382 PACIFIC ISLANDS. 
we are surprised at finding little evidence of any such action now in 
progress along lines of coast. The islands and the shores of conti- 
nents have occasional bays, but none that are deepening by the action 
of the sea. ‘The waves tend rather to fill up the bays and remove by 
degradation the prominent capes, thus rendering the coast more even, 
and at the same time, accumulating beaches that protect it from wear. 
If this is the case on shores where there are deep bays, what should 
it be on submarine slopes successively becoming the shores, in which 
the surface is quite even compared with the present outline of the 
islands? Instead of making bays and channels, it could only give 
greater regularity to the line of coast. 
Upon our own American coast, from Long Island to Florida, there 
are no valleys in progress from the action of the sea; on the contrary, 
we ascertain by soundings that the bottom is singularly even; and 
the bays, as that of New York, are so acted upon by the sea, that 
were it not, in the case mentioned, for the action of the current of the 
Hudson River, its limits would continue gradually to contract. 
Around Tahiti there are no submarine valleys. The valleys of the 
land are often two thousand feet deep; but they die out towards the 
shores. Thus over the world, scarcely an instance of valley-making 
from the action of the sea, can be pointed out. During the slow 
rise of a country, the condition would be no more favourable for this 
effect than in a time of perfect quiet. If America were to be elevated, 
would the action make valleys in the shores just referred to? If 
England were slowly to rise, would this favour the scooping of 
valleys through its beaches? would not beach formations continue to 
be the legitimate production of the sea along its line of wave action ; 
and where the rocks should favour the opening of a deep cove, would 
not the same action go on as now, causing a wear of the headlands 
and a filling up of the cove at its head? Were ‘Tahiti now to con- 
tinue rising, could the waves make valleys on the coast? ‘The in- 
creasing height of the mountains would give the streams of the land 
greater eroding force, and more copious waters; but the levelling 
waves would continue to act as at the present time. The effects of 
the sea in making valleys have been much exaggerated, as is obvious 
from this appeal to existing operations, the appropriate test of truth 
in geology. 
The action of a rush of waters in a few great waves over the land, 
such as might attend a convulsive elevation, though generally having 
a levelling effect, might it is true produce some excavations; yet, it 
