272 AN ENQUIRY INTO THE NATURE OF [Ch. XIII. 



The result of these comparative admeasurements is, that, 

 along the greater part of the Baltic, the mean height of the 

 water appears to fall from three to five feet in a century, or 

 about one foot for every twenty-five years. Adopting this 

 fact," he observes, in another place, " we naturally enquire 

 into its probable cause. Among the ordinary phenomena of 

 volcanic action, we find nothing at all parallel to the case 

 before us : they afford many examples of elevation, even to a 

 great extent, but these are all the result of a single impulse, 

 or of a succession of violent impulses applied within a short 

 space of time." He concludes that we shall find in the 

 secular refrigeration of the globe, a cause not only for the 

 elevation of ancient mountain chains, but also for the gradual 

 elevation of the land in Scandinavia ; and he offers a very 

 ingenious application of his hypothesis, which however our 

 limits will not permit us to follow. 



If we mistake not, the central or volcanic fire is generally 

 supposed to have slowly and gradually upheaved the land 

 above the level of the sea. The coast of Chili, however, 

 shows that it has operated per saltus, by successive impulses, 

 and not by a continued and equable action. The occur- 

 rence of caves high in the granitic cliffs of the Land's End, 

 Cornwall, corresponding with those which are now at the 

 level of the sea, confirms this fact, as does also the cave in 

 the Monte Grifone, near Palermo, mentioned by Lyell *, 

 and the inland cliffs of the Val di Noto, and of other places 

 enumerated by the same author f , and which he admits prove 

 distinct and successive elevations. Indeed, these appearances 

 appear to demand this explanation; for, if the change of level 

 were gradually effected, it might be expected that the power 

 which was adequate to form a cavern, or cut down a cliff at a 

 given level, would have continued its operation through the 

 intermediate space, downto the present high-water mark. 

 Whether these elevated ancient beaches, and the submarine 



* Principles of Geology, vol. iii. p. 141. f Ibid. p. 110. 



