ELEVATION OF CONTINENTS* 



341 



axis of the range on each side ; and that this action, being confined 

 within narrow limits, produced a rent or line of fracture on the crust 

 of the globe, along which the beds were suddenly tilted into their 

 present position ; and that the outer ranges were raised by similar 

 explosions, acting along lines of fracture of greater or less extent. 

 These upheavings, whether simultaneous or successive, took place 

 under the sea, and must have occasioned an agitation of the water, 

 far exceeding in violence, any thing which modern causes present to 

 our observation. 



The vertical, or highly elevated position of certain portions of 

 strata, that were originally horizontal, implies the sudden and vio- 

 lent action of an upheaving force. Where mountains are raised to 

 a considerable elevation, and preserve an unbroken range of nearly 

 horizontal strata, we may infer, that the upheaving force was slow in 

 its operation, or acted on a large segment of the earth's surface. 



I now claim the attention of geologists to the following position, 

 which admits of direct and positive proof, though I am not aware 

 that it has been before noticed : — the elevation of large con- 

 tinents AND islands, was NOT EFFECTED BY THE SAME OPERA- 

 TION, WHICH UPRAISED THE PRIMARY ROCKS. For instance, the 

 horizontal strata of new red sandstone, that rest on the upraised 

 beds of slate and granite at Charnwood Fo;est, (see Plate II. fig. 4.) 

 were deposited under the ocean ; they are evidently sedimentary de- 

 positions, composed of fragments of slate and other rocks, intermixed 

 with clay and sand, indurated into sandstone. 



Now let us notice the present elevation of these strata of sand- 

 stone, which is not less than about 500 feet above the level of the 

 sea, and we shall be compelled to admit, that the rocks of slate and 

 granite, together with their covering of sandstone strata, were raised 

 from the ocean to their present height, at an epoch long posterior to 

 the uptilting of the former beds, or to the deposition of the sand- 

 stone that rests upon them. At the same epoch, and by the same 

 upheaving cause, a great extent of the central part of England was 

 also raised from the ocean; for the same beds of slate, sienite, gran- 

 ite and quartz rock, covered with the same beds of new red sand- 

 stone, extend into Warwickshire, and, in all probability, are con- 

 nected with the Malvern range. Should any one suggest a doubt, 

 whether this portion of the new red sandstone was deposited under 

 the sea, it is only necessary to say, that the same new red sandstone, 

 immediately adjacent to the Charnwood range, is covered by beds of 

 the lias formation, (see e in the same plate,) which abound in marine 

 organic remains. The same reasoning will apply to all other situa- 

 tions in which uptilted transition or primary rocks, are covered by 

 horizontal depositions of secondary strata. The elevation of the up- 

 tilted beds was a distinct operation from that which raised them, to- 

 gether with the rocks that cover them, above the ocean, and which 

 converted the former bed of the sea into dry land. 



