i GuettarcTs Phy Biographical Geology 33 



The submarine rocks met with in sounding are, he thinks, 

 unquestionably the remains of mountains formerly de- 

 stroyed, and the detached boulders similarly discovered 

 are no doubt the result of the destruction of these rocks, 

 or in some cases they may have been derived from neigh- 

 bouring islands where such exist. 1 



No argument against this view of the high antiquity 

 of the sandy sediment on the sea-floor can, he believes, 

 be drawn from the presence of shells, either singly or in 

 numbers, in this sand. These he regards as obviously the 

 relics of molluscs of the present time, those of former ages 

 having been long ago destroyed. 2 



He remarks, in conclusion, that "it follows, from all 

 the observations here recited, that the deposits laid down 

 by the sea along its shores are sandy and loamy ; that 

 these deposits do not extend far out to sea ; that, conse- 

 quently, the elevation of new mountains in the sea by the 

 deposition of sediment is a process very difficult to con- 

 ceive ; that the transport of the sediment as far as the 

 equator is not less improbable ; and that still more difficult 

 to accept is the suggestion that the sediment from our 

 continent is carried into the seas of the New World. In 

 short, we are still very little advanced towards the theory 

 of the earth as it now exists. All the systems which have 

 been devised in this subject are full of difficulties which 

 appear to me to be insoluble." He proposes, finally, to 

 return, should the occasion present itself, to these questions, 

 which are " all the more interesting the more difficult they 

 are to elucidate." 3 



It cannot be claimed that such enlightened views 



1 Pp. 401, 402. 2 P. 402. 3 Pp. 402, 403. 



D 



