the sea, at the period of his visit, than had been 

 the case twenty or thirty years before ; but by discovering 

 beds of oyster shells of existing species, in inland cliffs at 

 some distance from the sea, he farther inferred that the rise 

 of land had been in operation for centuries. 



"While this phenomenon has been noticed in a general 

 way in Sweden, it has been observed with still greater 

 accuracy in Italy; Signor Mcolini, a geologist of Naples, 

 having ascertained that between 1823 and 1838 the west 

 coast of Italy has risen 112 millimetres, or about four inches 

 English, above the level of the sea. 



The effect of earthquakes is frequently to occasion oscilla- 

 tions and changes of level ; thus, in the visitations of 1822 

 and 1835, the whole coast of Chili, from the Andes far out 

 to sea, comprising an area of 100,000 square miles, equal in 

 extent to one hah 1 ' the kingdom of France, was raised to a 

 considerable extent ; and in the late fearful earthquakes 

 which desolated the "West India Islands, that of Martinique 

 has changed- its level, and undergone an oscillatory move- 

 ment, being on the northern side, two feet higher above 

 high water mark, and on the southern, two feet lower, than 

 was the case prior to the occurrence. 



HAMPSHIRE AND THE ISLE or WIGHT. Mr. "Webster 

 classified the tertiary beds of Hampshire and the Isle of 

 Wight, into the following subdivisions, commencing with 

 the lowest : 1st. Plastic sands and clays. 2nd. The London 

 clay. 3d. Freshwater deposits, consisting of sandy, cal- 

 careous marls, with large quantities of freshwater shells. 

 4th. Clay and marl abounding in marine shells, gene- 

 rally of different species from those in the London clay. 

 5th. Upper freshwater deposits ; yellowish white, or green 

 marl, and calcareous limestone, employed for building, and 

 forming almost one entire mass of freshwater shells, some of 

 the chief forms of which are depicted in figure 263. 



This series of tertiary beds is of considerable extent. 

 Small portions occur near Newhaven, and Seaford,. in 



