LOCAL ELEVATION AND SUBMERGENCE* 



345 



parts of the English coast, particularly of Yorkshire and Lincoln- 

 shire, which may be seen, at low water, extending far into the sea. 

 The trees are broken off near the roots, but their stumps are erect, 

 proving that they are in the position in which they grew : this fact 

 clearly indicates a submersion of that part of the country at no very 

 remote epoch. If ancient traditions could be relied upon with as 

 much certainty, as the records of nature imprinted on the crust of 

 the globe, we might cite the fact of ancient continents having sunk 

 down, since the world was peopled by the human race. Plato, in 

 his dialogue entitled Timceus^ says, that Solon received an account 

 from the priests of Sais in Egypt, that there was formerly a vast 

 country called the Atlantides, situated beyond the Straits of Gibral- 

 tar, the inhabitants of which were highly civilized and flourishing ; 

 but the whole country was ingulfed in the ocean, during a violent 

 earthquake. 



The upheaving of extensive islands or continents, was probably 

 always accompanied by the depression of other portions of the crust 

 of the globe : the oscillations of the surface may be the result of some 

 general laws of subterranean motion, as regular and definite in their 

 operation, as the laws which regulate the motions of the planetary 

 system. These laws may remain, for ever, undiscovered by human 

 intelligence, but our ignorance respecting the causes which have re- 

 peatedly submerged and elevated various portions of the earth's sur- 

 face, does not invalidate the fact, that such submersions and eleva- 

 tions have taken place at various epochs. The admission of this 

 fact has been progressively gaining ground, and is supported by a 

 mass of evidence that cannot be refuted. 



44. 



