Reviews — CatUn's Lifted and Subsided Rocks of America. 385 



and marine sand filling the niches and fractures of even the highest 

 edifices and pyramids — whilst the still rising coast reveals' other 

 ruins traceable beneath its waters. 



11. That the discoveries of Mr. Catlin himself, and of the Abb^ 

 Brasseur de Bourbourg and others, prove that this region witnessed 

 the birth and rise of the first civilization of the earth as well as the 

 first age of bronze weapons. 



12. Writing on the distribution of Eaces Mr. Catlin regards the 

 American Indians — ^both North and South — as sprung from a com- 

 mon stock created and placed within this central American region, 

 and totally rejects the idea of an Asiatic immigration, claiming for 

 the American races an origin as remote as that of any people in the 

 world. 



Eeverting to Mr. Catlin's geological views, it is of some interest 

 to notice that along the coast of Yucatan, vast quantities of fresh- 

 water are poured from subterranean outlets into the sea. Between 

 the open sea and this liquid mass a littoral bank is formed which 

 runs parallel to the coast for a distance of more than 170 miles, the 

 water on the inside being quite fresh, whilst that outside the bank 

 is salt. 



Along the shores of the United States enormous volumes of fresh 

 water are constantly poured into the sea from subterranean rivers. 

 The coasts between Nice and Genoa, those of Algeria, Istria, Dal- 

 matia, and even the shores of the Eed Sea (destitute of subserial 

 streams) have all their submarine rivers jetting up into the sea. 

 Nor will anyone, familiar with the phenomena of mountains and 

 rivers, be disposed to object to the assertion of Mr. Catlin of the vast 

 quantity of subterranean channels in the Eocky Mountains into 

 which a very large proportion of the rainfall finds its way, probably 

 not to reappear until it is poured into the sea itself by some sub- 

 marine vent. But it may be very reasonably doubted whether there 

 is any more connection between these fresh-water rivers, with sub- 

 marine outlets, and the Gulf Stream, than between it and the waters 

 of the Amazons or the Mississippi itself. As to the temperature of 

 the water we cannot agree with Mr. Catlin, that there is any ground 

 for assuming that its subterranean course would bring it within the 

 range of underground temperature sufficiently high to raise it into a 

 heat giving medium so effectually as by mere exposure to the rays of 

 a tropical sun, and we earnestly recommend to the author's con- 

 sideration the careful calculations of Mr. J'ames Croll upon this 

 subject. Geol. Mag. 1869, Vol. VI. p. 157. See also Vol. V. p. 301. 



How far Mr. Catlin is able to prove his case for the recent form- 

 ation of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribean sea by the submergence 

 of this vast area in prehistoric time, and within the human period, 

 appears to rest mainly upon the acceptance and value, as historic 

 evidence, of the translations of the Mexican inscriptions/ purporting 



^ Some remarkable MSS. lately translated by the Abb^ Brasseur de Bom-bourg, 

 the Codex Chimalpopoca and the Codex Troano; mention not only the existence 

 of a subterranean river under the Eocky Mountains, but also the destruction of 

 the territory to the east of the present Republic of Mexico. These latter have, 



