GEOLOGY. 3IO> 



Sound. How tremendous must be the idea of the deluge descend- 

 ing from promontories so elevated ! How profound must be the 

 guymes and abysses they would work by the impetuosity of their 

 cataracts ! But it is also to be remarked, that all these contour 

 and daring cliffs have remained much the same since the deluge ; 

 the seas, as is evident from topographical history, have made few 

 advances, except against the promontories and shores composed of 

 softer earths. 



It is therefore apparent, that whatever earths the impetuous tides 1 

 of the deluge washed from one place, they must of necessity deposit 

 in another. This is an invariable law of the ocean. Hence one- 

 tide would bring gravel and marine exuviae, already worn by the 

 actions of the billows rolling on the shore ; another would bring 

 sand, and a third clay. But though all alluvial strata were formed 

 of the detritus of the old earths, they would repeat the first forma- 

 tion by combination. They would change into a variety of silica,, 

 rocks, marls, and minerals ; while others, falling on more neutral 

 earths, would remain in their primitive state. Thus also the deeper- 

 strata of the earth would be laid on while the waters were rising ; 

 and all the more loamy earths, by the gradual retreat and subsiding' 

 of the waters. These long continued actions and deposits of the 

 water are a sure guide in accounting for all the conformations and' 

 heterogeneous masses found in most parts of the alluvial earth: 



This idea, that the deeper alluvial strata were laid on by the 

 increasing tides, assists us to account for the deposit of coal. This 

 is confessedly a vegetable fossil; and, from the purity or its beds, 

 we have the* justest grounds of conclusion, that it once floated" 

 upon the sea. When analyzed, charcoal constitutes the principal 

 part of its base. Acidulous waters, bitumen, and hydrogen, it con- 

 tains in various proportions. Its combustible qualities, and its 

 ashes, may also be retraced to vegetable origin. Both the bovey 

 coal, and the coal which swiftly burns to white ashes, exhibit the 

 fibres of wood. The argilla, and the animal substances, of necessi- 

 ty mixed in the mass, have been very much converted into its own 

 essence, as is usual in other combinations of nature. Its color is 

 derived from iron, which it powerfully attracts ; and no one could 

 doubt of this, if he would consider the quantity of iron contained' 

 in all vegetables, or how powerfully this mineral changes vegetable- 

 dyes to black. The various families of coal, whether of jet, com- 

 mon, or cannele, seem to derive their distinction from the different 

 kinds of timber, and from contiguous earth ; but the more bitumin- 

 ous obviously participate of a larger quantity of animal substances, 

 which would also float on the waters. 



The floating masses of timber, eradicated by the deluge, and 

 locked by the roots and branches, and much increased by vegeta- 

 bles, as well from the sea as the land, were assuredly laid on by 

 retiring tides* in those calmer bosoms of the earth, where the sea 

 was disposed to make her deposits. This is demonstrated from 

 the stratification of the earth above and below the coalj and; 



