An Inquiry into Terrestrial P'i£enome?m, ^c. 137 



of displaying a little erudition freqiienlly retard the propa- 

 gation ot the most impurtaiu Tacts. 



XX. j4n Inquiry into the Terrestrial Phcvnomena produced 

 by the ^Jction nf the Ocean. By JoH^I Carr, Esq., of 

 Manchester. — No. II. 



To Mr. Tilhch. 



Sir, -L he several ("acts and reasoning in my two last.papers 

 have been chiefly dirccied to show, that the exterior ot our 

 earth has been moulded into all its infinite variety ot ine- 

 quality by the sole action of moving water; and I aat now 

 to inquire into those internal characters which are nuire 

 imtTiediately the object of geological research, and which 

 have doubtless been tHlcled by the same plastic and potent 

 agency. 



The two most inexplicable |>lisenome; a in gcoloev, and 

 which, beyond all others, have leaipied the inquirer to wan- 

 der out of the limits of natural oj elation into hypolhelical 

 regions of invention and surmise, are the various inclina- 

 tions of the strata from horizor.tal up to vertical, and the 

 etev;^(iwn of the ocean up to those astonishing heights on our 

 mountains, which bear the most unequivocal tcstiiiionv of" 

 its former action. To gel over the latter and greater diffi- 

 culty, Dr. Hutton, whose extensive personal researches and 

 discriminating powers merit the hightsi eulogy, has liuhted 

 lip internal fires in the lowest regions of the earth, vvhose 

 expansive forces have elevated our continents from the lowest 

 beds of the sea up to their present heialits, and, of course 

 thrown the seas which covered them over the existing con- 

 tinents which bad become impoverished and worn out, and 

 which are to undergo a due season of renovated picklnn'- in 

 the briny deep, when thf; instinctive fires are to wiihdravv 

 their suj)port from us, shifting their buoyant powers to the 

 submerged lands; and these, kiek!ni>; the beam, are to dehiae 

 our worn-out hills and vailevs wiih the grand restorative 

 spvjcific-dilute muriate of soda. A glance at the map will 

 siiow how strangely capricious are the operations ot these 

 iniernal ii!,nitions, forcing up in son:e eases continents ex- 

 fending From p(jle to pole ; and in oilier iiibtances, in the 



pitats, by M. Parmentier; t!ie ci;rul:ir liltors of die mljiisijr of Uic Intc-rior 

 III tlie prefects, of :iO Nivcisc and l.) Mcssliltir, an. xiii. ; tlic rc|)crls made by 

 M. DeijjeiicUtb,ipK[)C( tor-general of the ii;llitary liosjiital-i; of piolessor Pinal'- 

 the pro;.,'ramiiii'i ol tlic medical jury uiiiltr the aiiinniittiiclaucc of M. Cliaus- 

 lit'l', ficc. ,^c. 



niidat 



