AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 197 



and to examine the wonderful chemical agencies 

 that have been in operation in the great laboratory 

 of nature, in order to prepare our metallic and 

 mineral treasures ; still, the last great physical 

 causes which have operated on the face of the 

 globe, and adapted it for the habitation of man, 

 deserve our attention in an equal, if not more 

 pre-eminent degree. 



It is to this last and finishing stroke of the 

 Creator, that the earth chiefly owes its present 

 arrangement of land and water, its beautiful variety 

 of hill and dale, and its different kinds of soils for 

 the support and nourishment of the vegetable 

 kingdom — that wondrous agent for the conversion 

 of brute into organic matter, which fits it for 

 food for the use of the animal creation, and man 

 himself. 



At present, it is not intended to go into the 

 numerous advantages to mankind which the various 

 deposits of Drift afford in dry soils, beds of brick- 

 clay, and surface springs of water ; I shall confine 

 myself to the consideration of the formation of 

 soils for the support and nourishment of plants. 



In the memoirs before alluded to, it was shown 



