EXISTING SPECIFIC FORMS ABUNDANT. 85 



an elevation took place, and the second highest became so, the 

 first being now raised into the air and thrown inland. Then, 

 upon another elevation, the sea began to form, at its new 

 point of contact with the land, the third highest beach, and so 

 on down to the platform nearest to the present sea- beach. 

 Phenomena of this kind become comparatively familiar to us, 

 when we hear of evidence that the last sixty feet of the eleva- 

 tion of Sweden, and the last eighty-five of that of Chili, have 

 taken place since man first dwelt in those countries ; nay, 

 that the elevation of the former country goes on at this time 

 at the rate of about forty-five inches in a century, and that 

 a thousand miles of the Chilian coast rose four feet in one 

 night, under the influence of a powerful earthquake, so lately 

 as 1822. Subterranean forces, of the kind then exemplified 

 in Chili, supply a ready explanation of the whole phenomena, 

 though some other operating causes have been suggested. 

 In an inquiry on this point, it becomes of consequence to 

 learn some particulars respecting the levels. Taking a parti- 

 cular beach, it is generally observed that the level continues 

 the same along a considerable number of miles, and nothing 

 like breaks or hitches has as yet been detected in any case. 

 A second and a third beach are also observed to be exactly 

 parallel to the first. These facts would seem to indicate quiet 

 elevating movements, uniform over a large tract. It must, 

 however, be remarked that the raised beaches at one part of 

 a coast rarely coincide with those at another part forty or fifty 

 miles off. We might suppose this to indicate a limit in that 

 extent of the uniformity of the elevating cause ; but it would 

 be rash to conclude positively that such is the case. In the 

 present sea, as is well known, there are different levels at 

 different places, owing to the operation of peculiar local 

 causes, as currents, evaporation, and the influx of large rivers 

 into narrow-mouthed estuaries. The differences of level in 

 the ancient beaches might be occasioned by some such causes. 

 But, whatever doubt may rest on this minor point, enough 

 has been ascertained to settle the main one, that we have in 

 these platforms indubitable monuments of an elevation of the 



