Origin of Stratified RocJcs. 9 



their works, and they will most certainly carry away every vestige of the 

 land that now rises above the level of the tide. 



The bottom of the ocean is thus constantly receiving new layers of 

 sediment consisting of the pasty ruins of all countries, commingled with the 

 shells of mollusca — the bones of vertebrated animals — the remains of man — 

 works of art — whole cargoes of merchandize — wrecks of ships, and every 

 other thing, whether organic or inorganic, that can be named. One of 

 Shakespeare's characters dreamed that he was drowned, and while beneath 

 the waters he — 



Saw a thousand fearful wrecks ; 

 A thousand men that fishes gnawed upon, 

 Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl — 

 Inestimable stones, unvahied jewels 

 All scattered in ihe bottom of the sea, 

 Some lay in dead men's skulls, and in those holes 

 Where eyes did once inhabit, there were crept 

 (As 'twere in scorn of eyes,) reflecting gems 

 That woo'd the slimy bottom of the deep, 

 And mocked the dead bones that lay scattered by.* 



The rate at which the bottom of the ocean gains in thickness is not 

 known, perhaps one foot jipon an average in a hundred years would be a 

 large allowance. In certain localities, such as near the mouths of great 

 rivers, the growth may be much more rapid, in other regions less ; but 

 everywhere there is a gradual increase, so that the deposit of to-day, with 

 its imbedded shells, bones, and wrecks, will, in a thousand years, no longer 

 lie upon the bottom but be buried many feet beneath. 



By the ordinary operations of nature, then, such as the wasting away of 

 the land and the spreading out of its ruins over the bottom by the currents, 

 the cavity of the ocean must be filling up, and in five millions of years 

 hence at the rate of one foot in a century the most profound depths of the 

 Atlantic will be full ; the thickness of the deposit would be between eight 

 and nine miles. The bones of the poor sailor that sink during the present 

 year would then have miles of stratified rocks heaped upon them. "What 

 changes may take place in the world in five millions of years, we know not, 

 but this much is certain, that should all the present races of animated things 

 become extinct within the next few centuries, at tlie end of the vast period 

 we have supposed, their remains must, at least some of them, lie far down in 

 the earths crust. 



Now what we have conjectured as possible for the future, geology 

 proves to have actually taken place during the past. In all countries we 

 find the cavities of ancient oceans, long since filled to the brim by suc- 

 cessive layers of sediment, which, owing to the action of some petrifying 

 cause, has been converted into stone and constitutes the stratified rocks. In 

 Wales, the Government Officers emploj^ed upon the Geological Survey, have 

 ascertained that the depth of one of tliose ancient hollows was nearly ten 

 miles— it is now full. In North America another prodigious sheet of marine 

 accummulations covers, almost without a break, one fourth of the continent. 

 This great bed extends into Canada in two places, its thickness near its 



* Richard III., Scene 4th. 



