+-----------+----------+-----------+----------+-----------+-_Essay on the Theory of the Earth

+-----------+----------+-----------+----------+-----------+----------+

| 63° 59′ | 1.50 | 59° 17′ | 2.17 | 56° 10′ | 0.00 |

| ... ... | 2.50 | 58 44 | 1.00 | 56 11 | 0.00 |

| ... ... | 0.50 | 58 42 | 1.08 | 55 53 | 0.00 |

| 61 43 | 2.50 | 58 45 | 1.17 | |

| 61 37 | 2.83 | 58 35 | 2.00 | South-West Coast. |

| 61 32 | 2.50 | 58 28 | 0.07 | 55 23 | 0.00 |

| 61 45 | 2.50 | 58 11 | 0.83 | 55 22 | 0.00 |

| 60 11 | 2.33 | 58 8 | 1.00 | 57 21 | 0.00 |

| 59 46 | 0.17 | 57 50 | 1.00 | 57 53 | 1.00 |

| 59 46 | 2.00 | 56 41 | 0.41 | |

+-----------+----------+-----------+----------+-----------+----------+

Of the facts collected in the course of this investigation, the

following may be mentioned as tending to support the opinion of a

fall of level.

_1st_, It is generally believed among the pilots of the Baltic,

that the sea has become shallower along the course which vessels

ordinarily follow; but, it is added, that this alteration is more

sensible in the places where the tide collects sand, detached

pebbles, and sea-weeds, or in those where the bottom is composed

of rocks. The same observation has been made in the neighbourhood

of some large towns and fisheries; for example, a hydrographic

chart made in 1771, gives six fathoms for the mean depth of the sea

opposite the harbour of Landskrona, whereas, in 1817, the sounding

line scarcely gave five fathoms at the same point.

_2d_, According to the oldest and most experienced pilots, the

straits which separate the numerous islets scattered along the coast

of Sweden, from Haarparanda to the frontiers of Norway, received

vessels that drew ten feet of water; now they are not practicable for

boats that draw more than two or three feet.

_3d_, The pilots further affirm, that, along the whole coast of

Bahusia, the bottom undergoes a diminution, which becomes sensible

every ten years in certain places, where it is composed of rocks.

Several other parts of the Baltic may be cited, in which a similar

change has been remarked.

M. C. P. Hallstrom, in an Appendix to Mr Bruncrona’s Memoir, gives

the following table of the diminution observed in the depth of the

waters of the Gulf of Bothnia.

