324 Ancient Sea Margins. 



such places — though several of them are remarkably persistent. 

 More generally, one of those present at place A is wanting at 

 place B, while another is perhaps substituted. There is no diffi- 

 culty, however, in seeing that those common to the two situa- 

 tions are the memorials of one set of pauses of the sea, as they 

 always appear at certain elevations, with intervals which, though 

 in some cases small, are always peculiar and characteristic. In 

 short, there is here evidence that the process by which the rela- 

 tive level of sea and land has changed in our island at the era of 

 the superficial formations, was one which did not move the land 



in the slightest degree off the plane which it had previously 

 occupied. 



I need scarcely remark, that, in consequence of what we have 

 heard for some years, of the unequal changes of relative level in 

 South America and Scandinavia, every step of this investigation 

 was attended by a battle with my prepossessions. The facts, 

 however, are of so clear and palpable a nature, that there is no 

 gainstanding them. And perhaps there is no necessary inconsis- 

 tency between them and the observations of Messrs. Darwin and 

 Lyell. Any how, it has appeared to me exceedingly desirable to 

 learn how far this uniformity has prevailed, and I have therefore 

 visited France and Ireland, in order to search for terraces and 

 ascertain their heights. You may believe it was with no com- 

 mon emotions that I found in these countries terraces broadly 

 marked and characteristically grouped as in Scotland, and at pre- 

 cisely the same elevations,— proving that France and Ireland 

 stood in the same predicament as the Island of Great Britain with 



respect 



had been brought about. ' 



Since then I have been led to inquire after the heights of the 

 terraces of more distant regions, particularly Scandinavia aud 

 l\ ortn America; and certain it is, however startling and unex- 

 pected that there are appearances as if the uniformity extended 



even thus far. 



point 



and with full preparation for evidence to a different effect, let 

 amidst all the obscurity of observations made with no regard to 

 this point, and which coming from different minds must needs 

 bear some incompatibilities, there does appear enough at least to 

 awake a strong suspicion of the uniformity in question, and to 

 make me feel quite unjustifiable in refraining from further enquiry 

 t or instance, a sixty feet beach is described at Fossum in Norway, 

 and m the Mindar islands in the Gulf of the St. Lawrence. 

 1 he phrase might describe a geognostic feature of this island, 

 than which I do not know any more remarkable. I find also, in 

 a paper by the Pfofs RogerS} Qn ^ ^ formatior]S of Eastern 



Virginia, (Trans. Am. Soc, 1839,) a description of what they 

 call a bench of land (one of mv own phrases ) between the riven- 



