DOMAIN XI. DECOMPOSED. 



of a vast stratum of pudding-stone, which 

 underlies the whole ; the intelligent author 

 thus proceeds. 



bserotions " " ^e ar g umen ^ ^ or the decomposition 

 of stony substances, which is afforded by 

 the state of this singular plain, may be 

 confirmed by the appearances observed in 

 many extensive tracts of land all over the 

 world, and especially in some parts of Great 

 Britain. The road to Exeter from Taun- 

 ton Dean, between the latter and Honiton, 

 , passes over a large heath or down, consi- 

 derably elevated above the plain of Taun- 

 ton. The rock which is the base of this 

 heath, as far as can be discovered, is lime- 

 stone ; and over the surface of it large flints, 

 in the form of gravel, are very thickly 

 spread. There is no higher ground in the 

 neighbourhood from which this gravel can 

 be supposed to have come, nor any stream 

 that can have carried it ; so that no expla- 

 nation of it remains, but that it is formed 

 of the flints contained in beds of limestone 

 which are now worn away. The flints on 

 the heath are precisely of the kind found in 



