8 The Founders of Geology LECT. 



and as the cooling continued, the vapours condensed into 

 a universal ocean of water. The interior of the planet 

 possessed a vaulted or vesicular structure, and the roofs of 

 the vast caverns, from time to time giving way, produced 

 dislocations and inundations, while large bodies of water 

 were drawn off into the interior, and the dry land pro- 

 gressively increased in area and height. By the commotion 

 of the waters large quantities of sediment were produced, 

 which, during the intervals between the disturbances, were 

 deposited over the sea-floor to form the various strata that 

 are to be seen on the land. By a repetition of the same 

 sequence of events, the strata were broken up, and new 

 deposits were laid down upon them, until, as the agencies 

 became quiescent and balanced, a " consistentior rerum 

 status " emerged. 



The other cosmogonist, Buffon, born in 1707, had like- 

 wise conceived broad and profound ideas regarding the 

 whole realm of Nature. Endowed with a spirit of bold 

 generalization, and gifted with a style of singular clearness 

 and eloquence, he was peculiarly fitted to fascinate his 

 countrymen, and to exercise a powerful influence on the 

 scientific progress of his age. He is the central figure in a 

 striking group of writers and observers who placed France 

 in the very front of the onward march of science, and who 

 laid some of the foundation-stones of modern geology. 



The introductory portion of Buffon's voluminous 

 Natural Histwy was devoted to a theory of the earth. 

 Though written in 1744, it was not published until 1749. 

 The author had meditated long and deeply on the mean- 

 ing of the fossil shells found so abundantly among the 

 rocks of the earth's crust, and had recognized that, as they 



