56 



emerge from, and plunge beneath, the sea. Extensive Provinces, 

 nay, entire Kingdoms, now perform the same feat. The existence 

 of Craters of Elevation is by some still considered doubtful; but it 

 is an accredited fact that Mountains and Mountain Chains have 

 risen, either per saltum or per gradus. All the Strata have been 

 raised ; and all Unstratified Rocks would doubtless have been raised 

 also, but that some have risen of themselves. The Bed of the Sea 

 has been elevated again and again. Continents too have been raised, 

 though " by an operation distinct from that which raised the Pri- 

 " mary Strata." 



The arguments advanced in favour of these doctrines are derived 

 either from observation, or from induction. 



It is stated by Von Hoff, that in the year 1771 several tracts of 

 land were upraised in Java, and that a new bank made its appear- 

 ance opposite the mouth of the river Batavia. The authorities cited 

 for the effect of this and several other earthquakes mentioned in the 

 same place by this author, are Sir Stamford Raffles, John Prior's 

 Voyage in the Indian Seas, and Hist. Gen. des Voy. tom. ii. p. 401. 

 Mr. Lyell has cited the first of these only, but no such fact is noted 

 in either edition of the work of Sir Stamford Raffles. The other 

 authorities adduced by Von Hoff I have been unable to consult; 

 but from the Appendix to the Batavian Transactions (which contains 

 an apparently authentic account of all the recorded earthquakes 

 that have taken place in Java during a century and a halfj) it would 

 seem, that in the year 1771, in which the uprising is said to have 

 happened in that island, there was no earthquake at all. 



The Earthquake of Chili in 1822 has been so much* insisted on, 

 that it requires detailed consideration. Of this event an account 

 by Mrs. Graham is inserted in our Transactions. I am deeply sensible 

 of the honour that lady conferred on the Society by her obliging 

 compliance with the request which elicited her narrative, and it is 

 only the importance of its contents which could induce me to sub- 

 ject them to the test of rigid examination. 



According to this account '• it appeared on the morning after the 

 <' earthquake, that the whole line of coast from north to south, to the 

 " distance of above 1 00 miles, had been raised above its former level." 

 But by what standard was the former level ascertained? who on 

 the morrow of so fearful a catastrophe could command sufficient 

 leisure and calmness to determine and compute a series of changes, 

 which extended 100 miles in length, and embraced (according to 

 a statement in the Journal of Science,) an estimated area of 100,000 

 square miles? How could a range of country so extensive be sur- 

 veyed while the ground was still rocking, which it continued to 

 do on that day, and for several successive months ? What was the 

 average number of observations per square mile? Who made, checked 

 and registered them ? By what means did the surveyors acquaint 

 themselves with what had been the levels and contour before the 



« Bakewell's Geology, edition 4, pp. 98. 504. Lyell, vol. i. pp. 401. 4.55. 

 De la Heche's Manual, edition 2. Scrope on Volcanoes, p. 209. 



