BEACHES, llAtsED. Modern geology teaches that the frame of the land is liable to risings and depressions, even in the present age. Several districts in different parts of the world have been raised, in consequence of earthquakes, within time remembrance of the present generation. There is good proof that certain parts of eastern Sweden, bor dering on the gulf of Bothnia, have been elevated about. 3 ft. within the last hundred years. These facts prepare us to learn that, around the British islands, and in other parts of the earth, there are tracts of ground at various elevations above the present sea level, which have evidently been sea-beaches at a former time. The evidences consist of— first, the levelness of the ground in the general direction of the present shores over con siderable spaces; second, the alternating beds of sand and gravel, such as we see com posing the present B.; and, third, the presence of marine shells, which, in our country. are generally of species now living in the boreal seas. There are also what may be called terraces of erosion—indentations made in a rocky coast by the lip of the sea in ancient times—usually consisting of a flat platform presenting patches of gravel, and of a back ing wall or sea-cliff, the latter sometimes penetrated with deep caves. In Scotland, there
is a very decided terrace of erosion all round the bold coasts of the w. Highlands and Western islands, at an elevation of about 25 ft. above the level of the similar, but scarcely so well-marked indentation which the sea is now making. In Lapland, there is a similar terrace, but stooping from 220 to 85 ft. in the course of 30 miles. There is also a clear and well-marked terrace of the same kind, at about 520 ft. above the present sea level, behind Trondhjem in Norway. The whole subject is treated elaborately in Ancient Sea-ma riling, by H. Chambers, 1848, where a series of gravelly terraces are described as existing in Scotland at various heights above the sea, telling of an uprise of the frame of the land in stages, and indicating by their uniformity of level that this movement was equable.