ON THE ELEVATED SUBMARINE ALLUVIA. 299 



primary from the secondary strata, the stratified from 

 the unstratified rocks, the great coal deposit from the 

 Lignites, and far more. 



Hitherto, these deposits have, as yet, been certainly 

 found only in Italy, but they are probably not limited 

 to that country, if the present theory be correct. For 

 the bare facts themselves, we are indebted to Brocchi; 

 but as he has singularly failed in his attempt to 

 explain them, I have endeavoured to supply that defi- 

 ciency ; without, however, presuming to suggest any 

 alterations in his views of the facts themselves. Where, 

 in some cases, those seem deficient, I have merely 

 proposed amendments on his own principles. It is 

 an extreme abuse, on the part of systematic writers, 

 to determine what an observer ought to have seen ; 

 as this practice may be made subservient to any 

 hypothesis, and as it renders all observation useless : 

 but there is no rule of philosophy against the attempt 

 to reconcile the observations of others to general 

 principles, where the observers themselves may have 

 failed. The Italian alluvia in question have been 

 hitherto classed with the tertiary or fresh water de- 

 posits, without any attempt at distinction, or at an 

 explanation of their origin : while these Subapennine 

 formations, as they were called, have been held to 

 contain great mysteries, which were hopeless, but 

 likely to furnish the clue to the later revolutions of 

 the Earth. That mystery is, I trust, here solved, by 

 a very simple review and arrangement of plain facts. 



The task of Signor Brocchi would not have been 

 left to another, had he paid more respect to the theory 

 of his countryman Lazzaro Moro, to whom this 

 science owes a debt which his successors have been 

 most unaccountably unwilling to acknowledge. That 

 a late illustrator of this theory under a much more 



