LIFE ON THE EARTH. 179 



obtained any solidity, were totally dissolved, and 

 their constituent corpuscles all disjoined, their co- 

 hesion perfectly ceasing. That the said corpuscles 

 of these solid fossils, together with the corpuscles 

 of those which were not before solid, such as sand, 

 earth and the like; as also all animal bodies and 

 parts of animals, bones, teeth, shells, vegetables and 

 parts of vegetables, trees, shrubs, herbs; and to be 

 short, all bodies whatsoever, that were either upon 

 the earth or that constituted the mass of it, if not 

 quite down to the abyss, yet at least to the greatest 

 depths we ever dig ; all these were assumed up pro- 

 miscuously into the water, and bodies in it, and 

 made up one common confused mass.' 



3. 'That at length all the mass that was thus 

 borne up in the water, was again precipitated and 

 subsided toward the bottom according to the laws 

 of gravity forming the strata, including the organic 

 fossils according to their specific gravity/ 



He then goes on to explain the solidification of the 

 strata, their original parallelism, their subsequent 

 dislocation by a force from within, and the produc- 

 tion by this means of the irregularities of the surface 

 of the earth, and makes these explanations on the 

 whole : 



'Here was, we see, a mighty revolution; and 

 that attended with accidents very strange and amaz- 



N2 