+------------------------+------+------+------+----+------------------+

| | Mean marked in |

| | | Height of the water reobserved in |

+------------------------+------+------+------+----+------------------+

|Raholem, parish of | 1700 | 1750 | 2.05 | 50 | 4.10 |

| Lower Kalix, | | 1775 | 2.49 | 75 | 4.32 |

|Stor Rebben, parish | 1751 | 1785 | 1.70 | 34 | 5.00 |

| of Pitea, | | 1796 | 1.90 | 45 | 4.22 |

|Ratan, parish | 1749 | 1785 | 2.70 | 36 | 4.72 |

| of Bygdea, | | 1795 | 2.50 | 46 | 5.43 |

| | | 1819 | 2.60 | 70 | 3.47 |

| | 1774 | 1785 | 0.55 | 11 | 5.00 |

| | | 1795 | 1.16 | 21 | 5.52 |

| | | 1819 | 1.60 | 45 | 3.57 |

| | 1795 | 1819 | 0.65 | 24 | 2.71 |

|Rönnskat, on the | 1755 | 1797 | 1.70 | 42 | 4.05 |

| coast of Wasa, | | 1821 | 2.87 | 65 | 4.35 |

|Wargön, on the | 1755 | 1785 | 1.45 | 30 | 4.83 |

| coast of Wasa, | | 1797 | 1.69 | 42 | 4.02 |

| | | 1821 | 2.87 | 65 | 4.35 |

|Lögfrundet, near Sefle, | 1731 | 1785 | 2.90 | 54 | 5.37 |

| | | 1796 | 2.17 | 65 | 3.34 |

|Ulfon, in Angermanland, | 1795 | 1822 | 1.58 | 27 | 5.85 |

+------------------------+------+------+------+----+------------------+

It is not demonstrated that the numbers of the last column represent

exactly the lowering of the water in a century; for it has not

yet been sufficiently determined if this lowering be uniform,

or if it vary at different periods, and if it depend upon some

local circumstance,--upon the climate,--or upon the state of the

atmosphere. Nor is it properly established, that this lowering, which

becomes less perceptible from the north of the Baltic, until it

disappears entirely at the southern extremity, follows precisely the

same law of diminution as the latitude. It appears to be uniform in

the whole extent of the Gulf of Bothnia, and it rises about four feet

and a quarter in that region; at Calmar (lat. 57° 50′) it is only

two feet; but it is not yet known whether it decreases in a regular

manner between these two places.

Some authors consider the facts related by MM. Bruncrona and

Halstrom, as deciding the question in favour of those who believe in

a lowering of the level of the Baltic. The editor of the _Annalen der

Physik_[384] goes farther, and seems to consider it as confirming the

opinion of a general lowering of the level of the sea. In support

of this opinion, he adduces the traditions and observations of the

natives of Otaheite and of the Moluccas and Sunda Islands, regarding

the retreat of the sea in several parts of their coast. We are

disposed to stand neutral in this matter. The geographers who have

collected the greatest number of facts relating to the level of the

inland seas, and of the ocean in its various regions, find nearly as

many in favour of a rise as in favour of a fall of level. The very

distribution of contrary indications, leads them to believe in a

partial displacement of the mass of waters from one region towards

another, and even from the one side of an inland sea towards the

opposite side; a displacement which might be owing to fugitive or

more or less durable causes, such as a variation of temperature in

the polar regions, the action of winds and of currents, modified by

the greater or less quantity of water in the rivers that feed the

different basins, upon the sides opposed to their direction.

Are the facts contained in the memoir in question of a nature to

overthrow this opinion? They do not appear so to us. The two series

of observations which are adduced, only shew a fall upon the coasts

of Sweden, properly so called, that is to say, upon the west coast

of the Baltic, and the east coast of the Cattegat. Two observations

only have been made upon the coasts of Finland, toward the extremity

of the Gulf of Bothnia. These facts would perfectly accord with the

opinion of those who think that the currents determined from the

north to the south of the Baltic by the numerous streams which rush

into it, push the waters toward the south shore, that of Pomerania,

Mecklenbourg, and Holstein; and that the waters consequently gain

upon the land on this coast, as numerous historical facts attest,

while they retire along the northern shores, those of the Gulf of

Bothnia. Be this as it may, the question as to the constancy of the

level of the sea cannot be considered as decided, until a long series

of observations shall have been made upon authentic and perfectly

fixed measures erected upon all the shores of the different seas,

and of the different regions of the ocean. Those which have been

published in the Swedish Transactions furnish important documents for

this purpose; and similar ones should be begun to be collected in

other countries.

The phenomena exhibited by the waters of the Baltic engaged the

attention of two rival speculators, Playfair and Deluc; and their

views are often alluded to by geologists. We shall here state them in

their own words. Professor Playfair, in his well known and elegant

work on the Huttonian Theory of the Earth, has the following remarks:

“If we proceed further to the north, to the shores of the _Baltic_

for instance, we have undoubted evidence of a _change of level_ in

the same direction as on our own shores. The level of the sea has

been represented as lowering at so great a rate as _forty inches

in a century_. Celsius observed, that several rocks which are now

above the water, were not long ago sunken rocks, and dangerous

to navigators; and he took particular notice of one which, in

the year 1680, was on the surface of the water, and, in the

year 1731, was 20½ Swedish inches above it. From an inscription

near _Aspo_, in the lake _Melar_, which communicates with the

_Baltic_, engraved, as is supposed, about five centuries ago, the

level of the sea appears to have sunk in that time no less than

thirteen Swedish feet. All these facts, with many more which it is

unnecessary to enumerate, make the _gradual depression_, not only

of the _Baltic_, but of the whole _Northern Ocean_, a matter of

certainty.”--_Playfair’s Illustrations_, p. 445.

That indefatigable and accurate observer De Luc, has the following

commentary on the preceding passage.

