804- Geological Society. 



Ganges or the Missisippi, I have fancied that the earth was sliding 

 oft* from under my feet, and that it would soon pass away, like the 

 sand of an hour-glass, beneath the waters of the ocean. 



But are there no antagonist powers in nature to oppose these 

 mighty ravages no conservative principle to meet this vast de- 

 structive agency ? The forces of degradation very often of them- 

 selves produce their own limitation. The mountain torrent may 

 tear up the solid rock, and bear its fragments to the plain below : but 

 there its power is at an end, and the rolled fragments are left be- 

 hind to a new action of material elements. And what is true of a 

 single rock is true of a mountain chain ; and vast regions on the 

 surface of the earth, now only the monuments of spoliation and 

 waste, may hereafter rest secure under the defence of a thick vege- 

 table covering, and become a new scene of life and animation. 



It well deserves remark, that the destructive powers of nature 

 act only upon lines, while some of the grand principles of conserva- 

 tion act upon the whole surface of the land. By the processes of 

 vegetable life, an incalculable mass of solid matter is absorbed, 

 year after year, from the elastic and non-elastic fluids circulating 

 round the earth, and is then thrown down upon its surface. In 

 this single operation, there is a vast counterpoise to all the agents 

 of destruction. And the deltas of the Ganges and the Missisippi 

 are not solely formed at the expense of the solid materials of our 

 globe, but in part, and I believe also in a considerable part, by one 

 of the great conservative operations by which the elements are made 

 to return into themselves. 



Let me not, however, be misunderstood. I am not denying the 

 great processes of degradation so admirably described by Mr. Lyell; 

 but I contend that to estimate their whole effects is a problem of 

 such complexity, and so variable in its conditions, that its true na- 

 ture is not fairly placed before the mind by the mere enumeration of 

 a few extreme cases, or the description of a few striking instances. 

 If I were to speculate upon the method of solving this problem, I 

 should compare it to the summation of a converging series the 

 successive terms of degradation may be infinite, but the whole result 

 may still perhaps be limited and finite. 



It is impossible for me now to grapple with Mr. Lyell's whole 

 argument ; but it appears to me, that volcanic action is not the only 

 true conservative principle, and is rather to be regarded as the great 

 productive principle, by which the solid matter on the surface of the 

 globe has been lifted above the waters : and that the grand princi- 

 ples of conservation are to be looked for among the operations of the 

 elements themselves, assisted by the combined action of animal and 

 vegetable life. 



According to the principles of Mr. Lyell, the physical operations 

 now going on, are not only the type, but the measure of intensity of 

 the physical powers acting on the earth at all anterior periods : and 

 all we now see around us is only the last link in the great chain 

 of phenomena, arising out of a uniform causation, of which we can 

 trace no beginning, and of which we see no prospect of the end. 

 And in all this, there is much that is beautiful and true. For we all 



allow, 



