EVIDENCES OF CHANGE OF LEVEL 675 
some points over it at their original elevation. We must therefore 
believe denudation to have been the cause, and admit that it was a 
former course of the Columbia before the river’s bed was furrowed to 
its presentdepth. Some of the upheavals the country has experienced, 
may have opened fissures, to give a new direction to the waters; or, 
the sudden increased force the river may have received from an eleva- 
tion, might have led to wearing a bed along a new course, provided 
the surface of the country at all favoured it. 
‘FIORDS, OR DEEP COAST CHANNELS, EVIDENCE OF A 
CHANGE OF LEVEL 
In the course of our remarks on the general features of Oregon, we 
have briefly mentioned the narrow channels which cut into the coast 
to a great depth, like artificial canals, occurring in great numbers, from 
Puget’s Sound to Behring’s Straits. The origin of these channels is 
an interesting inquiry. 
An important fact, in connexion with this subject, is the frequent 
existence of these fiords in the higher latitudes, and their almost 
total absence from coasts in the lower temperate and torrid zones. 
Along the west coast of America, they abound to the north above 48°; 
and to the south, in Lower Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, south of 
48°, there are similar passages, intersecting the land, and often cutting 
it into islands. But between these limits, the coast has few bays, and 
fewer still of these channel-like indentations. On the eastern coast of 
this continent, we observe the same general fact. ‘To the north of 
the equator, the coast is singularly even in its outline until we reach 
Maine, north of latitude 43°, where, as may be seen on a good map, 
the fiords become very numerous and deep, and complex in their long 
windings and ramifications. 
The same remarks apply to the Eastern Continent. ‘The fiords of 
Norway are well known, and this coast is a singular contrast to that 
of France, Spain, and Africa. Southern Africa does not reach below 
the parallel of 35°, and has a simple outline throughout. 
These fiords must have been formed, in general, either by marine 
denudation, by subaertal denudation, or by rupturings of the earth’s 
crust. 
When we consider their extent and number, and the fact that they 
