Mr. Kirivan's Refutation of the Huttonlan Theory, II 



t)f them, but will not, I prefume, appear perfeftly fatisfac- 

 torv to an impartial public. 



Page 427. The fatt relative to the deltas formed in the 

 mouth of the Boiirampauter Mr. Playflur thinks J have mif- 

 apprehended, becaufe major Rennell does not afiert that 

 river? empldy all the materials v>hich they carry with them, 

 and deliver none into the fea. On the contrary, I think, they 

 carry many of them into the iea, but not to any great di- 

 iiance, much lefs into its unfathomable depths, as Dr. Hutton 

 afferts. The faft relative to the cxtenfion of coafts is now fo 

 veil known to all modern gcologifts, that it were time loft to 

 dwell longer on it : that the deltas themfclves are diminiflied 

 by particles detached from them, and carried into the recefles 

 ot the deep, is a remark which I do not recoUeft to have 

 met with; but in fome inftances, where they confift merely 

 of fand, they are often diminiflied by the winds : that even 

 the argillaceous particles are not carried far into the fea, may 

 be feen in Morfe's American Geographv, p. 49, Irifn edition. 



I dechne entering into anv further diiculTion of Mr. Play- 

 fair's replies to fome other objeftion made by me to the Hut- 

 tonian theory. The intelligent reader will meet with many 

 confident and arrogant ailerlions of which he probably will 

 require fome proof, as in p. 481 and 483; many that are 

 perfe6lly unfatisfactory or even contradi6lorv, as where he 

 allows that the impulfive motion of the waves againft the 

 fhores is greater at a fniall diliance from them, and yet af- 

 ferts that the dcirites of the {hores are conveyed to 2. great 

 diilance. Me alfo affirms with great confidence, that as the 

 flowing of the tide requires juft fix hours, and the ebbing of 

 it alio fix hours, the quantity of matter moved, and its velo- 

 city, muft be juft the fame : p. 432. In the abftradl; this is 

 certainly true, and in the middle of the ocean ; but in moft 

 harbours the contrary happens: thus La L:inde tells us that 

 in the harbours of Breft, Dunkirk, Bordeaux, and Rouen, the 

 ebb tide is about a quarter and olten half of an hour flower 

 than the flow; vol. iv. p. 117. Thcfe exceptions, I am 

 perfuadedj he is well acquainted with ; but his hurry and 

 impatience* (if I may be permitted to u(e his own exprcf- 

 (ions) to combat my aflPertions led him to overlook them. 

 He is much at a lofs to account for the remains of elephants 

 and of the rhinoceros found in Siberia, and thinks it moft 

 probable that they belonged to antient fpecies of thofe ani- 



* ThcTc an; the raures to wliitli he ;if>;iiljt;s the many mift.ikcs he fup- 

 ^ofes nic to hivc committed in combating the Kuttonian tiieoryj to rea- 

 foil kc cliiiiks me incapable. 



mats 



