//. JV. Pearson — Oscillations of Sea-level. 225 



of space now forbids a more complete discussion of this matter. 

 I will say, however, that a recent canvass of over 500 manuscript 

 pages of these changes demonstrates that the conflicting points, 

 accumulated dui*ing many years of continuous search, aggregate 

 less than 4 per cent, of the total items collected. Over 96 

 per cent, of the testimony thus indiscriminately gathered falls into 

 harmony with our curve. 



It seems impossible that the extraordinary method appearing in 

 this matter should be the result of chance. I believe firmly, 

 therefore, that law prevails in these oscillations, and while this 

 preliminary examination has as yet not been carried far enough to 

 establish this position, it renders our conclusions most extremely 

 probable. When this work was first entered upon, some years 

 since, I had little knowledge of what had been done before me 

 in this field, but I soon found much had been done ; I am far from 

 being the first to announce " Oscillations in the Sea-level." 



Aristotle (384r-322 b.o.) had suspected them ; he stated " there is 

 reason for thinking that these changes (replacement of land by sea, 

 and vice versa) take place according to a certain system and within 

 a certain period " (" Principles," 9th ed., p. 13). 



Ovid (43 B.C. to 17 a.d.) makes Pythagoras say in regard to these 

 oscillations — 



' ' The face of places and theii- forms decay. 

 And that is solid earth which once was sea : 

 Seas in their turn retreating from the shore, 

 Make solid land what Ocean was before ; 



Antissa, Pharos, Tyre, in seas were pent, 

 Once isles, but now increase the continent ; 

 While the Leucadian coast, mainland before, 

 By rushing- seas is severed from the shore. 

 And men once walked where ships at anchor ride, 

 Till Neptune overlooked the narrow way. 

 And in disdain poured in the conquering sea. ' ' 



Metamorphoses, Bk. xv, Addison's translation. 



Ovid has introduced here events that occurred both before and after 

 the time of Pythagoras (580 to 500 B.C.). They all bear testimony, 

 however, to the ever recurring nature of these changes, even if the 

 dates and order of sequence be somewhat confused. (See " Popular 

 History of Science," Routledge, p. 17.) 



Sir Charles Lyell ("Principles," 9th ed., p. 526) had reason to 

 suspect that the upheaval of Scandinavia, in progress at the time of 

 his visit, had not always proceeded at the same rate, and that the 

 motion had not been invariabl}' in one direction. He says : •' Some 

 phenomena in the neighbourhood of Stockholm appear to me only 

 explicable on the supposition of the alternate rising and sinking of 

 the ground since the country was inhabited by man." 



Mr. R, C. M. Bi'own has many times denied the doctrine of 

 upheaval of coastline, and has urged change in absolute level of the 

 sea from astronomical causes in its stead. ^ 



^ See Report Brit. Assoc. Ad. of Science, 1890, p. 824 ; Quart. Jouru. Geol. Soc, 

 vol. xlvi, p. 122. 



DECADE IV. — VOL. VIII. — NO. V. 15 