“It would be unnecessary to mention even the two inconsiderable

facts above, if the _depression_ of the _level_ of the seas were

indeed a matter of certainty; for the best authenticated and the

least equivocal monuments of their change would then abound along

all their coasts. But proofs are every where found that such a

change is chimerical: they may be seen in all the vales coming

down to these seas, in which there is no perceptible impression of

the action of any waters but those of the land, and no vestige,

through their whole extent, of any permanent abode of those of the

sea; and proofs to the same effect are equally visible, along the

coasts of both these seas, in all the new lands which have been

formed on them, and which, being perfectly horizontal from the

point where their formation commenced, evidently show that the

water displaced by them has been constantly at the same level.

Hence appears the necessity of multiplying, as I have done, and

shall continue to do, for the subversion of a prejudice of such

ancient date, the examples of these peremptory proofs of its total

want of foundation. The rock mentioned by Celsius had probably been

observed by him at times when the level of the sea was different;

its known differences much exceeding the quantity here specified.

As for the inscription near Aspo, in a country abounding with lakes

as much as that which I have above described, if we are acquainted

with its terms, we should probably find it to be, like many which

I have seen in various places along the course of the Oder and the

Elbe, the monument of some extraordinary inundation of the land,

from the sudden melting of the snows in the mountains, at a time

when the water had been prevented from running off by an equally

extraordinary rise of the level of the sea; of which the effects on

low coasts may extend very far inland.

“By this conclusion, however, from these few facts, contrary to

every thing observed on the coasts of this sea, Mr Playfair thinks

himself authorised to maintain, that the gradual depression, not

only of the Baltic, but of the whole northern ocean, is a matter

of certainty; afterwards he examines merely which of these two

causes, the subsidence of the sea itself, or the elevation of the

land around it, agrees the best with the phenomena; and he decides

in favour of the latter, pointing out its accordance with the

Huttonian Theory.”

NOTE L, p. 119.

FOSSIL REMAINS OF THE HUMAN SPECIES.

From the observations of Werner and others, it appears, that the most

simple animals are those first met with in a mineralized state; that

these are succeeded by others more perfect, and which are contained

in newer formations; and that the most perfect, as quadrupeds, occur

only in the newest formation. But we naturally inquire, have no

remains of the human species been hitherto discovered in any of the

formations? Judging from the arrangement already mentioned, we would

naturally expect to meet with remains of man in the newest of the

formations. In the writings of ancient authors there are descriptions

of anthropolithi. In the year 1577, Fel. Plater, Professor of

Anatomy at Basle, described several fossil bones of the elephant

found at Lucerne, as those of a giant at least nineteen feet high.

The Lucernese were so perfectly satisfied with this discovery, that

they caused a painting to be made of the giant, as he must have

appeared when alive, assumed two such giants as the supporters of

the city arms, and had the painting hung in their public hall. The

Landvoigt Engel, not satisfied with this account of these remains,

maintained that our planet, before the creation of the present race

of men, was inhabited by fallen angels, and that these bones were

part of the skeletons of some of those miserable beings. Scheuchzer

published an engraving and description of a fossil human skeleton,

which proved to be a gigantic species of salamander or proteus.

Spallanzani describes a hill of fossil human bones in the island

of Cerigo; but this also is an error, as has been satisfactorily

shewn by Blumenbach. Lately, however, a fossil human skeleton has

been imported into this country from Guadaloupe, by Sir Alexander

Cochrane. It is imbedded in a block of calcareous stone, composed of

particles of limestone and coral, and which, like the aggregations

of shells found on the limestone coasts in some parts of this

country, has acquired a great degree of hardness. It is therefore an

instance of a fossil human petrifaction in an alluvial formation. The

engraving here given is copied from the Philosophical Transactions

of the Royal Society of London; and the following description of the

fossil remains it exhibits is that of Mr Konig, which has been drawn

up with great care.

“The situation of the skeleton in the block was so superficial,

that its presence in the rock on the coast had probably been

indicated by the projection of some of the more elevated parts of

the left fore-arm.

“The operation of laying the bones open to view, and of reducing

the superfluous length of the block at its extremities, being

performed with all the care which its excessive hardness, and the

relative softness of the bones, required, the skeleton exhibited

itself in the manner represented in the annexed drawing (Pl. I.)

with which my friend Mr Alexander has been so good as to illustrate

this description.

