Ch. X.] 
MARINE NEWER PLIOCENE STRATA. 
129 
coast, will be devoured by the ocean, while part of the interior, 
immediately adjacent, will remain at rest and entirely undis- 
turbed. The analogy holds true in regions where the volcanic 
fires are at work, for part of the Philosopher's Tower on Etna 
has stood for the last 2000 years, at the height of more than 
9000 feet above the sea, between the foot of the highest 
cone and the edge of the precipice which overhangs the Val del 
Bove, whilst large tracts of the surrounding district have been 
the scenes of tremendous convulsions. The great cone above 
has more than once been blown into the air, and again re- 
newed ; the earth has sunk down in the neighbouring Cis- 
terna * ; the cones of 1811 and 1819 have started up, on the 
ledge of rock below, pouring out of their craters two mighty 
streams of lava ; the watery deluge of 1755 has rushed down 
from the steep desert region, into the Val del Bove, rolling 
along vast heaps of rocky fragments towards the sea ; fissures, 
several miles in length, have opened on the flanks of Etna ; 
cities and villages have been shattered by partial earthquakes, 
or buried under lava and ashes ; — yet the tower has stood as if 
placed on the most perilous point in Europe, to commemorate 
the stability of one part of the earth's surface, while others in 
immediate proximity have been subject to most wonderful and 
terrific vicissitudes. 
Marine Newer Pliocene strata only visible in countries of 
earthquakes. — In concluding what we have to say of the marine 
and volcanic formations of the newer Pliocene period, we may 
notice the highly interesting fact, that the marine strata of 
this era have hitherto been found at great elevations in those 
countries only where violent earthquakes have occurred during 
the historical ages. We do not deny that some partial depo- 
sits containing recent marine shells have been discovered at a 
considerable height in several maritime countries in Europe and 
elsewhere, far from the existing theatres of volcanic action ; but 
stratified deposits of great extent and thickness, and replete with 
recent species, have only been observed to enter largely into the 
* See above, p. 96. 
Vol. III. K 
