LAMARCE’S WORK IN GEOLOGY IOI 
2. Why does the sea constantly occupy a basin 
within the limits which contain it, and there separate 
the dry parts of the surface of the globe always pro- 
jecting above it? 
3. Has the ocean basin always existed where we 
actually see it, and if we find proofs of the sojourn 
of the sea in places where it no longer remains, by 
what cause was it found there, and why is it no longer 
there 
4. What influence have living bodies exerted on 
the substances found on the surface of the earth and 
which compose the crust which invests it, and what 
are the general results of this influence ? 
Lamarck then disclaims any intentions of framing 
brilliant hypotheses based on supposititious princi- 
ples, but nevertheless, as we shall see, he falls into this 
same error, and like others of his period makes some 
preposterous hypotheses, though these are far less so 
than those of Cuvier’s Descours. He distinguishes 
between the action of rivers or of fresh-water cur- 
rents, torrents, storms, the melting of snow, and the 
work of the ocean. The rivers wear away and bear 
materials from the highlands to the lowlands, so that 
the plains are gradually elevated; ravines form and 
become immense valleys, and their sides form ele- 
vated crests and pass into mountains ranges. 
He brings out and emphasizes the fact, now so 
well known, that the erosive action of rain and rivers 
has formed mountains of a certain class. 
“Tt is then evident to me, that every mountain 
which is not the result of a volcanic irruption or of 
some local catastrophe, has been carved out froma 
plain, where its mass is gradually formed, and was a 
