bearing on theoretical Speculations. 189 



the dislocations of the strata and all the probable ignigenous 

 products have resulted from volcanos acting precisely with 

 the same energy and under the same circumstances as at pre- 

 sent ; and that it would not be in the least improbable that all 

 these phenomena should be reproduced to-morrow. I, econtra, 

 have endeavoured, by a tolerably detailed examination of 

 those phenomena, to show, that the only fair inference from 

 them is the direct contradictory of the above proposition ; and 

 that they universally indicate forces acting most violently in 

 the earliest epochs, but gradually decreasing in intensity 

 through the subsequent periods : so that the actual state of the 

 planet is one of comparative repose, the present convulsions 

 which partially affect its surface being only, as a French 

 writer has observed, the last faint struggles of the expiring 

 giants. 



Now as to the second head, of Aqueous Action, &c., we find 

 in several geological positions, but most especially and most 

 generally as a superficial covering indifferently investing every 

 other formation, vast accumulations of gravel, evidently con- 

 sisting of debris originally torn from the rocky strata of those 

 formations, and subsequently rounded by attrition under water. 

 We also find the strata themselves traversed by breaches and 

 ploughed by deep furrows, so that the surface has been not 

 unaptly compared to a block of stratified marble irregularly 

 cut into by a graver's tool. Now, associating together these 

 fragmented ruins and yawning breaches, it is as natural to refer 

 them to the same cause, as if we should notice a breach in a? 

 wall regularly constructed of masonry, and observe its loosened 

 and removed blocks piled beneath it; but what is that cause? 

 what is the graver's tool which has thus sculptured the face of 

 our planet? Mr. Lyell says that the streamlets actually flow- 

 ing through our valleys are adequate to account for all, if we 

 will but throw all prejudice aside, and allow a sufficient num-' 

 ber of millions (I should rather say iiifinit-illions) of ages 

 since their continued action. This may be called the Fluvial 

 theory ; or more properly, the Atmospheric theory: for it evi- 

 dently amounts to this, " that the atmospherical waters fall- 

 ing on any given district and draining off from it are adequate 

 to produce, by their continued action, all the phsenomena of 

 water-worn gravel and excavation which we observe in that 

 tract." Now it will be my endeavour to show, from the ar- 

 rangement and investigation of those phsenomena, that the at- 

 mospheric drainage, even if continued for ever and a day (that 

 with the liberality of common parlance I may allow all the 

 time I can), is altogether incapable of accounting for them; 



and 



