NOMOS. 187 



at which the Granges at present contributes the process 



_ ,. , of strati fica- 



to the formation of new sedimentary rocks, tion may 



This rate was very carefully determined 

 by Mr. Everest in 1832,* and his con- lyrapid - 

 elusion was that the river carried down to the sea 

 annually no less than 6368077440 feet of dried sand 

 a mass equal in weight and bulk to 42 of the great 

 pyramids of Egypt, and not very far inferior to the 

 amount of lava which flowed from the volcanoes of 

 Iceland during the great eruption which happened 

 towards the end of the last century, and yet the 

 amount of this lava was so great, that all the nations 

 of the earth might toil for thousands of years before 

 they could quarry it away. So great, indeed, is the 

 quantity of sediment which is brought down by the 

 Ganges during the rainy season, that the sea is ren- 

 dered turbid by it for 60 miles from the shore. Nor 

 is it certain that the lime-strata were formed with 

 remarkable slowness, for to cite one illustration 

 out of many the rate of deposition from some cal- 

 careous springs is very rapid. Thus, the waters at the 

 baths of San Fillipe are found to deposit travertin 

 and crystals of sulphate of lime to the depth of a 

 foot in four months. Facts such as these (and many 

 might be cited) serve to show that the sedimentary 

 rocks might have been formed with considerable 

 rapidity, and, in doing this, they corroborate the im- 

 pression which is gathered from a sight of the fossils. 

 But the testimony of the fossils requires no corrobo- 

 ration, and this testimony is, that the strata in which 



* Lyell's Elements of Geology, p. 269. 



