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of ancient buildings; the first from those of the theatre of Statilius Taurus, and the last from those of the theatre of Balbus. This marine formation is not limited to the place now described; but constitutes a chain of low hills round Rome, extending from the northward towards Acqua Traversa, and from the west towards Ostia and Civita Vecchia. It forms part, therefore, of the general deposit, which reaches from the base of the Apennines to the Mediterranean on on one side, and to the Adriatic on the other; and Signor Brocchi concludes that the same material forms the foundation of all the hills of Rome.

Emanations of hydrogen gas are not uncommon along the banks of the Tiber, from the Porto di Ripetta to the Penna. This gas accurately analyzed, was found by Professor Molichini to consist of a mixture of carburetted hydrogen with carbonic. and azotic gases. The same occurs near the Milvian bridge, as also in the districts that surround Rome; and is properly presumed to proceed from considerable depths in the earth.

The bones of elephants have been found in the Pincio, together with large teeth, as well as in other plates about Rome. Various marine shells have also been discovered. Signor Brocchi considers that the latter are not in their places, but have been brought for various purposes in ancient times; and he seems also somewhat incredulous respecting the bones.

In concluding his remarks on this subject, he repeats his unwillingness to admit that the volcanic substances found in the plain of Rome could have been produced by any of the neighbouring mountains. The nearest are the Tusculan and Alban hills; but he finds their product so different, that he considers it impossible that they should have been the sources of the productions under review. Because he finds no pumice in these mountains, and because they abound in preperino, which is very rare in Rome, while they contain more of the indurated tufa which is there so abundant, he concludes that these several productions mark distinct sources. Whatever the truth may be, we consider this reasoning as very inconclusive. The antiquity of all these tracts is confessedly very high; and when we consider the changes which the world's surface has undergone, and is daily undergoing, from the ordinary causes of waste; changes of which all the country under review contains so many proofs, we do not think we can ever be warranted in drawing conclusions from such a negative species of evidence. But we shall now put an end to our remarks on this work; trusting that we have done ample justice to the learned and industrious author, and that we have also given our readers a

clearer insight into the general structure and peculiarities of the most interesting portion of Italy, than they could have derived from the work itself.

Yet a few remarks may be useful, for the purpose of giving a more perfect view of the value of the Italian phenomena in the science of geology. The positions of strata, once submarine, and now found at enormous elevations above the level of the ocean, prove that the solid matter of the earth has undergone great revolutions, and that the surface has been subjected to considerable change of place, in consequence of violent actions, since the creation, of marine animals and vegetables, at least. The proofs of violence are found in the fractures and displacements of the strata. The proofs of relative date are found in the presence of marine shells in the great mass of the secondary strata, and of vegetables in the coal series, and in other rocks. These strata must have been elevated by a subjacent force; not only because of these marks of violence, but on account of the height to which they now reach beyond the level of the ocean. In the Andes, they are found at about 13,000 perpendicular feet. The sea could not have subsided from this height, because there is no place to which it can have retreated. It could not have been destroyed or annihilated, because nothing is destroyed. There can have been no partial elevation at that particular point, because it is opposed to the laws of hydrostatics.

The elevation of rocks may therefore be considered as a fact demonstrated ab absurdo. It remains to prove it by direct arguments.

The coral islands of the South Pacific are formed by the coral polypi. It is the instinct of these animals to erect their works, or lithophyte vegetation, from the bottom of the sea, till it reaches the surface. Sometimes they work in straight or slightly curved lines, determined by the form of the submarine land or hills. On these they form mountain ridges, as the great reef of New Holland, extending for a thousand miles, may be safely called. On other occasions they work in circles or ovals. It is in this way that most of the islands and groups have been formed. To windward, the reefs are perpendicular, so that a vessel strikes in a moment from deep soundings. To leeward, they shelve, and thus a circular reef gradually fills towards the middle; but generally so as to have a vacuity in the centre. When the animal has reached the surface of the water, it can work no higher, and thus the vertical height of the living reef can be no greater than the difference between high and low water, at low tides. Such a reef could never be an inhabited

island. But the effect of the waves is to break the coral at the surface, and to throw it up in a bank, where it becomes consolidated, so as to form a species of strata, thus increasing the height of the rock or land, to an altitude of about ten or twelve feet. Thus surmounting the sea, it arrests the floating seeds of pandanus, cocoa, and other plants. Birds add seeds, and manure and soil, as do sea weeds and shell fish; and it becomes a green island, having a lake in the middle, where the circle remained incomplete. Last of all, comes Man.

Such are the flat coral islands. But many of them are so high as to range to three hundred feet. It is plain that the ocean could not have stood thus high, without inundating a large portion of the habitable globe. All Bengal must have been submerged in such a case, These have been elevated by submarine forces.

