DISPOSITIONS, FRACTURES &C. OF STRATA. 87 



The sandstone mountains of Rossshire, formed of a 

 strata nearly horizontal., exceed 3000 feet in altitude; 

 and, on the low southern shores of England, the chalk 

 beds are found in a vertical position ; but it is, never- 

 theless, more common to find that mountainous coun- 

 tries are characterized by an inclined stratification. 

 In some places, these strata are found to occupy the 

 vertical angle ; and, from that, they present every 

 possible inclination down to the horizontal position. 

 In a series of such inclined strata, presenting a con- 

 formity of inclination, the parallelism is not always 

 perfect. It is not uncommon., on the contrary, to find 

 that the angle of inclination gradually increases, or 

 diminishes, according to the line on which the series 

 is examined. 



This is the simplest appearance of elevated strata: 

 it is necessary to inquire into the causes which have 

 been assigned for it; that the fundamental argument 

 may not be unnecessarily incumbered with provisions 

 for effects of a more complicated nature. The first 

 question is, whether that distance between the sea 

 and this its produce, is to be accounted for by the 

 desertion of the latter, that is, by its subsidence to a 

 lower level, or by the elevation of the land above the 

 waters. It is unnecessary here to clear this question 

 of the incumbrance it once suffered from those opi- 

 nions which attributed the deposition of shells, and 

 even of strata at these high elevations, to the ima- 

 gined operations of the Mosaic deluge. The time of 

 that reasoning, which equally despised philosophy 

 and perverted Scripture, is past. 



The subsidence of the ocean bears, on a first view, 

 that appearance of facility which invariably misleads 

 unreflecting observers and feeble reasoners. It has 

 been ascertained by Ulloa, that the strata near Guanca- 



