Elevation of Land by a Force from below. 31 



coast of New Holland, on the top of a wall of rocks an hun» 

 dred feet above the sea, — evidently brought up by the surge 

 during violent storms * ; but such shells are found in the breccia 

 of Sicily, and in several other places, at heights too great, and 

 their preservation is too perfect, to admit of this mode of con- 

 veyance ; and to account for their existence in such situations, 

 recourse must be had to more powerful means of transport. 



The occurrence of corals, and marine shells of recent ap- 

 pearance, at considerable heights above the sea, on the coasts 

 of New Holland, Timor, and several other islands of the south, 

 was justly considered by M. Peron as demonstrating the for- 

 mer " abode of the sea" above the land; and very naturally 

 suggested an inquiry, as to the nature of the revolutions to 

 which this change of situation is to be ascribed f. From si- 

 milar appearances at Pulo Nias, one of the islands off the 

 western coast of Sumatra, Dr. Jack also was led to infer, that 

 the " surface of that island must at one time have been the 

 bed of the ocean ;" and after stating, " that by whatever means 

 it obtained its present elevation, the transition must have been 

 effected with little violence or disturbance to the marine pro- 

 ductions at the surface %" he concludes, that the phsenomena 

 are in favour of an " heaving up of the land, by a force from be- 

 neath" The probable nature of this force is indicated most 

 distinctly, if not demonstrated, by the phenomena which at- 

 tended the memorable earthquake of Chili, in November 1 820 § , 

 which was felt throughout a space of fifteen hundred miles 

 from north to south. For it is stated upon the clearest evi- 

 dence, that after formidable shocks of earthquake, repeated 

 with little interruption during the whole night of the 19th of 

 November (and the shocks were continued afterwards, at in- 

 tervals, for several months), " it appeared, on the morning of 



* Freyciuet, p. 187. — The presence of shells in such situations may often 

 be ascribed to the birds, which feed on their inhabitants. At Madeira, 

 where recent shells are found near the coast at a considerable height above 

 the sea, the gulls have been seen carrying up the living patellae, just taken 

 from the rocks. 



■f Peron, Voyage, &c. vol. ii. pp. 165-183. 



j Geol. Trans, second series, vol. i. p. 403, 404. 



§ The statements here referred to, are those of Mrs. Graham, in a letter 

 to Mr. Warburton, which has been published in the Geological Transac- 

 tions (second series, vol. i. p. 412, &c); and the account is supported and 

 illustrated by a valuable paper in the Journal of the Royal Institution for 

 April 1824 (vol. xvii. p. 38, &c). The writer of this latter article asserts, 

 that " the whole country, from the foot of the Andes to far out at sea, was 

 raised by the earthquake ; the greatest rise being at the distance of about 

 two miles from the shore. The rise upon the coast was from two to four 

 feet : — at the distance of a mile, inland, it must have been from five to six, 

 or seven feet." pp. 40, 45. 



the 