The proof is at hand, and the cause also. Some of the coral islands contain a central volcanic mountain. In this case, the coral, flat or horizontal in other cases, is inclined to the hill. The same cause which elevated these, has elevated those where the volcanic hill is not visible. The subjacent and submarine soil has been protruded, carrying the coral before it, but the vol canic matter has only appeared at one point.

We have described these phenomena in some detail, because they have been overlooked by all geologists and navigators, and because they offer ocular proof of geological elevation. But parallel appearances occur in the African volcanic islands, and on Etna; that is, marine strata lying on the sides of the volcanic mass, at an elevation above the sea.

These phenomena also are recent. They may almost be said to be passing before our eyes. They illustrate the formation of Italy, and Italy itself is the next in the order of proofs of elevation. But the period is more ancient. It has long passed away. Yet it is within the period of marine fishes; because, as we have shown, these are found at great elevations undisturbed, and therefore untransported. Italy has been elevated from the bottom of the sea, by volcanic action. That action is proved; because the materials are volcanic, and because the fires still remain, the relics of former ones.

The power of this agent towards producing these effects is indisputable, and such powers might also have elevated any continent. The central ridge of America is, like Italy, volcanic; and the same causes have probably produced the same effects. The phænomena are precisely analogous, if not identical.

It only remains to shew how similar causes might have acted in

elevating continents where the rocks are not volcanic, and where there are no volcanoes. It is now agreed that trap and granite are the produce of igneous fusion. Quoad hoc, therefore, they are volcanic, incapable of producing the desired effects. Where they occur, the strata occupy the same positions relatively to them, which they do to volcanic rocks, and present the same phænomena of fracture and disturbance. Where a train of

effects are similar, and where analogous causes are present, we have right, in philosophy, to conclude that in both cases, those causes have produced those effects, and that the actions, which we have not seen, were the same as those we have witnessed.

Thus there is a train of phænomena, of which Italy forms a sort of middle term, demonstrative of the action of elevating forces, and demonstrating also that these are to be sought in subterranean fires.

This subject we shall pursue no further. It would lead too far. It is the conclusion which Signor Brocchi ought to have drawn, but which he could not see. To accumulate facts

without general principles, to be unable to ascend from the particular to the generic, and thus to be incapable of entering on the philosophical pathway of causes, is but a low office in science. Yet it is something to narrate them, fairly, and without prejudice; or at least, so to describe them that others shall be able, without fear of being misled, to deduce those corollaries, and to establish those principles which the observer has not seen. This merit we gladly allow to Signor Brocchi.

We have only to add that the same work contains an Essay on the Malaria of Rome. But as this is a subject which demands a separate review, we propose to examine it in our next number.

The Book of the Church. By ROBERT SOUTHEY. 2 Vols. pp. 992. Price 17. 4s, Murray. London. 1824.

8vo.

"THERE is a time for all things," said Solomon; but we are satisfied, that he never contemplated a time for meagre motive and paltry performance-a time for a Book of the Church. If he did, he was not the Solomon we took him for.

This is a Laureate of all trades-war and divinity, navy and army, church and state, Waterloo and Wat Tyler, Wellington and Roderic the Goth, Admiral Nelson and the Abipones, John Wesley and Joan the Pucelle. Such are among the omniana that Keswick showers down with unmitigated ferocity on an unoffending world.

To" watch for the wind that blows," says an older writer than Mr. Southey, and to be ready for every wind, that is the thing which gives "the sailor fair weather wherever he goes." What spirit of a weathercock has transmigrated into our favourite bard, politician, royalist, republican, and reviewer, we may not tell. But no man alive knows the turns of the wind half so sensitively. Nelson dies-a midshipman's duodecimo! the quartos are anticipated. Portugal is at odds with Brazila History of Brazil, ready to go off with the first gun, two quartos! Wellington is in Spain-Don Espriella! The great Captain is reposing upon his laurels-the Peninsular War! The Laureateship is vacant-a Poem and a Dedication exquisitely timed, and fired point blank into the proper quarter! The Methodists are an ungleaned field-a Life of their apostle! Some old women have thought that the kibe of the Church has been trodden on-the Book of the Church, by way of embrocation. Thus all times and tastes are provided for with a commercial keenness equally dexterous, practised, and profitable. This it is to have been born at a sea-port. This it is that makes the fortune of the trader on the Guinea shore: cast gunpowder for the slave-merchant, Birmingham silver for King Joe, glass jewellery for the ladies of the haram, and Moses's gross of green spectacles for the general population.

Thus it is, to take a dearer and more domestic emblem, that the Jew-boy stocks himself with oranges for the winter theatres; valentines for February; sixpenny knives for the tender season, when young gentlemen carve young ladies' names on trees and summer-houses; and fire-works for the fifth of November:

VOL. I. NO. I.

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