GENERAL OBSERVATIONS, 585 



134 feet long by 115 wide ; and the roof was supported by forty-six 

 columns, each forty-two feet high, and five feet in diameter. Three of 

 the columns are now standing : they bear evidence, however, that they 

 were once for a considerable time submerged to half their height. 

 The lower twelve feet is smooth : for nine feet above this, they are 

 penetrated by lithodomous or boring shells ; and remains of the shells 

 (a species now living in the Mediterranean) were found in the holes. 

 The columns, when submerged, were consequently buried in the mud 

 of the bottom for twelve feet, and were then surrounded by water 

 nine feet deep. The pavement of the temple is now submerged. Five 

 feet below it, there is a second pavement, proving that these oscilla- 

 tions had gone on before the temple was deserted by the Romans. It 

 has been recently stated that, for some time previous to 1845, a slow 

 sinking had been going on, and that since then there has been as 

 gradual a rising. 



At the earthquake in 1819, about the Delta of the Indus, an area 

 of 2,000 square miles became an inland sea ; and the fort and village 

 of Sindree sunk till the tops of the houses were just above the water. 

 Five and a half miles from Sindree, parallel with this sunken area, a 

 region was elevated ten feet above the delta, fifty miles long and in 

 some parts ten broad. The natives, with reference to its origin, call 

 it Ullah Bund, or Mound of God. In 1838, the fort of Sindree was 

 still half buried in the sea; and, during an earthquake in 1845, the 

 Sindree Lake was turned into a salt marsh. 



In 1822, the coast along by Concepcion and Valparaiso, for 1,200 

 miles, was shaken by an earthquake ; and it has been estimated that 

 the coast at Valparaiso was raised three or four feet. In February, 

 1835, another earthquake was felt from Copiapo to Chili, and east be- 

 yond the Andes to Mendoza. Captain Fitzroy states that there was 

 an elevation of four or five feet at Talcahuano, which was reduced by 

 April to two or three feet. The south side of the island of Santa 

 Maria, near by. was raised eight feet, and the north ten ; and beds of 

 dead mussels were found on the rocks, ten feet above high-water mark. 



Thus the earth, although in an important sense finished, is still un- 

 dergoing changes, from paroxysmal movements and prolonged oscil- 

 lations. The changes, while probably more restricted than in the ages 

 of progress, are yet the same in kind. 



IIL GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE CENOZOIC. 



1. Time-ratios. — Using the same kind of data as on p. 381, for 

 determining the relative lengths of the ages and periods, we have 

 for the Tertiary period, in North America — in which the maximum 



