//. IF. Pfiarsoii — Osci/hifions of Sea-krcl. 171 



At the beginning I bad been led to suspect some physical 

 connection between the periodic swing in the magnetic needle and 

 these oscillations in the level of the sea ; therefore, as the half-period 

 in the motion of the agonic line is about 320 years, 1 commenced 

 search for evidence of a period of universally higher water in the 

 north, culminating about 320 years distant in the past, or about tlie 

 year 1570. 



As my investigations progressed I soon met an obstacle. I found 

 that the study of the Temple of Jupiter Serapis by Babbage, Forbes, 

 Lyell, and others, demonstrated that the high-water was receding 

 in Italy in the years 1508 to 1511 (see "Physical Geography," by 

 A. J. Jukes-Browne, p. 46), and consequently my culminating point 

 of 1570 must be moved backward to some period probably anterior 

 to 1500, and my assumption that the present low-water period was 

 now at its central position also needed adjustment ; we must have 

 passed the low-water minimum. 



I next sought proofs that the emergence of the Temple of Serapis 

 was coexistent with a corresponding emergence of every part of the 

 Mediterranean shore-line, and these proofs are in incontestable 

 existence ; many of them I submit herewith, hundreds of them for 

 lack of space I withhold. George Maw discovered " evidence of 

 upheaval, in a uniform rise of about 25 feet in distant parts of the 

 Mediterranean, of an old coastline, exactly corresponding with the 

 amount of emergence of the shell-bored columns of the Temple of 

 Serapis," and tliis testimony of Maw (see Kep. Brit. Assoc, for 

 Advancement of Science, 1870, p. 80) I have verified by a hundred 

 items of evidence perhaps unknown to him. 



Satisfied at length tbat the elevated sea-level was certainly 

 uniform over the Mediterranean, I extended my investigations to 

 the shores of England, France, Holland, and the Baltic, to the 

 Americas, and to the shores of the Pacific, seeking as before for 

 evidences of a raised sea-level, central about the year loOO. 



England supplies a wealth of evidence. I found that Queen 

 Elizabeth in 1562 was granting many descriptions of land in the bed 

 of a creek or waterway ' swawed ' or dried up, " by reason of the 

 receding waters" (" History of Romney Marsh." HoUoway, p. 141), 

 at the same time, nearly, that Ferdinand and Isabella, for the same 

 reason, were conveying land in Italy, that had likewise '^ dried up " 

 (Brown, " Physical Geog.," p. 46). 



Having thus collected much evidence that the sea-level was 

 falling in the period subsequent to 1500, I next sought data as to 

 its rise at some earlier date. Much evidence as to this movement 

 was found. For instance, in 1427 we find Henry VI perplexed and 

 disturbed " by the excessive rising of waters in divers parts of the 

 realm," and urging that remedy should be '-hastily provided 

 (" History of Eomney IVIarsh," p. 130). 



Testimony such as this, as to the epoch of Henry ^ I. combined 

 with a great mass of similar evidence, like the progressive sub- 

 mergence during the same period of the Fens of England and the 

 lowlands of Holland, led me to believe that the waters in 142* were 



