255 



CHAP. XXXVIII. 



General Remarks on the Secondary Strata. 



HAVING thus terminated the account of the secondary 

 strata, it remains to make some remarks on the whole, 

 for which no previous opportunity has presented itself, 

 in addition to the incidental ones already offered. The 

 revolutions which their condition, in some parts, im- 

 plies, have already come under review ; but if I mis- 

 take not, there is much remaining, connected with 

 former changes of the earth's surface or condition, re- 

 specting which it is exceedingly difficult to reason, for 

 want of sufficient facts. Geologists have neglected to 

 seek for these, because they have not reasoned a priori, 

 or respecting causes : taking it for granted that all the 

 parallel strata had been formed, in the simplest manner, 

 under the sea, and never waiting to enquire how an 

 hypothesis so slovenly could be reconciled to the 

 known facts, imperfect as these are. In this broad 

 statement I have hitherto followed them ; yet not with- 

 out occasional remarks, tending to what I must now 

 expand, as far as the wretched scantiness of the mate- 

 trials will permit. Be the result as meagre as it may, 

 it forms a portion of the Theory of the Earth, the next 

 in order to that of the Revolutions traced in a former 

 chapter, which, under an infinitely less perfect form 

 in previous hands, had been idly brought forward as 

 A Theory of the Earth. 



And the effect of such an examination, should it do 

 no more, will be to show how much we have yet to 

 learn respecting the changes and progress of our 

 globe, and thus at least to point out what is yet de- 

 manded from practical geologists. If also it is only 

 among the secondary strata that we can trace these 



