KliVIUWS. 
423 
REVIEWS. 
An Emn/ on the Caunes of dUtant Alternate Fcriodlc Inundations over the Low 
Lands of Each Hemisjihere. By Augustus Bergii. Loudon: James Ridgway. 
There are some topics now under discussion and investigation by geologists 
which possess an interest even greater than any which have yet been worked 
out by any previous ctforts. Colonel James, in sonic cxcelleut articles in the 
" Athenaeum," has sliown that an evagation of the poles has not only been pos- 
sibly caused by the projection and upheaval of mountain ranges, but that pro- 
bably even this may be reckoned amongst those causes which produced the 
former higher temperature of certain regions of our globe which are now witliin 
the temperate and arctic regions. And more than one essay, too, has of late 
been written with a view to proving the possibility of periodic floods. 
In the modest treatise before us some important facts and doctrines are 
brought under attention. " luquii-ers," says our author in his preface, " in 
their investigations of the different strata would discover cliffs and bays in the 
interior of a country similar to those observed in their rambles along the 
line of sca-coast, and the same view of steep abruptness or escarpments, with 
vegetable and animal remains, in the interior as on the coast. Such discoveries 
would naturally lead them to consider that the whole country must liave been 
submerged by the ocean at some distant period ; and on further investigation 
they would find that these inundations have not only once occurred, but that 
at several distant periods the ocean had encroached on the land, and the land 
thus been covered by the ocean. New layers of rocks, sands, gravels, and 
other marine productions had been the means of producuig, successively, newer 
strata and newer countries. The geologists would consequently arrive at the 
conclusion that all these changes of strata and animal remains presented to 
their view must have arisen from an overwhelming ocean." 
Our author then endeavours, " by consulting the noble science of astronomy, 
to find a cause for these periodical disturbances and encroachments of the 
ocean ; and liis work consists of " considerations on the motion of the major 
axis or revolution and change of tlie Ime of apsides of the earth's orbit ; its 
causes, and the effect produced in its orbital revolutions through the ecliptic 
from one heirdsphere to the other, involving a certain number of years. 
" Astronomers have observed that the Line of apsides of the earth's orbit has 
a motion through the whole ecliptic ; and it is observed that the major axis 
does not always point to the same star, or, what is the same thing, the earth is 
forced onwards beyond the perihelion point every year to a certain extent, at 
the rate of 61". 701, as is proved by observation of the stars. * * That 
part of the earth's orbit which is nearest the sun — the perihelion — is three 
millions of miles nearer than the aphelion, or most distant range of the orbit ; 
and when the earth is at its perihelion point, it is (owing to the sun's force) 
carried more rapidly through that part of its orbit, that is, at the rate of about 
sixty-one minutes per day. This increased motion," our author considers, 
" must necessarily increase and accumulate the waters of the ocean in the lati- 
tudes of the southern hemisphere, where the direction of the forces has its 
chief action. Li consequence of these forces, the ocean has so increased in 
mass that it extends from the Pole to about thirty degrees of south latitude. 
" We also find that the southern continents aud islands have their southern 
extremities worn into acute angles, whde those of the northern are obtuse, 
further proving that the united action of the solar and perihelion forces has 
