NATURAL HISTORY OF CREATION. rir 



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

 of contact witli the land, the third higliest beach, and so 

 on down to the ])la.t-foi'm nearest to tlie present sea-beach. 

 Plienoniena of this kind become compaiativelv familiar 

 to us, when we hear of evidence that the last sixty feet 

 of the elevation 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 foi'ty- 

 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 1832. 

 Subterranean forces, of the kind then exemplified in 

 Cliili, supply a ready explanation of the whole pheno- 

 mena, 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 particular beach, it is generally ob- 

 served that the level continues the same along a con- 

 siderable 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 c|uiet 

 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 ca.se. In the present sea, as is well 

 knowTi, there are difterent levels at difterent 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 



