ACTION IN DEEP WATER. 263 



ance at the surface. It would be contrary to the 

 general econdmy of nature, in which there is no 

 thing or power out of the connexion, to suppose that 

 those depths of the sea, which we may conclude are 

 too far from the action of the sun and atmosphere 

 for supporting life, lie idle. They are very exten- 

 sive, and the power of water pressure in them is vast. 

 It therefore agrees with the analogy of nature, as 

 well as with the observed facts, that in them are 

 placed the grand laboratories of nature, in which 

 new lands are prepared ; and that the action of 

 those smaller submarine volcanoes, which shoot up 

 their columns of charred and granular matter, to 

 be strewed over the bed of the ocean by the currents 

 of its waters, is the process by which the strata 

 are mixed and tempered, so as to fit them for their 

 purposes. 



The following cut will give some idea of that 

 action : 



HILL-MAKING UNDER WATER. 



That hypothesis is not only in strict accordance 

 with the whole of nature, in all its kingdoms, and 



