THE LAND. 289 



generation to the next, accumulate and become so in pe- 

 riods similar in duration to those of the remoter heavenly 

 bodies. The eastern coast of the Scandinavian peninsula 

 may have risen about 320 French feet in 8000 years; in 

 12000 years, if the present rate of movement were uniformly 

 continued, the parts of the bed of the sea nearest to the 

 shore, now covered with 45 fathoms of water, would begin to 

 emerge. Such intervals of time, however, are short, when com- 

 pared with the length of the geological periods disclosed to 

 us by the series of superposed formations, and by the suc- 

 cessive groups of extinct organic forms. "We have hitherto 

 considered only the phenomena of elevation ; but the analogy 

 of observed facts will justify us in assuming the equal possi- 

 bility of the depression of large tracts of country : the mean 

 height of the parts of France which are not mountainous is 

 less than 480 (512 English) feet: geological changes, of 

 moderate amount compared with those which took place in 

 the earlier periods of the globe, would therefore be suffi- 

 cient to effect the permanent submersion of large portions 

 of north-western Europe, and would alter materially its 

 general configuration. 



All variations in the form of continents are produced either 

 by the elevation or the depression of the land or sea, and 

 these are complementary phsenomena, since the real elevation 

 of the one element produces the appearance of a depression 

 in the other. In a general contemplation of nature such a* 

 is here presented, we should not overlook the possibility at 

 least of a real depression of the general level of the ocean, 

 or a diminution of the quantity of its waters. No one in 

 the present day can doubt that, at the periods when the 

 surface of the earth possessed a higher temperature, when 



