pression, will be more appropriately discussed in the
following chapters, when the origin of subterranean heat is considered.
But I may remark here, that the rise of Scandinavia has naturally been
regarded as a very singular and scarcely credible phenomenon, because no
region on the globe has been more free within the times of authentic
history from violent earthquakes. In common, indeed, with our own island
and with almost every spot on the globe, some movements have been, at
different periods, experienced, both in Norway and Sweden. But some of
these, as for example during the Lisbon earthquake in 1755, may have
been mere vibrations or undulatory movements of the earth's crust
prolonged from a great distance. Others, however, have been sufficiently
local to indicate a source of disturbance immediately under the country
itself. Notwithstanding these shocks, Scandinavia has, upon the whole,
been as tranquil in modern times, and as free from subterranean
convulsions, as any region of equal extent on the globe. There is also
another circumstance which has made the change of level in Sweden appear
anomalous, and has for a long time caused the proofs of the fact to be
received with reluctance. Volcanic action, as we have seen, is usually
intermittent: and the variations of level to which it has given rise
have taken place by starts, not by a prolonged and insensible movement
similar to that experienced in Sweden. Yet, as we enlarge our experience
of modern changes, we discover instances in which the volcanic eruption,
the earthquake, and the permanent rise or fall of land, whether slow or
sudden, are all connected. The union of these various circumstances was
exemplified in the case of the temple of Serapis, described in the last
chapter, and we might derive other illustrations from the events of the
present century in South America.

Some writers, indeed, have imagined that there is geological evidence in
Norway, of the sudden upheaval of land to a considerable height at
successive periods, since the era when the sea was inhabited by the
living species of testacea. They point in proof to certain horizontal
lines of inland cliffs and sea-beaches containing recent shells at
various heights above the level of the sea.[741] But these appearances,
when truly interpreted, simply prove that there have been long pauses in
the process of upheaval or subsidence. They mark eras at which the level
of the sea has remained stationary for