CHARACTERS OF STRATA 



of producing ; as has been done by those who 

 object to certain geological claims on indefinite Time? 

 and who seek for solutions in transitory diiuvian 

 powers. The effects of such torrents must have been 

 to deposit mixed materials of various sizes, in a con- 

 fused manner ; and they could therefore have prepared 

 the germs of the conglomerate strata only. The strata 

 formed of finer materials must have been the conse- 

 quences of tedious actions, analogous to those which 

 we daily witness ; while their separation into distinct 

 rocks, into alternations of clay and sand producing 

 schist and sandstone, must have equally been the work 

 of a slow process beneath the water. And thus also 

 we discover, from the comparatively small proportion 

 of the mixed and conglomerate strata, the small ratio 

 which, in antient states of the globe, these tumultuary 

 actions have borne to the more gradual ones ; while, 

 from the concurrence of these strata, in place, with 

 other appearances indicating revolutions, we are en- 

 abled to conjecture the causes which produced these 

 diiuvian actions. 



It has been remarked that consolidated and uncon- 

 solidated strata alternate, and that strata are not de- 

 posited in the order of their specific gravity. Both of 

 these facts have been urged against certain geological 

 theories ; but they will probably admit of explanation 

 without much difficulty. 



Though the consolidation of strata is not here 

 attributed to heat, the alternation of unconsolidated 

 clay or sand with solid rocks proves nothing against 

 such a supposition. The heated, or rather the fluid 

 original state of trap veins is admitted ; and it is not 

 unusual to find these in the form of pseudo-strata, or 

 parallel veins, alternating with beds of clay ; while 



