ABOUT VOLCANOS AND EARTHQUAKES. 5 



our continents and islands, have been formed in this way 

 out of the ruins of former ones. The old ones which 

 existed at the beginning of things have all perished, and 

 what we now stand upon has most assuredly been, at one 

 time or other, perhaps manv times, the bottom of the sea. 



(5.) Well, then, there is power enough at work, and it 

 has been at work long enough, utterly to have cleared 

 away and spread over the bed of the sea all our present 

 existing continents and islands, had they been placed 

 where they are at the creation of the world ; and from 

 this it follows, as clear as demonstration can make it, 

 that without some process of renovation or restoration to 

 act in antagonism to this destructive work of old Nep- 

 tune, there would not now be remaining a foot of dry 

 land for living thing to stand upon. 



(6.) Now, what is this process of restoration] Let 

 the volcano and the earthquake tell their tale. Let the 

 earthquake tell how, within the memory of man under 

 the eyesight of eye-witnesses, one of whom (Mrs Graham) 

 has described the fact the whole coast line of Chili, 

 for 100 miles about Valparaiso, with the mighty chain 

 of the Andes mountains to which the Alps shrink into 

 insignificance was hoisted at one blow (in a single 

 night, Nov. 19, A.D. 1822) from two to seven feet above 

 its former level, leaving the beach below the old low water- 

 mark high and dry; leaving the shell-fish sticking on 

 the rocks out of reach of water; leaving the seaweed 

 rotting in the air, or rather drying up to dust under 

 the burning sun of a coast where rain never falls. The 

 ancients had a fable of Titan hurled from heaven and 



