70 
ELEMENTS OF GEOLOGY. 
CHAPTER V. 
ELEVATION OF STRATA ABOVE THE SEA.—HORIZONTAL AND 
INCLINED STRATIFICATION. 
Why the Position of Marine Strata, above the Level of the Sea, should be 
referred to the rising up of the Land, not to the going down of the Sea.— 
Strata of Deep-sea and Shallow-water Origin alternate.—Also Marine and 
Fresh-water Beds and old Land Surfaces.—Vertical, inclined, and folded 
Strata.—Anticlinal and Synclinal Curves.—Theories to explain Lateral 
Movements.—Creeps in Coal-mines.—Dip and Strike.—Structure of the 
Jura.—Various Forms of Outcrop.—Synclinal Strata forming Ridges.— 
Connection of Fracture and Flexure of Rocks.—Inverted Strata.—Faults 
described.—Superficial Signs of the same obliterated by Denudation.— 
Great Faults the Result of repeated Movements.—Arrangement and Di¬ 
rection of parallel Folds of Strata.— Unconformability.— Overlapping 
Strata. 
Land has been raised, not the Sea lowered. —It has been al¬ 
ready stated that the aqueous rocks containing marine fossils 
extend over wide continental tracts, and are seen in mount¬ 
ain chains rising to great heights above the level of the sea 
(p. 29). Hence it follows, that what is now dry land was 
once under water. But if we admit this conclusion, we 
must imagine, either that there has been a general lowering 
of the waters of the ocean, or that the solid rocks, once cov¬ 
ered by water, have been raised up bodily out of the sea, 
and have thus become dry land. The earlier geologists, 
finding themselves reduced to this alternative, embraced the 
former opinion, assuming that the ocean was originally uni¬ 
versal, and had gradually sunk down to its actual level, so 
that the present islands and continents were left dry. It 
seemed to them far easier to conceive that the water had 
gone down, than that solid land had risen upward into its 
present position. It was, however, impossible to invent any 
satisfactory hypothesis to explain the disappearance of so 
enormous a body of water throughout the globe, it being 
necessary to infer that the ocean had once stood at what¬ 
ever height marine shells might be detected. It moreover 
appeared clear, as the science of geology advanced, that 
certain spaces on the globe had been alternately sea, then 
land, then estuary, then sea again, and, lastly, once more 
habitable land, having remained in each of these states for 
considerable periods. In order to account for such phenom- 
