NOMOS. 



183 



belonged have lived together ? And surely it is more 

 probable that the caves in which the bones are found 

 are graves rather than dens, and that dead animals 

 had drifted there during an inundation. 



Of the other strata it is not necessary 

 to speak, for they are universally allowed 

 to be drifts. There is no difference of 

 opinion upon this point. 



So far, then, there is reason to believe that the 

 several strata agree in being sedimentary in their 

 character. They are all the product of 

 drifts, and their only difference is in the 

 material drifted. Hence there is no 

 necessity for alternate elevations and de- 

 pressions of the land to account for the 

 formation of the coal and limestone 

 strata; for stratum after stratum might 

 be deposited at the bottom of the same 

 sea, successively or alternately with other 

 strata, according as the current brought 

 sedimentary matter from the same or 

 from different regions; and the accumu- 

 lating rocks may never have been raised 

 above the waters until their whole series 

 was complete. This is evident. How is 

 it, then? Were there many alternate 

 elevations and depressions during the 

 process of stratification, or were there 

 not? And surely this is a question which may be 

 answered with certainty. 



Now if one thing is evident, it is that the indi- 

 vidual strata must be distorted and broken if they 



Other strati- 

 fied rocks, as 

 a rule, are 

 formed from 

 drifts. 



These strata 

 may there- 

 fore have 

 been formed 

 in one epoch, 

 for if the coal 

 and lime- 

 stone seams 

 are the pro- 

 duct of 

 drifts, the 

 one may have 

 been depo- 

 sited orderly 

 upon the 

 other ic the 

 same basin, 

 and there is 

 no necessity 

 that each 

 coal stratum 

 or limestone- 

 stratum 

 should repre- 

 sent what 

 was once a 

 living grow- 

 ing surface of 

 the earth or 

 sea. 



