184 NOMOS. 



Evidence been subject to alternate elevations 



that these an( j depressions during the process of 



strata were / T -i 



formed in stratification. It must be so; for it is 

 not possible that a stratum should have 

 been elevated for many feet, and perhaps for miles, 

 and then lowered to the same extent, and this re- 

 peatedly, and yet be in the same uninjured state as 

 it was in before the operation of the upheaving 

 force. On the other hand, it is equally evident 

 that there cannot have been many alternate eleva- 

 tions and depressions during the process of stratifica- 

 tion if the different strata are conformable to the 

 same plan. And this is what we do find; indeed, 

 the orderly parallelism and perfect conformity of 

 the strata is one of the most remarkable and obvious 

 phenomena which is exhibited in any section of the 

 earth. The whole series of strata is bent and frac- 

 tured in a thousand different ways, and the dis- 

 placements are often so great that it is difficult to 

 find the corresponding half of a fractured portion; 

 but there are no special bendings and fractures and 

 displacements in individual strata, and therefore we 

 should be disposed to argue, from the actual appear- 

 ances of the strata, not only that they were deposited 

 as drifts, but that the process of stratification was 

 not interrupted by the recurring earthquakes which 

 play so important a part in the preadamite cos- 

 mogony. In other words, we should be disposed to 

 argue that the process of stratification was completed 

 in one epoch, rather than in many. 



And if the several strata were formed in one 

 epoch, and not in many, when did this epoch begin ? 



