EVIDENCES OF THE UPHEAVAL OF MOUNTAINS. 379 



be so, because many of the shells, corals, algce, etc., 

 (all of which are of marine origin) are of an exceedingly 

 delicate nature which a rude touch of any kind would 

 have instantly destroyed; the conclusion is therefore 

 irresistible that they were originally embedded in these 

 strata, when they were in the state of soft mud, or 

 ooze, which subsequently under compression, has 

 hardened into rock. Consequently, these rocks must 

 at some period of the earth's existence, have occupied 

 a position at the bottom of the sea consequently, 

 the period of their deposit by the sea must have 

 preceded the period when the mountains were upheaved 

 consequently, when the mountains were formed it 

 must have been by the process of upheaval from 

 below, and not by subsidence from above consequently, 

 also, this must have occurred at a comparatively recent 

 period of geological time, as the sedimentary strata 

 are known to be among the last which have been 

 deposited in point of geological time. 



These results, as we humbly venture to suggest, 

 seem to follow almost as a matter of mathematical cer- 

 tainty indeed the traces of upheaval are often clearly 

 borne upon the face of the rocks themselves; for they 

 are found to be contorted, twisted, and folded over 

 upon each other, or upon themselves, exactly like the 

 leaves of a book that has been forcibly bent. 



An examination of the plates, given in almost any 

 geological work, of the contortions assumed by these 

 rocks, will clearly show that this is so ; * but when 

 we proceed to seek for the causes of these mighty 



* See for instance the plates in Mellard Reade's book on The 

 Origin of Mountain Ranges ; see also Sir Charles Lyell's Elements of 

 Geology, 1865, fig. 65, p. 50. 



