Continents (says M. Agassiz) are only a patchwork formed by the
emergence and subsidence of land. These processes are still going on
in various parts of the globe. Where the shores of the continent are
abrupt and high, the effect produced may be slight, as in Norway and
Sweden, where a gradual elevation is going on without much alteration
in their outlines. But if the continent of North America were to be
depressed 1000 feet, nothing would remain of it except a few islands,
and any elevation would add vast tracts to its shores.
The west of Asia, comprising Palestine and the country about Ararat and
the Caspian Sea, is below the level of the ocean, and a rent in the
mountain-chains by which it is surrounded would transform it into a
vast gulf.
Meteorological Phenomena.