ILLUSTRATIONS. 



NOTE A and B, p. 9. 



On the Subsidence of Strata. 



M. CUVIER adopts the opinion of De Luc, that all the 

 older strata of which the crust of the earth is composed, 

 were originally in an horizontal situation, and have been 

 raised into their present highly-inclined position, by sub- 

 sidences that have taken place over the whole surface of 

 the earth. 



It cannot be doubted, that subsidences, to a consider- 

 able extent, have taken place ; yet we are not of opinion 

 that these have been so general as maintained by these 

 geologists. We are rather inclined to believe, that the 

 present inclined position of strata is in general their ori- 

 ginal one; -an opinion which is countenanced by the 

 known mode of connection of strata, the phenomena of 

 veins, particularly contemporaneous veins, the crystal- 

 line nature of every species of older rock, and the great 

 regularity in the direction of strata throughout the 

 globe. 



The transition and floetz-rocks also are much more of 

 a chemical or crystalline nature than has been generally 

 imagined. Even sandstone, one of the most abundant 



