FIG. 14. BURNING MOUNTAIN. 



trifles compared with what must have taken place to form 

 the inequalities of surface found to exist. 



But the contraction of the interior mass of the earth still 

 continues, and the cavities left by the expulsion of volcanic 

 matters, and the pushing-up of the mountains, may not all 

 have been compensated for by the sinking-in of the strata, 

 so it remains a matter of doubt whether the crust of the 

 earth is sufficiently strong to bear the pressure of its own 

 and the air's gravity, or whether at some future day another 

 contraction will break it up and destroy the whole existing 

 order of things. The shocks of earthquakes are strictly 

 analogous to such catastrophes, but on an immensely 

 inferior scale. 



The effects of the last great contraction having subsided 

 the surface of the earth assumed a new arrangement of its 

 matter, and the order of things which caused the deposition 

 of the secondary strata commenced. Sedimentary sand- 

 stones were deposited from the washings of the surface by 

 the waters which had not yet absorbed all the superfluous 



