XIII.] SLOW MOVEMENTS OF THE LAND. 211 



Such appears to have been the succession of events 

 registered by these ruins. It is true, the Bay of Naples is 

 in a region pecuHarly subject to volcanic disturbances, but 

 the slow movements of the land are by no means confined 

 to such districts. Few countries in the world perhaps have 

 been more free from earthquakes than Scandinavia. Yet 

 direct measurement has shown that the northern part of this 

 peninsula is slowly rising, while the southern part, curiously 

 enough, appears to be suffering depression. In such a case 

 as this, where movements in opposite directions are simul- 

 taneously going on, it is useless to think of attributing them 

 to any movement of the sea. For a change of sea-level 

 implies, as already pointed out, a general change, whether 

 of rise or fall; and it is therefore absurd to assume a 

 rise in one place and a fall in another, at the same 

 time. 



In the British Isles, there is no lack of evidence to show 

 that the level of the land has been frequently disturbed, 

 though the oscillations within the memory of man are hardly 

 so well marked as in the cases previously cited. Visitors 

 to certain parts of the coast of Britain may note a terrace of 

 sand and gravel, mixed perhaps with sea-shells, and having 

 all the appearance of a deserted beach ; which fringes the 

 shore at a height far beyond reach of the highest tides. Such 

 accumulations must have been formed along a line of shore, 

 and afterwards elevated to their present position, whence 

 they are termed raised beaches. A raised beach is therefore 

 an index of elevation of the land. And it appears that this 

 elevation must have been effected, in part at least, since the 

 country was inhabited. For the upraised deposits of silt 

 which skirt the estuary of the Clyde have yielded relics of 

 human workmanship, such as rude canoes, that were origin- 

 ally buried in the mud and sand of the old estuary, 



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