plains of denudation were formed, upon which fresh sediments 

 were laid down, unconformably upon the abraded surfaces of the 

 old ones. We gather from that, how slowly and continuously 

 the shores advanced upon the land. And this is just what we 

 could expect, if it is the lengthening of the sidereal day that 

 causes the sea to rise. 



At last the strain becomes so great that the solid crust 

 gives way, and the strain becomes relieved by great consequen- 

 tial upheavals and subsidences. But these changes take place in 

 relatively short time, if we may conclude from the teachings of 

 geology, i And this, also, perfectly accords with the hypothesis. 



It now only remains to account for the slight displacements 

 of the beach-lines, that enable us to separate the geological stages. 

 I have tried, above, to show that these displacements were only 

 very small, and that they were probably local and restricted to 

 the weaker parts of the crust. As the stages, according to our 

 hypothesis, represent intervals of 100000 years, the sea during 

 that time will, in the latitudes of Middle Europe, rise some 

 few metres, which is probably quite sufficient for the hypo- 

 thesis. 



We have seen, above, that there is some reason to believe 

 that earthquakes are more common, when the earth is in peri- 

 helion, at spring-tide, and during low barometric pressures. We 

 ha ^e supposed that the upheavals and subsidences were caused 

 hy the summing up of the effects of innumerable small earth- 

 quakes or dislocations. We can now understand, that such 

 dislocations must be more numerous and more considerable, 

 *hen the eccentricity of the earth's orbit has a high value. 

 Under such circumstances the earth, in its perihelion, approaches 

 m «ch nearer to the sun than else (more than 1 million geogra- 

 P bic al miles); the spring-tides are stronger; and the distur- 

 ban <*s in the atmosphere probably greater. If we add that the 



* l * diesen grossten Phasen fallt ea aber auf, dass jene, welche am genauesten 



, annt 8i °<i, dem position Theile eine weit grosBere Zeitdauer zuzum< L" 

 "heinen als dem nachfolgenden negation Theile." (Sum: Antl. d. ±-rae 



