214 Nahire of the Elevation. part n. 



between 800 and 900 fe*et in height, with their hori- 

 zontal strata abruptly cut off, showing the immense 

 mass of matter which has been removed. Nearly this 

 whole line of coast consists of a series of greater or 

 lesser curves, the horns of which, and likewise certain 

 straight projecting portions, are formed of hard rocks ; 

 hence the concave parts are evidently the effect and the 

 measure of the denuding action on the softer strata. 

 At the foot of all the cliffs, the sea shoals very gradually 

 far outwards ; and the bottom, for a space of some 

 miles, everywhere consists of gravel. I carefully ex- 

 amined the bed of the sea off the Santa Cruz, and found 

 that its inclination was exactly the same, both in 

 amount and in its peculiar curvature, with that of the 

 355 feet plain at the same place. If, therefore, the 

 coast, with the bed of the adjoining sea, were now sud- 

 denly elevated 100 or 200 feet, an inland line of cliffs, 

 that is an escarpment, would be formed, with a gravel- 

 capped plain at its foot gently sloping to the sea, and 

 having au inclination like that of the existing 355 feet 

 plain. From the denuding tendency of the sea, this 

 newly formed plain would in time be eaten back into a 

 cliff: and repetitions of this elevatory and denuding 

 process would produce a series of gravel-capped, sloping 

 terraces, rising one above another, like those fronting 

 the shores of Patagonia. ■ 



The chief difficulty (for there are other inconsider- 

 able ones) on this view, is the fact, — as far as I can 

 trust two continuous lines of soundings carefully taken 

 between Santa Cruz and the Falkland Islands, and 

 several scattered observations on this and other coasts, — 

 that the pebbles at the bottom of the sea quickly and 

 regularly decrease in size with the increasing depth 

 and distance from the shore, whereas in the gravel on 

 the sloping plains, no such decrease in size was per- 



