34 ON THE GENERAL DISPOSITION OF THE 



be concluded that the low lands were bounded by 

 shallow seas, and that deep seas accompanied moun- 

 tainous shores. The soundings of mariners have long 

 since proved this to be the case ; and it has often been 

 turned to use in navigation and pilotage. The fri- 

 gate that dares not carry sail on the coasts of Holland 

 or England without the constant use of the lead, stands 

 on fearless through the narrow fiords of Norway, raking 

 the cliffs with her yard arms. Where the sestuaries 

 of rivers enter, there also shoal water is to be expected ; 

 and this state of the bottom often extends to a great 

 distance, as at the mouths of the Oroonoko and the 

 Plate river. 



If, lastly, the submarine surface be examined, it 

 will rarely be found naked and rocky ; and only so in 

 those places where it rises into acute peaks or sudden 

 elevations. Like the land, it is covered with an 

 alluvium : forming the soil, in some places, on which 

 submarine vegetables grow, where shell fish reside, 

 and where fishes deposit their spawn ; but answering 

 the far more important purpose of laying the founda- 

 tion of future terrestrial strata. 



Of Mountains and Valleys. 



The most conspicuous objects on the land are the 

 mountains ; those repositories in which the Geologist 

 reads, in the most intelligible language, that which it 

 is his object to learn. Much has been written 

 respecting their arrangement and distribution ; and, 

 with the usual morbid love of generalization, much 

 has been laid down which is little better than ima- 

 ginary. The reader must not expect to find here a 

 technical language which is founded on attempts to 

 define that which is indefinite : a minute logic dealing 

 in words rather than things, and producing the usual 



