84 ERA OF THE SUPERFICIAL FORMATIONS. 



of these blocks are many tons in weight, yet are clearly as- 

 certained to have belonged originally to situations at a great 

 distance. Fragments, for example, of the granite of Shap 

 Fell are found in every direction around to the distance of 

 fifty miles, one piece being placed high upon Criffel Moun- 

 tain, on the opposite side of the Solway estuary ; so also are 

 fragments of the Alps found far up the slopes of the Jura. 

 There are even blocks on the east coast of England, supposed 

 to have travelled from Norway. The only rational conjec- 

 ture which can be formed as to the transport of such masses 

 from so great a distance, is one which presumes them to have 

 been carried and dropped by icebergs, while seas existed upon 

 the space between their original and final sites. Icebergs do 

 even now carry off such masses from the polar coasts, 

 which, falling when the retaining ice melts, must take up 

 situations at the bottom of the sea, similar to those in which 

 we find the erratic blocks of the present dry land. 



While the diluvium and erratic blocks clearly suppose a 

 part at least of the present land to have at one time been sunk 

 to a considerable depth in the sea, there is another set of ap- 

 pearances which as manifestly show the steps by which the 

 land was made afterwards to re-emerge from that element. 

 These consist of terraces, which have been detected near, and 

 at some distance inland from, the coast lines of Scandinavia, 

 Britain, America, and other regions ; being evidently ancient 

 beaches, or platforms, on which the margin of the sea at one 

 time rested. They have been observed at different heights 

 above the present sea-level, from twenty to above twelve 

 hundred feet ; and in many places they are seen rising above 

 each other in succession, to the number of three, four, and 

 even more. The smooth flatness of these terraces, with ge- 

 nerally a slight inclination towards the sea, the sandy compo- 

 sition of many of them, and, in some instances, the preser- 

 vation of marine shells in the ground, identify them perfectly 

 with existing sea-beaches, notwithstanding the cuts and 

 scoopings which have at frequent intervals been effected in 

 them by water-courses. The irresistible inference from the 

 phenomena is, that the highest was first the coast line ; then 



