











*K4 



in, 









L'tr 



Am 





her by 



; a very 



lat tlie 



icr CUT- 



- 



i down 

 menon 





& at » 



the 



D 



to ^ 



;e 







Ch. XIX.] 



FORMATION OF CONGLOMERATES. 



491 



same organic remains, and to other results too complicated 

 and varied to admit of enumeration here. 



>/ 



Along the base of the Mari- 



time Alps, between Toulon and Genoa, the rivers, with few 

 exceptions, are now forming strata of conglomerate and sand. 

 Their channels are often several miles in breadth, some of 

 them being dry, and the rest easily forded for nearly eight 

 months in the year, whereas daring the melting of the snow 

 they are swollen, and a great transportation of mud and pebbles 

 takes place. In order to keep open the main road carried 

 alon^ the sea-coast from France to Italy, it was necessary to re- 



masses 



the flood season. A portion of the pebbles are seen in some 

 localities, as near Nice, to form beds of shingle along the 



shore, but the greater part are swept into a deep sea. The 



made 



on 



this 



coast need not surprise us, when we recollect that there is 

 sometimes a depth of two thousand feet at a few hundred 

 yards from the beach, as near Nice. Similar observations 

 might be made respecting a large proportion of the rivers in 

 Sicily, and, among: others, respecting that which, immediately 



masses 



granitic pebbles into the sea. 



I 



may 



here conclude my remarks on deltas, observing 



A _erfect as is our information of the changes which 



they have undergone within the last three thousand years, 

 they are sufficient to show how constant an interchange of 

 sea and land is taking place on the face of our globe. In 

 the Mediterranean alone, many flourishing inland towns, 

 and a still greater number of ports, now stand where the 

 sea rolled its waves since the era of the early civilisation of 

 Europe. If we could compare with equal accuracy the 

 ancient and actual state of all the islands and continents, 

 we should probably discover that millions of our race are now 

 supported by lands situated where seas and lakes prevailed 



m earlier ages. 



TV 



forests now abound where ships once sailed ; it is no less 

 true, on the other hand, that inroads of the ocean and sub- 

 mergence of land by the sinking down of the earth's crust 



