310 ILLOGICAL GEOLOGY. 



Taking for data the appearances of the Earth s crust if, 

 a narrow district of Germany ; observing the constant or 

 der of superposition of strata, and their respective physical 

 characters ; Werner drew the inference that strata of like 

 characters succeeded each other in like order over the en 

 tire surface of the Earth. And seeing, from the laminated 

 structure of many formations and the organic remains con 

 tained in others, that they were sedimentary ; he further 

 inferred that these universal strata had been in succession 

 precipitated from a chaotic menstruum which once cov 

 ered our planet. Thus, on a very incomplete acquaintance 

 with a thousandth part of the Earth s crust, he based a 

 sweeping generalization applying to the whole &amp;lt;&amp;gt;f it. This 

 Ncptunist hypothesis, mark, borne out though it seemed to 

 be by the most conspicuous surrounding facts, was quite 

 untenable if analyzed. That a universal chaotic menstruum 

 should deposit, one after another, numerous sharply-defined 

 strata, differing from each other in composition, is incom 

 prehensible. That the strata so deposited should contain 

 the remains of plants and animals, which could not have 

 lived under the supposed conditions, is still more incom 

 prehensible. Physically absurd, however, as was this hypo 

 thesis, it recognized, though under a distorted form, one 

 of the great agencies of geological change that of water. 

 It served also to express the fact that the formations of the 

 Earth s crust stand in some kind of order. Further, it did 

 a little towards supplying a nomenclature, without which 

 much progress was impossible. Lastly, it furnished a stand 

 ard with which successions of strata in various regions 

 could be compared, the differences noted, and the actual 

 sections tabulated. It was the first provisional generaliza 

 tion ; and was useful, if not indispensable, as a step to truer 

 ones. 



Following this rude conception, which ascribed geologi 

 cal phenomena to one agency, acting during one primeval 



