34 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



the fifteenth century^ has since disappeared and is now nowhere 

 to be seen ; the sea has long ago swept it away, and hidden 

 beneath its waves the spot upon which it stood. We have nume- 

 rous examples in geology of this encroachment and retiring of the 

 sea on or from the coasts of different continents, and we shall 

 doubtless have frequent occasion to refer to them in some of our 

 future articles. The uplifting of certain banks of shells, the sink- 

 ing or lowering of monuments erected near the sea coast, procure 

 us ample gi'ounds for investigating the effects and causes of these 

 phenomena ; and the slow oscillatory movements noticed on the 

 coasts of Sweden, Norway, Sicily, Sardinia, Italy, New Holland, 

 certain parts of America, &c., as weU as the periodic, although 

 irregularly alternating rise and faU of the water in the Caspian 

 and Dead Seas, together with like phenomena already observed 

 in the Coral Seas, show us, that without earthquakes, properly so 

 called, the surface of the earth is capable of the same gentle and 

 progTessive oscillations as those which must have prevailed so 

 generally in the earhest ages. One of the most curious oscilla- 

 tions of maritime shores, is that which, according to Belpaii'e, is 

 going on at the present time along the coast of Flanders. If we 

 are to believe the eminent naturalist just named, the Flemish 

 coast, from the mouth of the river Scheld to the town of Calais, 

 is undergoing a species of oscillation, the axis of which motion 

 appears to be situated near the little town of Nieuport. The land 

 which extends from Nieupoii; to the coast of HoUand, appears to 

 be gradually sinking, whilst the coast line from Nieuport to Calais 

 seems to rise slowly out of the sea. The extent of this osciUatoiy 

 motion has not yet been determined with certitude. — " The eastern 

 " coast of the Scandina-sdan peninsula," says Hmuboldt, (^) " has 

 " probably risen about 320 feet in 8,000 years. In 12,000 yeai's, if 

 the movement be regular, parts of the bottom of the sea which 

 lie nearest the shores, and ai'e in the present day covered by 

 nearly fifty fathoms of water, -^ill come to the surface, and con- 

 " stitute dry land. But what are such intervals of time, compared 

 " to the length of the geognostic periods revealed to us in the 

 stratified series of formations, and in the world of extinct and 

 " varying organisms ! " We may add with the same illustrious 

 (*) Cosmos, vol. i, !>. 302, Ejig. Trans, by Otto. 



