Volume 2

Principles of geology : being an inquiry how far the former changes of the earth's surface are referable to causes now in operation. / By Charles Lyell ...

  • Lyell, Charles, Sir, 1797-1875.
Date:
1834
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Principles of geology : being an inquiry how far the former changes of the earth's surface are referable to causes now in operation. / By Charles Lyell ... Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    .France, and with other supposed convulsions; but when we consider the annihilation of Heligoland and Northstrand, and the other terrific inundations in Jutland and Holstein since the Christian era, wherein thousands have perished, we need not resort to any such extraordinary catastrophes to account for the his- torical relation. The wave which in 163F devastated the whole coast of Jutland committed such havoc, that we must be cautious how we reject hastily the tra- ditions of like events on the coasts of Kent, Cornwall, Pembrokeshire, and Cardigan; for, however sceptical we may be as to the amount of territory destroyed, it is very possible that former inroads of the sea may have been greater on those shores than any witnessed in modern times. Straits of Gibraltar. — It is well known that a powerful current sets constantly from the Atlantic into the Mediterranean, and its influence extends along the whole southern borders of that sea, and even to the shores of Asia Minor. Captain Smyth found, during his survey, that the central current ran con- stantly at the rate of from three to six miles an hour eastward into the Mediterranean, the body of water being three miles and a half wide. But there are also two lateral currents — one on the European, and one on the African side; each of them about two miles and a half broad, and flowing at about the same rate as the central stream. These lateral currents ebb and flow with the tide, setting alternately into the Mediterranean and into the Atlantic. The excess of water constantly flowing in is very great, and there is only one cause to which this can be attributed, the loss of water in the Mediterranean by evaporation. J hat the level of this sea should be considerably de-