348 
legist will always refer them to the most modern tertiary era." 
Instances of a similar kind, though perhaps not to the same 
extent, are numberless. The raised beaches on the southern 
coast have been already referred to ; there at various levels 
are found on the sides of the cliffs, deposits of pebbles and 
sand, containing shells identical with living species. In Scot- 
land Mr. Milne mentions their occurrence near Stirling, at 
an elevation of 100 feet. 
On the continent of Europe, analogous appearances are 
abundant. In Sweden, horizontal beds of sand, loam, and 
marl, containing the same peculiar assemblage of testacea 
which now live in the Baltic, are found at an elevation of 
200 feet, and in the neighbourhood of Christiana, in Nor- 
way, similar deposits reach an elevation of 600 feet.* 
Under these circumstances, I think that I am justified in 
assuming, that a general elevation of land has taken place 
since the deposition of the drift which is the subject of our 
inquiry. What then would be the condition of the northern 
part of Europe ? A large extent of the present land would 
be submerged, leaving only the higher districts above the 
level of the water, and a great and important change of cli- 
mate would result. 
Mr. Darwin's Researches,! to which I referred in my 
former*paper, afford satisfactory evidence as to the influence 
which a great body of water exercises upon climate ; for when 
we reflect that this country, and the inclement regions of Cape 
Horn and the Straits of Magellan are situated in the same 
latitude, we must be convinced that other elements than dis- 
tance from the equator, must be taken into consideration. 
The height of the plane of perpetual snow in any country, 
seems chiefly to be determined by the extreme heat of 
* Lyell's Elements, p. 295. 
t Journal of Researches into the Geology and Natural History of the various 
countries visited by H.M.S. Beagle. By Charles Darwin, Esq., M. A., F.R. S. 
