38 LEAVES FROM THE BOOK OF NATURE. 



terially alter the appearance of our globe. It has been 

 said, that there are few places on earth which are ever 

 long at rest; and that, as England, alone, has had its 

 two hundred and fifty-five earthquakes, so some convul- 

 sion of the kind is constantly occurring, imperceptible to 

 our senses, but distinctly felt and shown by the delicate 

 instruments which modern science has invented for the 

 purpose. This, however, would not explain the changes 

 alluded to; they are on far too vast a scale to be 

 ascribed to such local disturbances. Almost in every 

 portion of our globe, movement may be observed; the 

 land is either rising or sinking certainly in slow, but 

 constant motion. Geology teaches us, that this is not a 

 whim of our mother Earth, but that, for long genera- 

 tions, the same change, the same mysterious motion has 

 been going on. It is difficult, only, to observe it, be- 

 cause of its exceeding slowness, as we would in vain 

 hope to mark the progress of the hour-hand in our 

 watches, and yet, finally, see that it has moved. If man 

 could ever, with one vast glance, take in the whole 

 earth if he could look back into past ages, and, with 

 prophetic eye, gaze into the future, he would see the 

 land of our vast continents heave and sink like the 

 storm tossed sea now rising in mountains, and then 

 sinking and crumbling, in a short time afterwards to be 

 washed back into the calm impassive ocean. Some of 

 these inexplicable changes have been observed for ages. 

 The whole coast of Asia Minor, from Tyre to Alexan- 

 dria, has been sinking since the days of Ancient Rome. 

 Northern Russia, on the contrary, has risen as constantly 



