MODIFIED by COMPRESSION. 195 
ceeding each other from below, would at laft elevate the ftrata 
into their prefent fituation. 
Tue Huttonian Theory embraces fo wide a field, and com- 
prehends the laws of fo many powerful agents, exerting their 
influence in circumftances and in combinations hitherto un- 
tried, that many of its branches muft ftill remain in an unfi- 
nifhed ftate, and may long be expofed to partial and plaufible 
objections, after we are fatisfied with regard to its fundamen- 
tal doétrines. In the mean time I truft, that the obje@t of 
our purfuit has been accomplifhed, in a fatisfactory manner, 
by the fufion of limeftone under preffure. This fingle refult af- 
fords, I conceive, a ftrong prefumption in favour of the folu- 
tion which Dr Hutton has advanced of all the geological phe- 
nomena; for, the truth of the moft doubtful principle which 
he has affumed, has thus been eftablifhed by dire& experi- 
ment. 
APPEN- 
