ON THE ELEVATED SUBMARINE ALLUVIA. 309 



chain, from its greatest elevation down to that of 1200, 

 must be supposed to have formed a ridge rising above 

 the sea; taking the skeletons, from Brocchi's facts, as 

 the extreme measure. I need not extend these con- 

 jectures to the side of the Alps, as the reader can 

 easily pursue these speculations at his leisure. It is 

 probable that at the period at which modern Italy 

 was produced, the whole of the central chain experienced 

 a fresh elevation to the altitude of at least 1200 feet, 

 and over a superficial space which reaches from 

 Otranto at one end of the country, to Piedmont, and 

 to the foot of the Alps at least, generally, on the other 

 side. If others choose to imagine that only those 

 parts were thus elevated which now possess the sub- 

 marine alluvium, this would make no difference in 

 the general views, since that force which was suffi- 

 cient to move so large a part of Italy, might as easily 

 have moved the whole. This is a circumstance that 

 might, however, be put to the proof, by examining 

 the stratification of the Apennines in a proper man- 

 ner. Some dislocation or discontinuity in the order 

 of the stratification will be found at a certain elevation, 

 if this supposition be correct; and I may here point 

 out to those geologists who may have an opportunity, 

 the interesting circumstances of various kinds which 

 still await them in Italy, from the views of the nature 

 of that country which I have here given. If it should 

 be suggested that the whole of Italy, even to the 

 highest point of the Apennines, was raised at one 

 period from beneath that ocean in which the lime- 

 stone of this ridge was formed, the absence of the 

 marine alluvium from the higher parts, would be ac- 

 counted for by denudation. 



Though these phenomena may not possess so high 

 an interest as the great elevations of the continents, 



