PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY— THE LAND. 



masses which we now behold. The present 

 configuration is the product of two causes, 

 which exerted their influence in succession, 

 one after another : firstly, a subterraneous 

 manifestation of force, whose measure and di- 

 rection we call accidental, because we have no 

 means of determining them ; because, to our 

 understanding, they are abstracted from the 

 circle of necessity ; secondly, powers that are 

 efficient on the surface, among which, volcanic 

 eruptions, earthquakes, the upheaval of mount- 

 ain chains, and ocean currents, have played the 

 principal part. How totally different would 

 have been the state of the earth, in reference 

 to temperature, and, along with this, how dis- 

 similar the state of vegetation, of agriculture, 

 and of human society, had the principal axis 

 of the new continent lain in the same direction 

 as that of the old — had the Andes, instead of 

 being uplifted in the plane of the meridian, been 

 raised from east to west — had there been no 

 extensive tropical land radiating heat to the 

 south of Europe (Africa) — had the Mediterra- 

 nean, which once communicated and made one 

 with the Caspian and Red seas, and has proved 

 so essential a means in promoting the civiliza- 

 tion of mankind, had no existence — had its bot- 

 tom been raised to the same level as the plains 

 of Lombardy and Cyrene ! 



The alterations in the respective levels of 

 the solid and fluid portions, of the earth's sur- 

 face — alterations which, at one and the same 

 time, determine the outlines of continents, and 

 leave dry or overflow districts of low-lying 

 land, are to be ascribed to a variety of causes 

 operating at diflferent times. The most pow- 

 erful have unquestionably been : the force of 

 elastic vapours, which the interior of the earth 

 encloses : the sudden change of temperature of 

 great mountain chainsc^^**) ; the unequal secu- 

 lar loss of heat by the crust and core of the 

 earth, which has occasioned the wrinklings or 

 zigzag foldings conspicuous on many occasions 

 in the solid surface ; local modifications of the 

 force of gravitation(3^'), and, as a consequence 

 of these, altered curvature of a portion of the 

 fluid element. 



That the elevation of continents has been an 

 actual, not a seeming one only, attributable to 

 the form of the surface of the sea, appears to 

 follow from views now adopted by geologists 

 generally, and from the long observation of 

 connected facts, as well as from the analogy 

 of the more important volcanic phenomena. 

 The merit of this view also belongs to Leopold 

 von Buch, who announced it in the account of 

 his remarkable travels through Norway and 

 Sweden, in the years 1806 and 1807, when it 

 was first introduced to science(320). Whilst 

 the whole of the coasts of Sweden and Finland, 

 from the limits of north Scania (Solvitsborg), 

 through Gefle, to Torneo, and from Torneo to 

 Abo, is rising (the rise, in the course of a cen- 

 tury, amounts to four feet), south Sweden, on 

 the contrary, according to Nilson, is sinking(32i) 

 The maximum of the upheaving power appears 

 to lie in north Lapland. The upheaval falls off 

 gradually towards the south as far as Calmar 

 and Solvitsborg. Lines of what were old sea-lev- 

 els within historical times, are indicated along 

 the coasts of the whole of Norway, from Cape 

 Lindesnaes to the extreme north Cape, by beds 

 M 



of shells of the present ocean('"), and have late- 

 ly been most accurately measured by Bravais, 

 during the long winter residence at Bosekop. 

 These shores lie as many as 600 feet above 

 the present mean sea-level, and, according to 

 Keilhau and Eugenius Robert, the same thing 

 extends nor-nor-west to the coasts of Spitzber- 

 gen, opposite the North-cape. Leopold von 

 Buch, who was the first to direct attention to 

 the raised bed of shells near Tromsoe (69=" 40' 

 N. lat.), has, however, shown that the old up- 

 heavals along the line of the North Sea be- 

 long to another class of phenomena than the 

 smooth and gradual rising of the Swedish coasts 

 of the Gulf of Bothnia. The last phenomenon, 

 vouched for by sure historical testimony, must 

 not, therefore, be confounded with that altera- 

 tion in the level of the surface which accom- 

 panies earthquakes, as in the case of the coasts 

 of Chili and of Cutch. It has very recently 

 given occasion to precisely similar observa- 

 tions in other countries. To the rising there 

 occasionally corresponds, as a consequence of 

 the folding of strata, an obvious sinking, as 

 in West-(5reenland (according to Pingel and 

 Graah), in Dalmatia and in Scania. 



If we regard it as extremely probable, that 

 in the earlier ages of our planet the oscillating 

 movements of the soil, the alternate elevations 

 and depressions of the surface, were greater 

 than they are at present, we shall be less sur- 

 prised at finding single spots on the face of the 

 globe, in the interiors of continents, that lie 

 deeper than the present uniform level of the 

 ocean. Examples of this kind are presented 

 by the Natron lakes, described by General An- 

 dreossy, the small bitter lakes of the Isthmus 

 of Suez, the Caspian Sea, the Sea of Tiberias, 

 and, above all, the Dead Sea(3"). The level 

 of the Sea of Tiberias is 625 feet, and that of 

 the Dead Sea no fewer than 1230 feet lower 

 than that of the Mediterranean mirror. Could 

 the drift and alluvium that cover the rocky 

 strata in so many parts of the earth be all at 

 once removed, it would then be obvious how 

 much of the rocky foundation lies actually low- 

 er than the present sea level. The periodical, 

 although irregular, alternate rise and fall in 

 the waters of the Caspian Sea, of which I have 

 myself seen unquestionable traces in the nor- 

 thern parts of this basin(^2*), appear, like the 

 observations of Darwin in the Coral Ocean(3''^), 

 to proclaim, that without any proper shock or 

 concussion, the surface of the earth is still 

 susceptible of the same smooth and progress- 

 ive undulations which in primeval times, and 

 when the thickness of the consolidated crust 

 was much less than it is at present, were much 

 more general [and extensive] than they are 

 now. 



The phenomena to which we here direct at- 

 tention remind us of the instability of the pres- 

 ent order of things, in the changes which, at 

 far distant intervals of time, the outhne and 

 configuration of continents have in all proba- 

 bility undergone. Incidents that are scarcely 

 recognizable to successive generations of men, 

 accumulate in periods of the length of which 

 the movements of the heavenly bodies supply 

 the measure. In the course of 8000 years the 

 east coast of the Scandinavian peninsula has ris- 

 en to the extent perhaps of about 320 feet ; after 



