AUGUST 177 



the most potent of these is the upheaval of the land, 

 causing a succession of sea-beaches to be formed one 

 above the other, and creating a more or less terraced 

 contour. In Scotland, raised beaches can be recognised 

 at heights of 25, 40, 50, 60, 75, and 100 feet above 

 the present level of high tide; but in some of the 

 Norwegian fjords they mark a land rise of 600 feet, 

 and Darwin found a raised beach near Valparaiso at 

 an altitude of 1300 feet. The movement is sometimes 

 sudden and convulsive, sometimes secular and gradual, 

 as in parts of Norway at the present day, where the 

 annual rise is marked on the rocks in inches by 

 observers; but a well-formed sea-beach, with tide 

 ridges in the shingle, wave-worn rocks and tunnelled 

 cliffs, indicates long intervals when the land must 

 have remained stationary. At Posilipo, near Naples, 

 may be seen some pillars perforated by a marine stone- 

 boring mollusc, showing that, after the edifice was 

 built, the land sank and submerged it, rising again 

 after the molluscs had found time to bore into the 

 stone. 



Suppose the whole land surface of north-western 

 Europe was to undergo a rise of 600 feet similar to 

 that which has taken place in sub-Polar regions, what 

 a bewildering change would be wrought not only in 

 our scenery, but in the political and strategical circum- 

 stances of the United Kingdom. The occupation of 

 the Blue- water School would disappear with the 

 German Ocean, the Straits of Dover, and half the Bay 

 of Biscay. Ireland would be united physically as well 

 as politically to the predominant partner, and relief 

 M 



