FUTURE CHANGES. 85 



those tracts of land known as "deltas;" every wind that 

 blows takes away some dust from the higher and deposits it 

 on the lower parts of the earth's surface, so that, to use the 

 words of the Prophet Isaiah, " every valley shall be exalted 

 and every mountain and hill shall be made low." But this 

 alteration is so slow that it takes hundreds of years to make 

 but a small difference, yet a difference there undoubtedly is, 

 and a time must come when the alteration will be such as has 

 been shown to have taken place in far-back times and 

 recorded in the strata in evident language, for though the 

 changes are slow the result is inevitable. It has been 

 ascertained that the northern part of Sweden has been 

 steadily rising and the southern part sinking to a corre- 

 sponding degree for many centuries past, and that the 

 west coast of Italy has been elevated for ages past, at 

 the rate of not quite an inch yearly. Volcanic actions are 

 raising some lands and depressing others (in the earthquakes 

 of 1822 and 1835, the whole of Chili from the Andes to the 

 sea, and probably the bed of the sea to an unknown extent, 

 was elevated considerably), rain and the rivers carry away 

 land into the sea, the beds of many seas are being filled up 

 by coral polypes and protophytes, so that the beds of these 

 seas must ultimately be the land whilst the lower parts of 

 the land will become sea. 



After these various changes upon the surface of the earth, 

 from a climate hot beyond anything now existing, from a 

 surface rocky and full of fissures and inequalities, studded 

 with islands and continents, abounding in marshes and 

 swamps from a state of atmosphere in which the higher 

 animals could not live to the present division and separation 

 of land and water, of oceans and seas, of islands and con- 

 tinents, well supplied with rivers to drain off the super- 

 fluous fluid and supply highways easy to traverse in boat 

 or canoe, the world remains, a fitting habitation for the 

 creatures Grod has placed upon it on every hand. Forests 

 to shelter the wild animals from the rains and heat of 

 the sun ; waters for those who dwell or delight in them ; 

 metals, stone, earth, and wood for man to exercise his 

 ingenuity upon, and other innumerable things contributing 



