Geological Travels in the North of Europe, &c. ^ b 



these primordial stones and gravel were projectedyrow he~ 

 neath, by the explosions t*f gases and torrents of water, 

 that the descending masses of strata forced from the ca- 

 verns previously existing under them, at the time that the 

 dislocations of the strata and formation of mountains, hills 

 and valleys, by the subsidences and angular motions of the 

 strata, took place, according to the theory of M.De Luc: who, 

 at page 61 of the present volume, speaks of " certain circular 

 ridges of hills, which if seen from a distance by those un- 

 acquainted with their nature, might be taken for the bases 

 or circumferences of large volcanic cones, which had fallen 

 in ;" as existing along the course of the Rhine, covered by 

 such primordial blocks. I naturally expected, I say, that 

 many similar spot9 would have been pointed out, in the 

 vast tract of gravel and holders in the north of Europe^ 

 which lie has so well described in this volume. 



At pages 123, 127, 129, 277, &c. my author speaks of 

 flints, which had belonged to the chalk strata, as constitut- 

 ing part of the gravel, and considers such, as the remains 

 or dissolved strata of chalk ; but wherever he speaks of the 

 undisturbed strata, below the gravel and holders, in his 

 route on the south side of the Baltic, they are uniformly 

 said to be of sand, clay, and marie, and seem to me to 

 answer either to the upper part of the Paris strata, de- 

 scribed in your 35th volume, p. 5TJ, &c. or to strata cover- 

 ing them, and answering to some that cover the chalk in 

 England, and in the Netherlands also, according to the 

 opinion of your correspondent, Mr. Farey, p. 131 of your 

 £ame volume. 



And here it may be proper to remark, that M. De Luc^ 

 in the volume before me, p. 248 and 250, speaks, on the 

 authority of M. Von Willich, of similar strata of sand and 

 clay in the island of Rugeu in the Baltic, as being, if I 

 rightly understand hirp, upper strata to the cliffs of chalk, 

 with layers of flints and marine bodies, £00 and even 360^ 

 feet high, in the peninsulas of Wittow apd Jasmund, in 

 the north part of that island : and at page 387, on the 

 authority of M. Harrz, he mentions, cliffs or strata of 

 chalk and Hints in Hedding in the island of Zeland, and 

 also in the promontories of Maglebye and Mandemark in 

 the island of Moen or Mona belonging to Denmark : all 

 of which seem, I think, to c^iflrm Mr. Farcy's opinion 

 above referred to, viz. that the ehalk strata (instead of be- 

 ing dissolved) still underlay all the country, across which 

 M. De Luc travelled : the coal and sandstone strata in the 

 island of Bornbolm (p. 387), prob&blv answering;, to those 



A3 of 



