LIME. 9 



that these beds have been deposited at the bottom 

 of the sea, immense masses of chalk, deposited on 

 its bottom, absorb or fix the waters, or convert into 

 a solid substance part of the liquid which fills its 

 vast basins." Supplement to Chemistry, p. 263. 

 Such are the conclusions of philosophical investi- 

 gation ; and the discoveries of all our circumnavi- 

 gators fully corroborate these decisions as to forma- 

 tion. Revelation in part accounts for the removal 

 of these stupendous masses ; though, probably, 

 unrecorded concussions since the great subversion 

 of our planet have, in remote periods, effected many 

 of the removals of these deposits. We find the 

 basement of many of the South Sea Islands, some 

 of which are twenty miles long, formed of this 

 matter. Captain Flinders, in the gulf of Carpen- 

 taria, held his course by the sides of limestone reefs, 

 five hundred miles in extent, with a depth irregular 

 and uncertain; and still more recently Captain 

 King, seven hundred miles, almost a continent, of 

 rock, increasing, and visibly forming : all drawn 

 from the waters of the ocean by a minute creature, 

 that wonderful agent in the hands of Providence, 

 the coral insect. This brief account of the origin 

 of calcareous rocks was, perhaps, necessary before 

 mentioning an extraordinary fact, that, after the 

 lapse of so vast a portion of time since the base- 

 ment of the mighty deep was heaved on high, ex- 

 isting proofs of this event should remain in our 

 obscure village. 



