304 On the Upheaval and Sinking of land [No. 4. 



of coral, too vast for being transported by any existing agency, are 

 found from 600 to 1300 feet inland, and wbich are cut off from the 

 shore by elevated ridges.* The great part of the numberless Coral 

 Islands which are scattered betwixt the Cape of Good Hope and Ceylon 

 — the Chagos Archipelago, the Seychelles, Laccadives, and Maldives, 

 appear to have been elevated to their present level by the same up- 

 heaval by which the terraces now under consideration have been pro- 

 duced, of which, I have no doubt, abundance of traces will be found all 

 along the shores of our Eastern Seas. Captain Newbold mentions the 

 abundance of this class of phenomena on the coasts of the Mediterra- 

 nean, where the shell gravel, as in India, is being cemented into stone. 

 Beaches hardening into stone prevail along the straits of Messina.f 

 Damier speaks of a calcareous deposit in New Holland, consisting of 

 rock, which he thinks must have been formed by the drifting up of 

 sand and shells over a mass of wood, the whole being afterwards con- 

 solidated by rain water : this I have no doubt is an instance of the va- 

 riety of formation, and a proof of the double movement under review \% 

 and it seems not improbable that the shell formation of Madeira be- 

 longs to the same class of beds, though of this I cannot speak with 

 confidence^ The narrow Isthmus connecting the Rock of Gibraltar 

 with the main land is obviously the result of an upheaval, probably of 

 the same age. 



Amongst the numberless points where evidences of an upheaval are 

 to be found in Scotland, are the following : — The railway betwixt New 

 Haven and Edinburgh cuts a large bed of shells about twenty-five feet 

 above the level of the sea. A large bed of cockles, obviously in situ, 



is found at Borrowstoun Ness,|| in the Forth, at about feet above 



high-water mark. Cockles live at from 2 to 5 feet below low water. 

 All around the shores of Fife to St. Andrew's, there are beautifully 

 distinct exhibitions of upheaved beaches, several appearing in succes- 



* Transactions of the Geological Society — Jamieson's Journal, 1841. 



f Jamieson's Journal, Vol. XL1V. Page 63. 



% Journal of Researches, by Charles Damier. 



§ Macaulay. — Jamieson's Journal, 1840. The Madeira Wood is spoken of as being 

 silicified : if so. it must belong to a much more ancient date than the class to be de- 

 scribed. 



|| McLaren. — Jamieson's Journal for 1850. 



