552 IMBEDDING OP THE REMAINS OF MAN AND [Ch. XLVII.' 



EFFECTS OF THE SUBSIDENCE OP LAND, IN IMBEDDING CITIES 



We 



AND FORESTS IN SUBAQUEOUS STEATA. 



from 



liuination m lacustrine or submarine deposits, and we may 

 now enquire what tendency the subsidence of tracts of lanj 

 may have to produce analogous effects. Several examples of 

 the smkmg down of buildings, and portions of towns near 

 the shore, to various depths beneath the level of the sea 

 during subterranean movements, were enumerated in the first 

 volume, Chapter XXIV. The events alluded to were comprised 

 within a brief portion of the historical period, and confined 

 to a small number of the regions of active volcanos. Yet 

 these authentic facts, relating merely to the last century and 

 a half, gave indications of considerable changes in the phy- 

 sical geography of the globe, and we are not to suppose that 

 these were the only spots throughout the surrounding land 



similar 



merica 



colonised by Europeans, we have proof of alterations of level 

 at the three principal ports on the western shores, Callao 



that these cities, so distant from 



moment 



have been 



selected as the peculiar points where the desolating power 

 of the earthquake has expended its chief fury. On con- 

 sidering how small is the area occupied by the seaports of 

 this disturbed region— points where alone each slight change 

 of the relative level of the sea and land can be recognised,— 

 and reflecting on the proofs in our possession of the local 

 revolutions that have happened on the site of each port. 



half 

 maarnitude 



must 



which the country between the Andes and the sea may 



have undergone, even in the course of the last six thousand 

 years. 



Cutch earthquake. — The 



manner m which a laro- 



submerged^ so that the terr* 



* See above, pp. 90, 94, 154, 156. 





