The Earth's Shifting Crust by Charles Hapgood - wire of information

NORTH AMERICA AT THE POLE 225
by the assumption that they occurred in periods of the order
of a few centuries. But it is clear that these beaches cannot be
accounted for by a theory of postglacial upward adjustment,
should have taken
for there is no reason why this adjustment
place in jumps. It would have been, by its nature, a gradual
and even process.
6. Darwin's Rising Beachline in South America
A singularly impressive piece of evidence for a recent dis-
placement of the crust may be found in the journal of
Charles Darwin. Sir Archibald Geikie summarized Darwin's
findings thus:
On the west coast of South America, lines of raised terraces con-
taining recent shells have been traced by Darwin as proofs of a great
upheaval of that part of the globe in modern geological time. The
terraces are not quite horizontal but rise to the south. On the frontier
of Bolivia they occur from 60 to 80 feet above the existing sea-level,
but nearer the higher mass of the Chilean Andes they are found at
one thousand, and near Valparaiso at 1300 feet. That some of these
ancient sea margins belong to the human period was shown by Mr.
Darwin's discovery of shells with bones of birds, ears of maize, plaited
reeds and cotton thread, in some of the terraces opposite Callao
at a height of 85 feet. Raised beaches occur in New Zealand and indi-
cate a greater change of level in the southern than in the northern
end of the country. . . . (170:288).
If we attempt, by analyzing this evidence in accordance
with the assumptions of the displacement theory, to recon-
struct the course of events, we reach the following conclusions:
Since the evidence of human occupation is found at an
elevation of 85 feet, it seems reasonable to suppose that a fall
of the sea level of that extent may have occurred within his-
torical times. On the other hand, the continuously rising
strandline down the coast to Valparaiso, continued in New
Zealand, indicates a tilting of the earth's crust, involving.
South America and New Zealand, but not involving a general
change in the sea level. The magnitude of the upheaval sug-