ON THE UNIVERSAL DELUGE. 429 



the mechanical operation of the water ; and that a great 

 part of the land called Alluvial, generally owes its exis- 

 tence to this cause *. But if, upon farther consideration, 

 the conglomerates appear to derive their origin in a simi- 

 lar way with rolled masses of gravel, they afford evi- 

 dence, nevertheless, of the elevated station of the water 

 in the neighbourhood, from which they had been before 

 removed ; for their conglomeration could take place only 

 under water ; and, with few exceptions, they occupy an 

 incomparably greater elevation than any of the coal for- 

 mations, or any of the beds of rocks which enclose the 

 remains of land animals. 



Geognosy certainly contains many facts, which cannot 

 be explained, but by a change from dry land to the bot- 

 tom of the sea, although our knowledge of them is still 

 so imperfect, that we cannot hazard a probable conjec- 

 ture respecting the numbers of these changes, whether 

 they commence at the same or at different periods 

 in the various quarters of the world, and whether 

 they are local or universal. These changes appear 

 neither sudden nor violent, such as we consider revolu- 

 tions of the earth, but at all times proceed with silent and 

 regular steps, and depend upon similar causes, concealed 

 it is true from us, such as the universal retreat of the 

 waters from their original height to the present bed of 

 the ocean. We do not belong to those geologists who 

 divert the world from its axis for the purpose of explain- 

 ing the inequalities of its surface, at whose command the 

 Earth sometimes opens her bosom to engulf the sea, 

 and at other times the floodgates of Heaven are lifted 



* Vide note on the Non-mechanical Action of pure Water. 



