VOLCANOES AND 



tions of these pedestals were preserved intact, but the 

 marine shell-fish found a home in the upper part of 

 the marble columns, and pierced them with the channels 

 and grooves. After this had gone on for a number of 

 years the elevation of the land lifted the temple and 

 its columns clean out of the sea again, and the marine 

 shell-fish could no longer live in the columns. But the 

 traces of their habitation remain. 



The elevation of this coast was actually witnessed at 

 the time of the eruption of Monte Nuovo in 1538. 

 Moreover, the raising of the land was perceived on a 

 larger scale round the whole of the Bay of Naples during 

 the eruption of Vesuvius in April, 1706. Professor 

 Lorenzo found the elevation of the land at Pozzuoli to 

 be six inches, and at Portici one foot.* The foundations 

 of both Etna and Vesuvius were ages ago laid in the sea. 



In almost every part of the world there are raised 

 beaches, such as we have already mentioned in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Valparaiso, on the Chilian coast. The idea 

 has been put forward by Dr. T. J. See that the same 

 cause which produces earthquakes produces these eleva- 

 tions of the land and produces also volcanoes. There 

 are many circumstances which favour this idea. Let 

 us consider what is happening at the bed of the sea. 

 Some years ago, when certain officers of the United States 

 Navy were making ocean surveys, it was found that if 

 hollow balls of thick glass were sunk to great depths 

 in the ocean, they came up more and more completely 

 filled with water in proportion as the depth increased, 

 * The coast about Pozzuoli is now sinking again. 

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