THE ORDEAL BY WATER. 21 



does it occur twenty-three feet above the surface of the 

 water ? There evidently has been a time when the whole 

 column, to the height of these Lithodomi, was submerged. 

 The oscillations of the surface, therefore, as shown by these 

 indications, were, first, a subsidence and submergence of 

 the original foundation, requiring the construction of the 

 second one six feet above the other; the continuation of 

 the subsidence till the original pavement was twenty-seven 

 feet beneath the surface, at which depth it remained a suffi- 

 cient time for the little stone-borers to penetrate to the 

 heart of the pillar — a work which they required a lifetime 

 to accomplish. Next occurred an elevation, raising the 

 Ziitliodomi out of the water, and thus ending their exist- 

 ence. Nor is this all. Observations made since the be- 

 ginning of the present century show that the foundations 

 of this temple are again sinking at the rate of one inch per 

 year. 



Such an example, thus authenticated, throws a flood of 

 light upon the problems of geology. It establishes the 

 doctrine of the unstable condition of the land. The rock is 

 no longer the emblem of firmness and stability. We have 

 here a monument which perpetuates the remembrance of 

 secular oscillations in the level of a continent. The little 

 Lithodomus has graven the inscriptions upon the marble 

 pillar, even at the cost of its own life. Such care has Prov- 

 idence ever exercised to leave in our hands a key by which 

 to unlock the mysteries of past ages. 



It is established, then, that the level of the land may 

 vary — that the shores of a continent may be submerged, 

 and that at a subsequent period they may rise again from 

 the waves. But the doctrine does not rest upon an iso- 

 lated example. The oscillations recorded upon the temple 

 of Jupiter Serapis are only a clear and beautiful illustration 

 of the nature of the proofs which exist upon every shore. 



