OF A FORMER WORLD. 45 



CHAPTER V. 



GENERAL REMARKS ON THE DIFFERENT FORMATIONS. 



HAVING enumerated and briefly described nearly all the 

 stratified formations that are known to occur in the crust 

 of the earth, we proceed to make some general remarks, 

 founded upon the facts that have passed before us. Let it 

 be distinctly understood, that the object of these remarks 

 is to prove, on geological grounds, the greater antiquity of 

 the earth than that generally assigned to it. 



The first argument in favor of the antiquity of the globe, 

 is founded on the number of strata that go to make up its 

 crust. The crust of the earth, or that rocky band that sur- 

 rounds and encloses its molten contents, is about ten miles 

 thick. The greater part of this mass has been examined, 

 nature having laid open or tilted up almost all the forma- 

 tions of which it is composed. To accomplish this appa- 

 rently impossible task, the geologist has but to walk over 

 the uplands, ascend the river beds, 



" To sit on rocks, to muse o'er flood and fell, 

 To slowly trace the forest's shady scene, 

 Where things that own not man's dominion dwell, 

 And mortal foot hath ne'er or rarely been ; 

 To climb the trackless mountain all unseen, 

 With the wild flock that never needs a fold ; 

 Alone o'er steeps and foaming falls to lean ; 

 This is not solitude ; 'tis but to hold 

 Converse with Nature's charms, and view her stores 

 unroll'd," 



penetrate the gloomy ravines, and climb the mountain ridges. 

 In this way all those formations enumerated in preceding 



