rds, which feed on their inhabitants. At
Madeira, where recent shells are found near the coast at a considerable
height above the sea, the Gulls have been seen carrying up the living
patellae, just taken from the rocks.)

The occurrence of corals, and marine shells of recent appearance, at
considerable heights above the sea, on the coasts of New Holland, Timor,
and several other islands of the south, was justly considered by M. Peron
as demonstrating the former abode of the sea above the land; and very
naturally suggested an inquiry, as to the nature of the revolutions to
which this change of situation is to be ascribed.* From similar
appearances at Pulo Nias, one of the islands off the western coast of
Sumatra, Dr. Jack also was led to infer, that the surface of that island
must at one time have been the bed of the ocean; and after stating, that
by whatever means it obtained its present elevation, the transition must
have been effected with little violence or disturbance to the marine
productions at the surface,** he concludes, that the phenomena are in
favour of a HEAVING UP OF THE LAND, BY A FORCE FROM BENEATH. The probable
nature of this force is indicated most distinctly, if not demonstrated,
by the phenomena which attended the memorable earthquake of Chili, in
November, 1820,*** which was felt throughout a space of fifteen hundred
miles from north to south. For it is stated upon the clearest evidence,
that after formidable shocks of earthquake, repeated with little
interruption during the whole night of the 19th of November (and the
shocks were continued afterwards, at intervals, for several months) IT
APPEARED, on the morning of the 20th, THAT THE WHOLE LINE OF COAST FROM
NORTH TO SOUTH, TO A DISTANCE OF ABOUT ONE HUNDRED MILES, HAD BEEN RAISED
ABOVE ITS FORMER LEVEL. The alteration of level at Valparaiso was about
three feet; and some rocks were thus newly exposed, on which the
fishermen collected the scallop-shell fish, which was not known to exist
there before the earthquake. At Quintero the elevation was about four
feet. "When I went," the narrator adds, "to examine the coast, although
it was high-water, I found the ancient bed of the sea laid bare, and dry,
with beds of oysters, mussels, and other shells adhering to the rocks on
which they grew, the fish being all dead, and exhaling most offensive
effluvia. And I found good reason to believe that the coast had been
raised by earthquakes at former periods in a