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280 + DYNAMICAL GEOLOGY. [Boor TIL. 
ordinary. beach deposits, partly notches cut out of rock. Hach 
terrace marks a former lower level of the land with regard to the 
‘sea, and probably a lengthened stay of the land at that level, while 
the intervals between them represent the vertical amount of each 
successive uplift, and show that the land in its upward movement 
did not remain long enough at intermediate points for the formation — 
of terraces. A succession of raised beaches, rising above the present 
sea-level, may therefore be taken as pointing to a former intermittent 
upheaval of the country, interrupted by long pauses during which 
the general level did not materially change. 
On the west coast of South America lines of raised - terrace 
containing recent shells have been traced by Darwin, which prove a 
great upheaval of that part of the globe in modern geological time. 
The terraces are not quite horizontal but rise towards the south. On 
the frontier of Bolivia they occur at from 65 to 80 feet above the 
existing sea-level, but nearer the higher mass of the Chilian Andes 
they are found at 1000, and near Valparaiso at 1800 feet. That 
some of these ancient sea margins belong to the human period, was 
shown by Mr. Darwin’s discovery of shells with bones of birds, ears 
of maize, plaited reeds and cotton thread in one of the terraces 
opposite Callao at a height of 85 feet.? Raised beaches occur in 
New Zealand, and indicate a greater elevation of the southern than 
the northern part of the country.* It should be observed that this — 
increased rise of the terraces polewards occurs both in the northern 
and southern hemisphere, and is one of the facts insisted upon by 
those who would explain the terraces by displacements of the sea 
rather than of the land. | 
Human Records and Traditions.—In countries which have 
been long settled by a human population, it is sometimes possible to 
prove, or at least to render probable, the fact of recent uprise of the 
land by reference to tradition, to local names, and +o works of human 
construction. Piers and harbours, if now found to stand above the 
upper limit of high-water, furnish indeed indisputable evidence of a 
rise of land since their erection. Numerous proofs of a recent 
upheaval of the coast line of the Arctic Ocean from Spitzbergen 
eastward have been observed. At Spitzbergen itself, besides its 
raised beaches, bearing witness to previous elevations, small islands 
which existed two hundred years ago are now joined to larger portions 
of land. At Novaja Zemlja since the Dutch expedition of 1594 there 
seems to have been a rising of the sea bottom to the extent of 100 
feet or more. On the north coast of Siberia the island of Diomida, 
* See R. Chambers, “Tracings of the North of Europe ” (1850), p. 172, et 8eq. 
Bravais, Voyages de la Commission Scientifique du Nord, &c., translated in Q. J. Geol. 
Soc. i. p. 534, Kjerulf, Z. Deutsch, Geol. Ges. xxii. p. 1. ‘ Die Geologie des siid, und 
mittl. Norwegen,” 1880, p. 7. Geol. Mag. viii. p. 74, Dakyns, Geol. Mag. 1877, p. 72. 
Lehmann, “ Ueber ehemalige Strandlinien,” &c., Halle, 1879.  Zettsch. ges. Naturwiss, 
1880, p. 280. K. Pettersen, Tromsé Museums Aarshefter, III, 1880, 
2 “ Geological Observations,” chap. ix. 
® THaast’s “Geology of Canterbury,” 1879, p. 266, 



