Detrital Theory of Geology. 311 



polity of sea distribution, and the remarkably slight elevation of 

 the land ; whilst, after these formations, land remains become 

 more extensive and abundant. 



If, then, it is admitted by geologists that the aqueous and 

 atmospheric oceans are and have been the same in all ages, 

 for the increased elevation of land above the sea, it must be 

 admitted that the earth's area has, in process of ages, 

 expanded rather than contracted, and that the gradual 

 gaining of the land over the sea is owing to an increase of 

 expansive power or heat, and not to a decrease ; for all forms of 

 matter, save that in the form of water, CONTRACT when they 

 have passed from a fluid into a solid condition. The flues of 

 the earth, in the form of active volcanoes, are but relics of 

 this elevation, and are so many safety-valves to moderate 

 and equalize the relation between land and sea, and to check 

 too sudden or unequal elevations between the bed of the 

 ocean and the land. At least, from known data, such an in- 

 terpretation is perfectly valid. 



Cracks and fissures from the cooling and contracting of 

 the molten mass, allowing the protrusion of more deeply- 

 seated porphyra, syenite, etc., etc., would only abstract heat 

 and matter from the interior to be placed upon the surface, 

 and would thereby occasion depression and increased sub- 

 mergence of land elsewhere, and could not in any wise lead 

 to the gradual gain of the land over the sea, but, so far as 

 the heat is concerned, to positive loss by radiation. 



The known decrease of the solar heat upon the earth's sur- 

 face is perfectly compatible with the increase of the earth's 

 area, since by it the surface of radiation is increased ; and if 

 the atmosphere through which the sun's rays penetrate is 

 the same, then, the superficial area being increased, rare- 

 faction will be increased, and positive heat will be rendered 

 latent, and so the mean temperature of the earth will be 

 .slowly diminished ; it being assumed, at the same time, 



