OF THE EARTH. 477 



of the English series, the red sandstone and the moun- 

 tain limestone, both of them inferior to the coal 

 strata. Whatever rocks in any other part of the 

 earth shall he found to hold an analogous position, 

 be their qualities what they may, they will he in- 

 cluded in the same general reasonings ; care being 

 taken not to decide in these by their inferior, but by 

 their superior portions ; not by the rocks on which 

 they repose, but by those which follow them in the 

 order upwards. 



The lowest secondary strata then, in England, are 

 followed by a series of sandstones and shales inter- 

 stratified with coal ; and at that point the first revo- 

 lution or elevation of the secondary strata must be 

 fixed. If such an interval of revolution cannot here 

 be always proved by the two first classes of evidence 

 originally laid down, namely, contrariety of position 

 and the presence of materials derived from the rocks 

 immediately preceding, it is amply evinced by the 

 third, or by the presence of terrestrial remains. The 

 coal strata were formed above the level of the sea ; 

 and, being founded on the inferior secondary strata, 

 it is evident that these had become, to a certain de- 

 gree, dry land before that period. This evidence in- 

 deed is abundantly confirmed by the occasional dis- 

 cordance of position between the two series. 



Thus then we have proofs of a revolution, partial 

 or otherwise, which elevated the inferior secondary 

 strata ; and it is the third, at least, in order, of those 

 which have occurred. To conjecture its extent, we 

 ought to know, over how many parts of the earth 

 these inferior strata can be traced. On this subject, 

 unfortunately, our information is still defective ; from 

 the confusion which some geologists have made re- 

 specting the secondary strata. But if the coal series 



