ON THE UNIVERSAL DELUGE. 427 



still be a wide field for investigation here, and more than 

 one formation, which now passes for sandstone, might be 

 acknowledged as an original and chemical production ; 

 without having occasion to go so far as Mr Gerhard does 

 with grey wacke, that is, to consider them as immediate 

 precipitates from the atmosphere. But still conglome- 

 rates sufficiently genuine, will remain from the tran- 

 sition period through all the subsequent formations, 

 to serve as acknowledged monuments of destruction, 

 as well as of the renovation of what was destroyed. 

 These are the Codices rescripti, in the archives of the 

 Earth, out of which, the antiquarian will one day de- 

 cipher the almost obliterated traces of her former condi- 

 tion, as well as the history of her changes. Though 

 these conglomerates deviate so much in their nature, and 

 in the character of their origin, from chemical productions, 

 they have yet among themselves this remarkable and 

 common characteristic, that, with few exceptions, the old- 

 er are much less varied in character, and more extensive 

 in distribution, than the newer, and that, at length, the 

 newest conglomerates become mere local appearances. 

 But, in reference to the main question which engages 

 our attention, we may conjecture that the beds of rocks 

 from which the sea had never retreated, might be assail- 

 ed by its floods and currents, and shattered to pieces, 

 as happens even in our own time, and the fragments be 

 again reunited into solid rocks, by means of the still re- 

 maining dissolved matter in the water. But of many 

 conglomerates it is evident that they have been deposited 

 on the dry land, in the same way as our gravels. Ju- 

 piter, who took counsel with himself, whether he would 



