46 TOWN GEOLOGY. [i. 



rivers, and seas are perpetually melting and grinding 

 up old land, to compose new land out of it; and 

 that it must have been doing so, as long as rain, 

 rivers, and seas have existed. " But how did the first 

 land of all get made ? " I can only reply : A natural 

 question : but we can only answer that, by working 

 from the known to the unknown. While we are 

 finding out how these later lands were made and 

 unmade, we may stumble on some hints as to how the 

 first primeval continents rose out of the bosom of the 

 sea. 



And thus I end this paper. I trust it has not been 

 intolerably dull. But I wanted at starting to show my 

 readers something of the right way of finding out truth 

 on this and perhaps on all subjects; to make some 

 simple appeals to your common sense ; and to get you 

 to accept some plain rules founded on common sense, 

 which will be of infinite use to both you and me in my 

 future papers. 



I hope, meanwhile, that you will agree with me, 

 that there is plenty of geological matter to be seen and 

 thought over in the neighbourhood of any town. 



Be sure, that wherever there is a river, even a 

 drain ; and a stone quarry, or even a roadside bank ; 

 much more where there is a sea, or a tidal sestuary, 

 there is geology enough to be learnt, to explain the 

 greater part of the making of all the continents on the 

 globe. 



