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Cn. XXX.] 



PEEMANENCE OF THE OCEAN'S LEVEL. 



179 



than the sea, is subject alternately to rise and fall. Had it 

 been assumed, as most probable, that the level of the ocean 



w 



was invariable, on the ground that no fluctuations have as 

 yet been clearly established, and that, on the other hand, the 

 continents are inconstant in their level, as has been de- 

 monstrated by the most unequivocal proofs again and again, 

 from the time of Strabo to our own times, the appearances 

 of the temple at Puzzuoli could never have been regarded 

 as enigmatical. Even if contemporary accounts had not 

 distinctly attested the upraising of the coast, this explanation 

 should have been proposed in the first instance as the most 

 natural, instead of being now adopted unwillingly when all 

 others have failed. 



To the strong prejudices still existing in regard to the 

 mobility of the land, we 



discoveries as have been recently brought to light in ISTew 

 Zealand, the Bay of Baise, and the Bay of Conception. A 



may attribute the rarity of such 



may 



which are opposed to our prepossessions, or 

 from us their true import when we behold them 

 time that the 



may 



But it is 



geologist should, in some degree, overcome 



impressions 



of old to select the rock as the emblem of firmness the sea 



as the image of inconstancy. Our modern poet in a 



more 



imap-e 



and has finely contrasted the fleeting existence of the suc- 

 cessive empires which have flourished and fallen on the 

 borders of the ocean with its own unchanged stability. 



■ Their decay 



Has dried up realms to deserts : — not so thou 

 Unchangeable, save to thy wild waves' play : 

 Time writes no wrinkle on thine azure brow ; 

 Such as creation's dawn beheld, thou rollest now. 



Haeold, Canto if. 



N 2 



