424 SKETCH TOWARDS A 



There are as yet no facts by which to solve this diffi- 

 culty: but, in the present case, having no sufficient 

 proof of more than the two great lignite deposits in 

 question, I must suppose, right or wrong as it may 

 hereafter prove, that the others formerly mentioned 

 are coincident with these in time, though referred to 

 the quadersandstein or anght else. 



The oolithe coal therefore, implies a terrestrial sur- 

 face, on the lias, if we please, bearing plants, as the 

 mountain limestone did for the inferior coal. Hence, 

 during the repose of this last beneath the sea, no ma- 

 rine strata were formed, above it, higher than that 

 carboniferous surface, which must also have become a 

 terrestrial one. Was there here a revolution of eleva- 

 tion for that purpose ? If so, it would be consonant 

 to all that has preceded : but I can conceive the gra- 

 dual growth of these strata to the surface, so as to 

 permit of the requisite vegetations, in aestuaries, or on 

 shores ; while such appear to have been the birth- 

 places of both the great lignites, marine as their ani- 

 mal fossils are. I know not therefore, if they who 

 shall criticize this Theory, will allow this to be viewed 

 as a ninth condition of the earth. If there were any 

 facts of disturbance to prove an elevation, it would not 

 be disputed : and that these may not yet be found 

 somewhere, I can by no means admit. 



Be this as it may, there is here the same difficulty 

 as in the case of die inferior coal. Marine strata were 

 forming while the terrestrial preparations for the lig- 

 nite were in progress. Which are they? no one knows. 

 I, assuredly, do not: and it is these reflections, among 

 others, which convince me that our pretended know- 

 ledge of the secondary strata is the mere hypothesis 

 which I have so often called it. But of this again. 



Now, the same occurrence must have followed this 



