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LXVIII. Olservations suggested by the Geological Paper 

 of Mr. John Farey in last Month's Philosophical 

 Magazine. 



To Mr. Tilloch, — Sir, 

 J. he geological facts communicated by Mr. John Farey, in 

 his Piper commencing your last month's Number, are in, 

 an eminent degree instructive and interesting. It is only 

 from the itinerant geologist cautiously pacing over various 

 and extensive districts, and marking, with experienced in- 

 telligence, the wonderful phsenomena which every where 

 present themselves, that we can hope to obtain that accu- 

 mulation of practical facts which can alone guide us to a 

 sober and correct theory of the natural causes which, at re- 

 mote periods, have operated those stupendous changes which 

 are every where seen on and near the surface of our globe. 



The almost infinitely diversified exterior of the earth, and 

 its universal stratification, furnish the most interesting sub- 

 jects of inquiry ; and every natural inequality upon, and 

 every bed which reposes beneath, the surface is connected 

 with a history which well merits, and can only be developed 

 by, the researches of the strongest intellect. Indeed the 

 common mind is overpowered by the stunning magnitude 

 of geological facts; it shrinks from the bold but just con- 

 clusion, that the lowest stratum which the deepest excava- 

 tions into the earth have yet reached, was once itself a sur- 

 face, and that the highest peak of the loftiest stratified 

 mountain is only the remaining speck of a fast country 

 which once spread itself out on the same, and in many in- 

 stances much higher, level : the mountain deriving its pre- 

 sent form and exaltation, not from masses of matter suc- 

 cessively piled up by unknown means, but solely from th« 

 superior durability of its materials, which have withstood th<* 

 operation of those tiemendous agents, that have swept away 

 the surrounding country in which it was imbedded, leaving 

 the mountain itself a magnificent land gauge, by which to es- 

 timate the immensity of the tracts that have disappeared. The 

 formation of mountains in this way, and that of the exten- 

 sive strata of the earth, mutually elucidate each other. The 



Vol. 33. No. 133. May 1 .09. B b incal- 