“The skull is wanting; a circumstance which is the more to be

regretted, as this characteristic part might possibly have thrown

some light on the subject under consideration, or would, at least,

have settled the question, whether the skeleton is that of a

Carib, who used to give the frontal bone of the head a particular

shape by compression, which had the effect of depressing the upper

and protruding the lower edge of the orbits, so as to make the

direction of their opening nearly upwards, or horizontal, instead

of vertical[385].

“The vertebræ of the neck were lost with the head. The bones of

the thorax bear all the marks of considerable concussion, and are

completely dislocated. The seven true ribs of the left side, though

their heads are not in connexion with the vertebræ, are complete;

but only three of the false ribs are observable. On the right side

only fragments of these bones are seen; but the upper part of the

seven true ribs of this side are found on the left, and might at

first sight be taken for the termination of the left ribs; as may

be seen in the drawing. The right ribs must therefore have been

violently broken and carried over to the left side, where, if this

mode of viewing the subject be correct, the sternum must likewise

lie concealed below the termination of the ribs. The small bone

dependent above the upper ribs of the left side, appears to be the

right clavicle. The right os humeri is lost; of the left nothing

remains except the condyles in connexion with the fore-arm, which

is in the state of pronation; the radius of this side exists nearly

in its full length, while of the ulna the lower part only remains,

which is considerably pushed upwards. Of the two bones of the right

fore-arm, the inferior terminations are seen. Both the rows of the

bones of the wrists are lost, but the whole metacarpus of the left

hand is displayed, together with part of the bones of the fingers:

the first joint of the fore-finger rests on the upper ridge of the

os pubis; the two others, detached from their metacarpal bones, are

propelled downwards, and situated at the inner side of the femur,

and below the foramen magnum ischii of this side. Vestiges of three

of the fingers of the right hand are likewise visible, considerably

below the lower portion of the fore-arm, and close to the upper

extremity of the femur. The vertebræ may be traced along the whole

length of the column, but are in no part of it well defined. Of the

os sacrum, the superior portion only is distinct: it is disunited

from the last vertebra and the ilium, and driven upwards. The

left os ilium is nearly complete, but shattered, and one of the

fragments depressed below the level of the rest; the ossa pubis,

though well defined, are gradually lost in the mass of the stone.

On the right side, the os innominatum is completely shattered, and

the fragments are sunk: but towards the acetabulum, part of its

internal cellular structure is discernible.

“The thigh-bones, and the bones of the leg of the right side, are

in good preservation, but being considerably turned outwards, the

fibula lies buried in the stone, and is not seen. The lower part

of the femur of this side is indicated only by a bony outline,

and appears to have been distended by the compact limestone that

fills the cavities both of the bones of the leg and thigh, and to

the expansion of which, these bones probably owe their present

shattered condition. The lower end of the left thigh-bone appears

to have been broken and lost in the operation of detaching the

block; the two bones of the leg, however, on this side, are nearly

complete; the tibia was split almost the whole of its length a

little below the external edge, and the fissure being filled up

with limestone, now presents itself as a dark-coloured straight

line. The portion of the stone which contained part of the bones

of the tarsus and metatarsus, was unfortunately broken; but the

separate fragments are preserved.

“The whole of the bones, when first laid bare, had a mouldering

appearance, and the hard surrounding stone could not be detached

without frequently injuring their surface; but after an exposure

for some days to the air, they acquired a considerable degree of

hardness. Sir H. Davy, who subjected a small portion of them to

chemical analysis, found that they contained part of their animal

matter, and all their phosphate of lime.”

NOTE M, p. 128.

_Account of the Displacement of that part of the Coast of the

Adriatic which is occupied by the Mouths of the Po._

That portion of the shore of the Adriatic which lies between the

lake, or rather _lagune_, of Commachio, and the _lagunes_ of Venice,

has undergone considerable alterations since ancient times, as is

attested by authors worthy of entire credit, and as is still evinced

by the actual state of the soil in the districts near the coast;

but it is impossible now to give any exact detail of the successive

progress of these changes, and more especially of their precise

measures during the ages which preceded the twelfth century of our

era.

