

Uniformity in Geological Change 



happen that, while the depositing process is sus- 

 pended, denudation may take place, which may 

 be compared to the occasional destruction by fire 

 or other causes of some of the statistical docu- 

 ments before mentioned. It is evident that 

 where such accidents occur the want of continu- 

 ity in the series may become indefinitely great, 

 and that the monuments which follow next in 

 succession will by no means be equidistant from 

 each other in point of time. 



If this train of reasoning be admitted, the oc- 

 casional distinctness of the fossil remains, in 

 formations immediately in contact, would be a 

 necessary consequence of the existing laws of 

 sedimentary deposition and subterranean move- 

 ment, accompanied by a constant dying out and 

 renovation of species. 



As all the conclusions above insisted on are 

 directly opposed to opinions still popular, I shall 

 add another comparison, in the hope of preventing 

 any possible misapprehension of the argument. 

 Suppose we had discoverd two buried cities at 

 the foot of Vesuvius, immediately superimposed 

 upon each other, with a great mass of tuff and 

 lava intervening, just as Portici and Resina, if 

 now covered with ashes, would overlie Hercu- 

 laneum. An antiquary might possibly be en- 

 titled to infer, from the inscriptions on public 

 edifices, that the inhabitants of the inferior and 

 older city were Greeks, and those of the modern 

 towns Italians. But he would reason very 

 hastily if he also concluded from these data, that 

 131 



