SHELL DEPOSITS. RAISED BEACHES. 155 



waters were considerably elevated on the first of these points, and 

 remained low on the other, which is absurd, or we must admit that 

 the same animals could live in one place, near the surface of the 

 water, and in another, at immense depths, which is contrary to all 

 observation. Therefore, the only reasonable supposition left is, that 

 of upheaval; an idea supported at least on positive events which 

 have taken place in our own times, and which are, doubtlessly, not 

 the only ones which have been manifest on the surface of the 

 globe. If an upheaving force could suddenly elevate 200 leagues 

 of the coast of Chile (page 99), spreading as far as the islands of 

 Juan Fernandez; if the same effect were slowly produced in all 

 the gulf of Bothnia, in Sweden, and in Finland, over a surface of 

 not less extent, we may comprehend how vast countries might have 

 been elevated anywhere. The enormous liquified mass 'forming 

 the interior of the globe, oscillating from side to side beneath its 

 thin crust, could emboss it in every direction, and nothing more 

 would be required to raise continents out of the sea, and vary the 

 slight relief in all manners. And let not such effects excite alarm 

 because they appear gigantic; we judge them to be so because 

 we compare them with our feeble powers, for they are nothing 

 compared to the globe itself. What are the 25,660 feet in the 

 height of Himalaya, the highest mountain in the world, and the 

 24,580 feet depth, the deepest soundings in the midst of the sea, 

 compared with the 19,685,500 feet, measured by the mean radius 

 of the earth ? And notwithstanding such eminences or depths, the 

 sum of which is less than .5000 of an inch to the yard, are rarities 

 on our planet, whose inequalities are not even comparable to the 

 unperceivable irregularities which are formed in our manufactories 

 on moulded glass or metals, which nevertheless pass unnoticed. 

 If to these reflections we add our knowledge of the immense force 

 often exerted, from the interior towards the exterior, none of these 

 phenomena will astonish us. 



8. Shell deposits, and upheaved or raised beaches. Parts of 

 soil upheaved above the level of the sea, are characterized, on the 

 surface of exposed rocks, by the presence of various shells, that 

 live, ordinarily, attached on a level with the water, such as barna- 

 cles, mussels, &c. ; or by that of some small deposits of shells, 

 identical with those daily formed at the bottom of neighbouring 

 seas. Now, on examining the hills near the coast of Chile, there 

 has been found on the plateaux (which succeed each other in ter- 

 races, the sides of which are parallel to the present shores), shells 

 similar to those, that have been left dry in our day, and which are. 

 still attached to rocks, as well as shelly deposits, which contain tho 

 same organic remains as those now forming in the Pacific Ocean. 

 Is it not most probable that these deposits are indications of suc- 

 cessive upheavals, similar to those which have recently taken place? 



8. How are raised beaches accounted for ? 

 34* 