We are, however, certain, that the city of _Hatria_, now called

_Adria_, was formerly situated on the edge of the coast; and by this

we attain a known fixed point upon the primitive shore, whence the

nearest part of the present coast, at the mouth of the Adige, is at

the distance of 25,000 _metres_[386]; and it will be seen in the

sequel, that the extreme point of the alluvial promontory formed by

the Po, is farther advanced into the sea than the mouth of the Adige

by nearly 10,000 metres[387].

The inhabitants of Adria have formed exaggerated pretensions, in

many respects, as to the high antiquity of their city, though it

is undeniably one of the most ancient in Italy, as it gave name to

the sea which once washed its walls. By some researches made in

its interior and its environs, a stratum of earth has been found

mixed with fragments of Etruscan pottery, and with nothing whatever

of Roman manufacture. Etruscan and Roman pottery are found mixed

together in a superior bed, on the top of which the vestiges of

a theatre have been discovered. Both of these beds are far below

the level of the present soil. I have seen at Adria very curious

collections, in which these remains of antiquity are separately

classed; and having, some years ago, observed to the viceroy, that

it would be of great importance, both to history and geology, to

make a thorough search into these buried remains at Adria, carefully

noticing the levels in comparison with the sea, both of the primitive

soil, and of the successive alluvial beds, his Highness entered

warmly into my ideas; but I know not whether these propositions have

been since carried into effect.

Following the coast, after leaving Hatria, which was situated at

the bottom of a small bay or gulf, we find to the south a branch of

the _Athesis_ or Adige, and of the _Fossa Philistina_, of which the

remaining trace corresponds to what might have been the Mincio and

Tartaro united, if the Po had still run to the south of Ferrara. We

next find the _Delta Venetum_, which seems to have occupied the place

where the lake or lagune of Commachio is now situated. This delta

was traversed by seven branches of the _Eridanus_ or Po, formerly

called also the _Vadis Padus_ or _Podincus_; which river, at the

diramification of these seven branches, and upon its left or northern

bank, had a city named _Trigoboli_, whose site could not be far from

where Ferrara now stands. Seven lakes, inclosed within this delta,

were called _Septem Maria_, and Hatria was sometimes denominated

_Urbs Septem Marium_, or the city of the seven seas or lakes.

Following the coast from Hatria to the northwards, we come to the

principal mouth of the _Athesis_ or Adige, formerly named _Fossa

Philistina_, and afterwards _Estuarium Altini_, an interior sea,

separated by a range of small islands from the Adriatic Gulf, in the

middle of which was a cluster of other small isles, called _Rialtum_,

and upon this archipelago the city of Venice is now seated. The

_Estuarium Altini_ is what is now called the Lagune of Venice, and no

longer communicates with the sea, except by five passages, the small

islands of the Archipelago having been united into a continuous dike.

To the east of the lagunes, and north from the city of Este, we find

the _Euganian_ mountains, or hills, forming, in the midst of a vast

alluvial plain, a remarkable isolated group of rounded hills, near

which spot the fable of the ancients supposes the fall of Phæton to

have taken place. Some writers have supposed that this fable may have

originated from the fall of some vast masses of inflamed matters near

the mouths of the Eridanus, that had been thrown up by a volcanic

explosion; and it is certain that abundance of volcanic products are

found in the neighbourhood of Padua and Verona.

The most ancient notices that I have been able to procure respecting

the situation of the shores of the Adriatic at the mouths of the Po,

only begin to be precise in the twelfth century. At that epoch the

whole waters of this river flowed to the south of Ferrara, in the _Po

de Volano_ and the _Po di Primaro_, branches which inclosed the space

occupied by the _lagune_ of Commachio. The two branches which were

next formed by an irruption of the waters of the Po to the north of

Ferraro, were named the river of _Corbola_, _Longola_, or _Mazzorno_,

and the river _Toi_. The former, and more northern of these, received

the _Tartaro_, or _canal bianco_, near the sea, and the latter was

joined at Ariano by another branch derived from the Po, called the

_Goro river_. The sea-coast was evidently directed from south to

north, at the distance of ten or eleven thousand _metres_[388] from

the meridian of Adria; and _Loreo_, to the north of _Mesola_, was

only about 2000 _metres_[389] from the coast.