468 ON THE SUCCESSIVE FORMS 



adopted for the purposes of an antient artificial classi- 

 fication. 



In this state of the earth, the present primary strata 

 occupied horizontal positions beneath this ocean ; 

 though we are uncertain whether certain parts of 

 those which we now esteem such, might not have 

 been the very mountains whence they were formed. 

 This is probably the fact"; however incapable we yet 

 are of proving it, owing to our imperfect observations, 

 and the still more imperfect views which geologists 

 have hitherto taken of a theory of the earth. We 

 cannot conceive that all the supramarine land which 

 produced the primary strata should have been moul- 

 dered and transferred to the sea before these under- 

 went their first disturbance, nor that it should all 

 have been depressed beneath the sea while the new- 

 formed rocks were elevated. 



Whatever may be judged as to this, the present 

 relative position of the lowest secondary strata to the 

 primary, shows that the latter must have been dis- 

 placed before the deposition of those, and that, here, 

 a general revolution has occurred. And it is also 

 plain, that by this revolution, one portion of the 

 primary strata must have remained beneath the waters, 

 to receive those deposits which produced the secon- 

 dary ; while another must have been elevated above 

 the ocean, to furnish their materials. It might in- 

 deed be imagined, that a continuation of the same 

 actions on the mountains which furnished the ma- 

 terials of the primary strata, had furnished those of 

 the immediate secondary also, and that no portion 

 of these had been elevated above the sea in this revo- 

 lution, however displaced beneath it. But this ques- 

 tion is answered, by showing that the lowest secon- 

 dary stratum contains fragments of rocks which can 



