Geological Results of the Barth’s Contraction. 177 
Among English geologists, the subject has received little atten 
tion except in the writings of De la Beche ; and in the Treatises 
on Geology in our own language the absolute rising and sinking 
of the continental lands and the stability of the waters are usually 
set down as established truths.* In this country, Prof. W. W. 
Mathert+ has made the theory of “ secular refrigeration” a subject 
of special consideration: and an account of its supposed bearing 
on the magnetic variation of our globe and on the tides, has been 
published by Prof. J. H. Lathrop.{ In the Geological Society of 
France, this theory of a cooling globe has been a frequent subject of 
discussion, owing perhaps, in a great degree, to the attention called 
to the subject by the elaborate mathematical essay of Cordier.$ 
M. Elie de Beaumont, the great champion of ‘“soulevement” 
theories, appeals to contraction to explain the direction and 
luctante Spiritu superficiem varié intumuisse, unde illi mox indurescenti primeva 
inequalitas; neque etiam diflitear, firmatis licét rebus, terre motu aliquando vel 
nivoma eructatione, monticulum factum. Sed ut vastissima Alpes ex solida jam 
, eruptione surrexerint, minus consentanevm puto, Scimus tamen et in illis 
deprehendi reliquias maris. Cim ergo alterutrum factum oporteat, credibilius 
multo arbitror, defluxisse aquas spontaneo nisu, quam ingentem terrarum partem 
incredibili_ violentid tam alté ascendisse.” In § vi, he explains the oscillation of 
the water and land b pp i gil ist f great arched cavities asf ornices,”” 
obviously considered as a result of contraction on cooling,) which were afterwar 
brok 
Be en. He says: ‘lta priore rupto aqua in montes ascenderit, mox 
. 
indulserit in ‘sicco isimile est.” Ther rtainly some appr to 
the views we advocate, in his rejecting the idea of a bodily lifling of mountains by 
force th, and also in the sugges that oscillations were produc he 
Water level by subsidences, though know not ‘his * forni 
t 
‘ ela B 
for the production of fissures, depressions, and elevations by lateral action; he also 
mentioned, to the extrusion of material from below. ; , 
We observe in the memoir by Prof. Sedgwick, on the Cambrian Mountains, 
ns., ii Ser., iv, 47, 1833,) the following remark: ‘ 
rs gaining access to opened fissu 
of the interior have a slow westward movement, correspondent with the change of 
magnetic variation, and also a tidal motion, which acting on the crust 1s a cause of 
the marine tides. wi} 
Essai sur la Temperature de la Terre, 4to, pp- 84. Read before pe i omy 
Sciences, June 4, and July 9and 23, 1827. Also, the same, translate ved the 
Junior class in Amberst College, 1 vol., 12mo, 94 pp-: Amherst, 1628. See also 
an 8 tin this Journal, xv,109. 
Szconp Serres, Vol. III, No. 8.—March, 1847. 23 
