and Volcanic Substances. 209 
whole of them, such an a aspect ; such a fragmentous 
and pasty texture—and so many marks of the bottom of the 
ocean having been violently torn up, from the frequent mix- 
ture of oceanic remains in these strata, that there can be no 
reasonable cause of doubt, as to the mode in which they 
have been formed. 
The torrents and inundations that have thus mingled the 
earth and the water, are fairly ascribable to convulsions in 
the strata that support the ocean ; the effect of subterranean 
fires beneath: because such convulsions have been re- 
peatedly observed as the consequence of earthquakes and 
volcanoes on the coasts and in the islands of the Mediterra- 
nean, and elsewh re. 
But 
ubstances din water, being 
ina oe sents epee to their mass, in sainaee own, as- 
sume an horisontel deposition—a deposition conformable to 
the strata on which the soft mass is thus gradually deposit- 
ed. We see this, in the stratified rocks of the globe; and 
this is a known law of the deposition of dust and fragments 
from aqueous suspension. The direction of these deposi- 
tions, will be regulated by the force and direction of the in- 
undation, which will also modify the effect of the specific 
gravity of the substances thus hurried on. A mixture of 
sand and pebbles with water, in an inclined trough, will 
somanyag illustrate the form and character of such depos- 
 adly. Torrents washing away the adjacent soil, and ice- 
floods enveloping large masses, will nearly account for, the 
boulder stones, and other masses out of place that are so 
frequently found: suchas the boulder stones on the 
Rane Geol. Essay, 170—the boulders of Limestone “ 
gre in Ireland, and of granite in the Ohio: the mas- 
ses out of place observed by De Luc and others in the st 
and on Jura, probably arise from these causes. 
must recur to-them to account for the rock masses on ee 
main land of Scotland, similar to those found on the islands 
in the immediate vicinity, appears from Dr. M’Culloch’s 
statements. But we must ths me more light ere we ob- 
Gin a satisfactory explanatio 
- Torrents such as these, will coun: for the long and 
Tow algo of surface ml nec and aie vl 
