. II. RELICS, into Min. Kingd. 31 



the sea f must have taken place. In such instan- 

 ces, it appears probable, that plants and wood, spe- 

 cifically lighter than water, would remain floating 

 for a certain length of time, before their deposition 



ever yet been found in stones or earths constituting strata produc- 

 tive of genuine, mineral coal ; nor, indeed, as inte rant parts of any 

 .strata, excepting those which are decidedly of much later formation, 

 than such as we are now treating of. To a far remoter period, 

 therefore, than that of the flood, must we recur, in any endeavour 

 to explain or illustrate the agency of nature, in collecting and de- 

 positing the materials of regular disposed strata, holding vege- 

 table remains alone, or mixed with relics from the ocean ; and 

 immediately followed primary rocks, or such secondary, as con- 

 tain only the vestiges of shells and zoophytes. 



t By the means of floods, rivers, and various other causes The 

 reader will observe, we are here referring only to'such strata as con- 

 sist of extensive and, apparently, undisturbed beds of sea-shells &c., 

 mixed with a few vegetable remains. Where the testaceous re- 

 mains and those of the vegetable kingdom are more equal, and 

 promiscuously mingled together, (But have strata holding organic 

 remains in tliis state ever yet been found?) or, where they separately 

 occur, in alternating strata, as they most certainly do in some rare 

 instances, a transposition of materials from the sea to the land 

 may be supposed to have taken place, rather than from the 

 land, to the sea. This may have been effected in different ways. 

 The subsidence, occasioned by earthquakes or other causes, in 

 strata formed, or forming, by depositions from fresh-water, may 

 have subjected such strata for a time to the sudden inroads of the 

 sea, and a mixture of marine and vegetable relics would of course 

 be the consequence. Where the remains of plants and sea- 

 shells, <S;c., are alternately exhibited in distinct beds, both a regular, 

 periodical influx of the sea, and, in the intervals, a formation of 

 strata from inland causes, seem to be pointed out. 



