[ 59 ] 



" fliall comprehend almoil the whole." This excluded part 

 confifts of mountains and mafles of granite. And yet mofl: 

 geologlfts look on this evcluded fubftance as forming by far the 

 greater part of the globe, all other parts being commonly found 

 to reft upon it *. 



■ Having thxis fotind the greater part, if not the whole of the 

 folid land, to have been originally compofed at the bottom of the 

 fea our author proceeds to examine, how fuch continents as we 

 now have could be eroded above its level ; he ftiews that no 

 motion of the fea could produce that effedl ; or if it could, yet 

 fiich a continent could not produce mafles of folid marble and 

 Othet- minerals in a ftate very different from that in which they 

 were originally coUedled. " Confequently, befides an operation 

 •^ by which the earth at the bottom of the fea fliould be con- 

 " verted into elevated land, a confoliduting power is required, 

 " by which the loofe materials fhould be formed into mafles of 

 " the moft perfed folidity ; and, if this were underftood, 

 •*^ we might poflibly become acquainted with the power that 

 " elevated our continents above the level of the waters." Of 

 this confolidating power he treats in the fecond part of his 

 eflay. 



Beginning his fecond part, he reafons thus, p. 225. 

 " There are juft two ways b)^ which porous and fprtngy bodies 

 " may be cdnfolidated into mafles of a natural fhape and 



H 2 " regular 



;■ , - ... .1 A' 3i, ;^ 



* Hoffm. in Berg. Kalend. 197. Voight. 7. Gerhard, Bergman, Pallas, &c. 



