The configuration of the earth has altered to a degree incredible to any but those observant of such changes. Winchell has tabulated some of these undulatory movements that have taken place along the Atlantic shore line of the American continent and elsewhere. “At St. Augustine, in Florida, the stumps of cedar trees stand beneath the hard beach shell-rock, immersed in water at the lowest tides. Some of the sounds upon the coast of North Carolina, which have been navigable within the memory of living sea-captains, are now impassable bars, or emerging sand-flats. Along the coast of New Jersey the sea has encroached, within sixty years, upon the sites of former habitations, and entire forests have been prostrated by the inundation. In the harbor of Nantucket the upright stumps of trees are found eight feet below the lowest tide, with their roots still buried in their native soil.” Similar ruins of ancient submarine forests occur on Martha’s Vineyard, and on the north side of Cape Cod, and again at Portland. In the region of the Saint Croix River, separating Maine from New Brunswick, the coast has been raised, carrying deposits of recent shells and sea-weeds, in one instance, to the height of twenty-eight feet above the present surface of the sea. The island of Grand Manan, off the mouth of the Saint Croix River, is slowly rotating on an axis, so that, while the south side is gradually dipping beneath the waves, the north is lifted into high bluffs. Near the River St. John is an area of twenty square miles containing marine shells and plants recently elevated from the sea. One hundred and fifty miles east of this place, the shore is experiencing a subsidence.
The north side of Nova Scotia is sinking, while the south is rising, insomuch that breakers now appear off the southern coast in places safely navigable in years gone by. The ancient city of Louisburg, on the island of Cape Breton, is another testimony to the uneasy condition of the land. This place was once the stronghold of France in America, and one of the finest harbors in the world. It was well fortified and had a population of twenty thousand souls within its walls.
It was destroyed during the French and Indian War, and the inhabitants dispersed, but Nature had herself ordained its abandonment. The rock on which the brave General Wolfe landed has nearly disappeared. The sea now flows within the walls of the city, and sites once inhabited have become the ocean’s bed. In 1822, the entire coast of Chili was elevated to a height varying from two to seven feet, an area equal to that of New England and New York, having been lifted up bodily. In 1831, an island, since called Graham’s Island, sprang from the bed of the Mediterranean between Sicily and the site of ancient Carthage. The island is now but a sunken reef. Another island, as recently as 1866, rose from the bottom of the Grecian Archipelago, before the very eyes of the American Consul, Mr. Chanfield, bearing upon its slimy back fragments of wrecks that had been sunken in the little harbor of Santorin.
“An island in the Missouri River, broken into fragments and washed away, was the unusual spectacle witnessed by the people of Atchison, Kansas. For years an island of 600 or 700 acres has been one of the attractions of Atchison. It was as fertile as a garden, and was known all over the West for the excellence of the celery, asparagus, sweet potatoes and melons it produced. It had the appearance of a veritable oasis in a desert, and its green shrubbery, generous shade trees, velvet lawns, and cool spring, were a perpetual joy. Upon this island a shooting club had a home, and the base-ball enthusiasts had their grounds, and grandstand. Altogether, it was a most pleasant resort. In a single night this island was dissolved into fragments.
“The big June rise in the Missouri River struck it, and to-day it is only a reminiscence. What was Kansas’s loss, however, was Missouri’s gain. With the obliteration of the island the current left the Missouri shore and struck hard against the Kansas bluffs. The result of this is that the Missouri banner has been planted a mile westward, and hundreds of acres of rich bottom land have been added to its domain, while Kansas mourns the loss of its green island and pleasant park.”
The wonderful changes going on in the configuration of England are recorded in a well-known London paper (Tit-Bits) in the following words:
“Is England disappearing? Readers may pucker up their lips and ejaculate ‘Absurd!’ but facts, nevertheless, remain and show pretty clearly that England is positively disappearing, and may in years to come be marked on the map as a vanished isle.
“On the coast the sea is encroaching upon the land at an astonishing rate. Seaside towns and villages, holiday resorts, are gradually being eaten up and the inhabitants driven inland. In many parts the sea runs up on a beach which was once far inland. In other cases churches which were at one time far from the sea now stand at the edge of cliffs and have the sea lapping almost at their doors.
“The Goodwin sands, about five miles off the coast of Kent, were at one time a portion of the mainland itself and the property of Earl Goodwin. But the sea has swallowed them up.
“The coast of Norfolk is minus three villages which it once possessed—Shipden, Eccles, and Wimpwell—all of which have been taken into the arms of the encroaching ocean. The Cromer of to-day stands miles inland of the original Cromer.