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have continued in its original ftate, or nearly fo, its particles 

 having acquired only that degree of confiftence which we 

 obferve in clays and earths. That the foil, however, receives 

 an increafe from fome fpecies of ftones that moulder by expo- 

 fure to the air cannot be denied, but there is no proof that 

 all foil has arifen from decompofition. He next tells \is that 

 this foil is neceflarily wafhed away by the continual circulation 

 of water running from mountains to the fea. Here are two fup- 

 pofitions, neither of which is grounded on fads. Soil is not 

 conftantly carried av/ay by the water, even from mountains, as 

 Mr. De Luc has clearly fhewn in his nineteenth and twentieth 

 letters to the Queen*; and if it were, it would be depofited 

 on the plains, for there are plains as well as mountains on the 

 dry parts of our globe. All water does not flow into the fea ; 

 much of it is carried off by evaporation. Moft of the earth 

 fwept off by rivers is depofited at their mouths ; of that which 

 is carried into the fea, much, if not all, i$ rejeded on the 

 ihore. Neither has the fea that deftrudive adion on the fliores 

 univerfally that Buffon and others have fuppofed. This is 

 evident by infpeding the bafaltic pillars on the coaft of Antrim ; 

 the angles of fuch of thefe as are and have been expofed to the 

 waves, perhaps for fome thoufand years, are juft as fliarp as 

 thofe of fuch pillars as are placed far beyond their reach. 



Hgncu 



* Thefe letters and feveral other papers of this excellent philofopher in Rozier's 

 Journal contain much ufeful information on geological fubjeas. But unhappily it 

 muft be purchafed by a great expence of time. 



