in the Vroduclion of Valleys. IQS 



formed for the water afterwards let into it we well know, 

 and we also know by what means the work has been ac- 

 complished ; bat what are tiie wonderhd and never-yet* 

 imagined means bv which Mr. Farev will contrive to effect 

 the excavation of thousands, I had almost said millions, of 

 uniforn) valleys, expressly for, and previous to, the streams 

 being let into them? That he never can discover and apply 

 any natural agency ecjual and applicable, in the remotest 

 degree, to so extensive and innform a task, is unquestionable, 

 and W si/per/wtiiral aii:enc\' be in his contemplation, 1 must 

 decline tollowing liim into such a region. But \«'hat is the 

 cogent reason which Mr. Farey th.inks is sufiicient to justify 

 his broaching so stranee a hypothesis ? He has discovered 

 a few excavated vales, on heiahts where no streams now 

 flow : and their existence he deems sufficient to throw into 

 utter obscurity the ori<a;in of all other excavated valleys. 

 Now, though these few elevntcd v.iles are out of the reach 

 of either present or former streams, does it thence follow- 

 that they are also out of the reach of rain, torrents, or even 

 of those water-sj)outs which Mr. Farey pours down on an- 

 other occasion, when their aid was quite unnecessary? 

 Has Mr. Farey never heard of the vast and profound chasms 

 in the mountainous tracts of the torrid zone, and which are 

 nothing but excavations produced by the temporary torrents 

 during the rainy season ? And has he not seen innume- 

 rable excavations, though on a far less scale, in the hilly 

 districts of our own country, also evidently the produce of 

 occasional rainy torrents ? For what other purpose then 

 can a i'tw such paltry instances be held out, but to darken 

 and obscure the true stale of the general question of exca- 

 vation ? 



But to return to the subject of the missing materials^ 

 Mr. Farey is daily in the habit of treading on travrlled 

 matter without knnwing from whence it has been brought, 

 and of observing other spots from which immense masses 

 of matter arc missing, vvithont being able to form a con- 

 jecture as to where thev have b^en carried ; and these facts 

 of finding and missing removed matter, without any trace 

 from whence, or to whither, it has been transported, are 

 amongst the most f.uiiiliar of geological phceuomena, nor 

 is there auy practical or probable agent in Nature for all this 

 tiniversal tossing and shitting l)ut water : )el because Mr. 

 Farcy cannot satisfy hnxiiclf as- to the precise identity and 

 presetit situation wf the comparatively trivial portion (jf 

 matter carried away from excavated vales, he thinks that 

 circumstance alone ajufficient to justify an unlimited denial 



Vol. 34. No. 137.' -St'//^ 1 soy. N , that 



