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at St. Louis human footprints, that is, the print left by naked human feet in clayey soil, which then in the course of time became petrified, but preserved the impressions. Here also it was found on a closer examination that these footprints need not have been more than 300 years old, as they were not imprinted in the soft clay, but hewn out of the hard rock. Wandering Indian tribes often hew out such footprints, in order to intimate their presence and the direction of their wanderings to those who follow them."1

2

Let us therefore put aside the American discoveries, and let us turn to the European, which, generally speaking, have been more closely investigated, and are therefore more suitable for "geological proofs." Besides, Vogt observes that we must remember that the discoveries on the Mississippi, like those on the Nile, deal with human remains, "which are of much more recent date" than the human remains which have been found in Europe. If, therefore, we can prove that these European discoveries do not compel us to put the antiquity of man at much more than 6000 years, we need take no heed of the discoveries which have been made outside Europe.

3. In different places on the coasts of Scotland and Sweden implements and boats have been found under the surface of the earth up to 60 feet above the level of the sea. The places were probably originally seabeds; and it is shown by this and other facts that the sea has either retired in the course of ages, or that the

1 Burmeister, Gesch. der Schöpfung, p. 501. J. P. Smith, Relation, etc. p. 364.

2 Vorlesungen, ii. 105.

land has risen. How can we calculate the time when these boats lay on the sea-shore, and since which, therefore, the ground of Scotland and Sweden has been raised 60 feet above the level of the sea? This would be possible if we knew how great the rise was in a century. Now with regard to Scotland, Lyell assumes that since the Roman time the ground may have risen 20 feet; therefore this rise would have taken place in 1700 years, and the other 40 feet consequently in 3400 years. But this calculation is founded only on a supposition. Hugh Miller, who also speaks of these discoveries in Scotland, and we may say in passing, does not in spite of this contradict the Biblical chronology,-thinks that it cannot be proved that the Scotch coast has risen since the Roman time, so that this will give us no means of reckoning the time.1 And Lyell himself observes that all such estimates must in the present state of science be considered simply as assumptions, because the amount of rise may not have been the same in all centuries; periods of rise alternating with periods of rest, and possibly of fall also. The rise of the coast in Sweden Lyell believes to have been on an average 2 feet in a century. The rise now is greater in the Sweden and in Norway than in the south. At the North Cape it is said to have been 6 feet in the last 400 years, in Spitzbergen more than this according to

1 Sketchbook, p. 21.

north of

2 The Antiquity of Man, p. 64. In Schonen, the most southern province, it is said that the land has been sinking for centuries. Cf. Archiv für Anthr. v. 47. Pfaff, Schöpfungsgeschichte, pp. 284, 726, shows that the calculations as to the rise of the land in Sweden are quite untrustworthy.

Lamont. But these are probably exceptions, and the statements are not certain. The average rate must not be put higher than 2 feet. Darwin does not put it higher even for the west coast of S. America, where we have more proof of sudden alterations of level than anywhere else.

But such average calculations are quite inadmissible. Rises and falls of very different extent have been observed in various regions. The three upright pillars of the temple of Serapis at Pozzuoli, in Italy, give us an instructive example of this. Quenstedt says of these: "8 feet up the pillar we find a band of marine shells 8 feet wide, in which many shells in a very well preserved state are still sticking in the holes. These live only on the surface of the sea; therefore the water must have stood at least 18 feet higher than it does at present. Now as the temple could not well have been built under water, two movements must have taken place; the water rose and fell. But this is merely local; the ruins of the temple of Neptune and the Nymphs, which are 3000 to 4000 feet distant, are under water, and here the upheaval did not take place. In 1807 the pavement of the temple was dry; from that time the water rose gradually, so that in 1845 it stood 28 inches high; in 1852 a decrease took place of about 1 inch a year. The Mediterranean countries are full of such phenomena; on the west coast of Crete beds of shells are found 27 feet above the sea, while 40 miles to the east the ruins of Greek towns can be seen under the water." At Basin Bridge, on the English coast, forests and Roman buildings

1 Epochen, p. 827.

have been found 6 feet below the present level of the sea; and at Morlaix, in France, submarine forests, which sank there suddenly in the eighth century. On the coast of Ireland, at Donegal, a fall of 20 feet has taken place in the last 100 years, for trees, and even old furnaces, now stand under water. At some places on the west coast of Greenland the water already stands above the ruins of the buildings which were erected there by the first Danish settlers.1

Besides these gradual upheavals and depressions, other sudden upheavals and depressions of considerable extent take place. I add the following example to those already given.*

In June 1819 an enormous dam, 11 geographical miles long, 3 broad, and 10 feet high, was formed by an earthquake in the eastern delta of the Indus, on what had been a perfectly level plain; at the same time the town of Sindren, which was one mile off, sank, together with a piece of land, to such an extent that it was covered by water. On the 23rd of January 1855 a tract of land as large as Yorkshire rose from 1 to 9 feet on the south-west coast of the northern part of New Zealand, and the harbour of Port Nicholson rose from 4 to 5 feet. The effects of the earthquake of 1832 in South America were felt for 1200 miles from north to south; the whole coast of Valparaiso was raised at least 3 feet, the whole country, which is half as large as France, showed distinct signs of upheaval. Similar phenomena occurred on February 20, 1835; most of the land was said to have been raised from 4 to 5 feet, but by April it had sunk again 2 to 3 feet. 1 Pfaff, Schöpfungsgeschichte, p. 288. 2 See vol. i. p. 439.

VOL. II.

T

At Valparaiso the land has risen 10 feet in ninety years, in the Bay of Cacao 6 feet in six years, at Panco about 24 feet in about eighty years. The upheavals on this coast are not limited to isolated spots; the greater portion of the western coast of South America seems to be affected by them, and it is not only these historical upheavals which make this coast so remarkable, but it is said that numerous signs of former upheavals have been found in widely scattered localities. The island of Sicily has also risen considerably in recent times; at some places the coast is 200 feet above the former level.'

2

One of the books from which I have taken these data speaks of a discovery made in Sweden in 1819, during the digging of a canal between the Mäeler lake and the Baltic, which is looked upon as a proof of the sinking and rising of Sweden. Nails, anchors, and pieces of old boats were found between two walls of rock in layers of rubble and sand; and at a depth of 64 feet a wooden hut was discovered. It was inferred therefore that after the building of the hut this part of the land had sunk gradually to a depth of 64 feet below the level of the sea, that it was then covered with the deposits which were cut through in order to construct the canal, and then rose again. There seems, however, to be a simpler explanation: according to old records a canal existed in this place in the eleventh century, which was used for some time and

3

1 Molloy, Geology, p. 282.` C. W. E. Fuchs, Die vulcanischen Erscheinungen der Erde, Leipzig 1865, p. 442 seq. O. Peschel, Neue Probleme der vergleichenden Erkunde, Leipzig 1870, p. 89 seq. 3 Pfaff, Schöpfungsgeschichte, p. 28 seq.

2 Fuchs, Op. cit. p. 455.

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