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have elapsed since their deposition in the bed of the Silurian 
seas. 
It has been proved beyond a doubt, that the land in Sweden 
and Norway is gradually being elevated out of the sea ; and 
Mr. Lamont, in his “ Seasons with the Sea-Horses,” furnishes 
us with some remarkable evidence of the rapid elevation of the 
land around Spitsbergen, even the sealers remarking that 
“ the sea is going back.” 
But we do not need to journey to Norway or Spitzbergen 
for proofs of the elevation of land. Great Britain has been 
elevated to an extent incredible to those who have not studied 
the subject, since the period of existing shells. The study of 
the drift and gravel deposits of this country will convince any 
geologist that by far the larger portion of Great Britain has 
emerged from the sea since the commencement of the glacial 
period, and that its emergence was extremely gradual and 
slow. I have myself seen numerous instances where stratified 
sand banks, and loose gravel and shingle, occupy elevated 
positions in Scotland, England, and Wales, and of which the 
appearance at once forbids the conclusion that they were 
hoisted up to their present position by any sudden paroxysmal 
motion, or by any other action than a series of small successive 
uprisings, and the gradual, equable motion I have alluded to. 
As examples of these elevated marine gravels and drifts, I may 
mention one on Moel Tryfane, near Carnarvon, which occupies 
the summit of a hill platform, at a height of nearly 1,400 feet 
above the sea. I had the pleasure of visiting this ancient and 
remarkable raised beach last summer, in company with Sir 
Charles Lyell, and of gathering some of its characteristic 
shells from among the loose sand, shingle, and pebbles, which 
are there elevated to this extraordinary height. There is 
another instance, but not of so striking a character, between 
Shrewsbury and Bridgnorth, on the Severn, where Mr. George 
Maw discovered great quantities of marine shells, some of 
boreal character, in drifts which are elevated a hundred, or a 
hundred and fifty feet above the Severn. These are instances 
in our own country which any naturalist may study for 
himself. 
But we have upheavals of a later date than those just 
instanced, and which have no doubt occurred since the occu- 
pation of England by man. Flint weapons have been found 
near Bedford, and other localities, which prove that England 
was inhabited by an ancient people, who lived in ages long 
remote, and before the country had been upheaved to its 
present position. These beds are probably correlative in age 
to the celebrated drifts containing human tools in the Somme 
valley. Many caves containing human remains, associated 
