82 
But then I shall be reminded that the upheaval of our pre- 
sent land, and the depths of the strata filled with marine 
fossils, must have taken an incalculably lengthened period of 
time. To which I reply that science can give no proof of this 
lengthened period. 
Sir Charles Lyell states 2\ feet per century as his normal 
period for the elevation of land above the sea. 
Sir Charles states [Antiquity of Man, p. 58) : — 
“ The upward movement now in progress in parts of Norway and Sweden 
extends, as I have elsewhere shown, throughout an area about 1,000 miles N. 
and S., and for an unknown distance E. and W., the amount of elevation 
always increasing as we proceed towards the North Cape, where it is said to 
equal 5 feet in a century. If we could assume that there had been every- 
where an average rise of 2\ feet in each 100 years for the last 50 centuries, 
this would give an elevation of 125 feet in that period.” “ A mean rate of 
continuous vertical elevation of 2\ feet in a century would, I conceive, be a 
high average ; yet even if this be assumed, it would require 24,000 years 
for parts of the sea-coast of Norway, where the post-tertiary marine strata 
occur, to attain the height of 600 feet.” 
This unit measure of 2\ feet per century elevation is that which 
Sir Charles Lyell uses everywhere throughout his Antiquity of 
Man, to estimate the period land has taken to be elevated. But 
this unit is purely theoretical and conjectural, having, in all 
probability, as much foundation in fact as the 2\ inches of 
increase in Nile mud per century. Let us test the theory by 
fact. Sir Charles himself being the witness cross-examined. 
Speaking of the rise of 1,000 miles of the coast of Chili after 
the earthquake of 1822, he says (Principles, vol. ii. p. 304) : — 
“ By some observers it has been supposed that the whole country from the 
foot of the Andes to a great distance under the sea, was upraised in 1822, the 
greatest rise being at the distance of about two miles from the shore. ‘ The 
rise upon the coast was from 2 to 4 feet ; at the distance of a mile inland it 
must have been from 5 to 6 or 7 feet.’ It has also been conjectured by the 
same eye-witnesses to the convulsion, that the area over which this perma- 
nent alteration of level extended may have been equal to 100,000 square 
miles.” 
Prodigious ! Theory, 2\ feet per century. Experience of 
eye-witnesses, twice that on the coast, and a mile inland more 
than three times that amount, in a few hours of time. Again, 
let us take the evidence of eye-witnesses of the effects of 
the earthquake of 1885 on the same coast. I quote from 
Mr. Darwin's Journal, p. 310 : — 
“ The most remarkable effect of this earthquake was the permanent eleva- 
