AND STRATIFICATION. 85 



between the most buoyant parts of the inferior, and 

 the weightier of the superior deposit ; whence would 

 follow an intermixture of character. The same might 

 occur from the mere action of water in motion, on the 

 mutual confines of two substances yet free to move. 

 As to that interstratification which produces beds 

 properly called subordinate, it is an obvious conse- 

 quence of more than one cause acting where a river or 

 a diluvian torrent has wasted or transported different 

 rocks, either at different periods, or from changes of 

 place ; as well as of mixed and varying hydrostatic 

 actions which require only to be named. As to the 

 variations in the characters of those strata which, like 

 most or all of the primary, seem to have been sub- 

 jected to the action of heat, it can require no further 

 explanation than the general ones elsewhere given, of 

 the actions of the unstratified rocks on the strata, and 

 of the consolidation of rocks. 



