372 RECAPITULATION OF THE OBJECTIONS [Ch. XVI. 



into the stratified and unstratified is very inaccurate, and 

 more especially so since the term stratum has not been hi- 

 therto satisfactorily defined. 



Again, we have objected on various grounds to the opinion 

 that all inclined strata, and particularly the primary, were ori- 

 ginally horizontal : 1. Because, with the exception of those 

 secondary strata, which contain tubulites and similar fossils, 

 the evidence in favour of such elevations is neither so decisive 

 nor so copious as to warrant a general conclusion : on the con- 

 trary, we know that rocks are deposited in beds which are 

 inclined at considerable angles ; and that, when this happens, 

 the beds are also fan or wedge shaped, being wider at their 

 lower than their upper extremities, so that each succeeding 

 bed, in the ascending order, becomes less and less sloped, 

 until the cavity or hollow, in which the deposits were formed, 

 is partially or even entirely obliterated ; a mode of arrange- 

 ment which has its exact counterpart both in the secondary 

 and tertiary formations, as has been observed in numerous 

 instances in almost every country, but which, hitherto, has not 

 been distinctly and unequivocally detected in the primary 

 slates. 2. We also dissent from this opinion, because beds 

 may not only be originally deposited in inclined positions, the 

 limits of which have not been yet ascertained, but because 

 the layers of rocks attributable to their concretionary structure, 

 which are, for the most part, placed at great angles, have evi- 

 dently been often considered as strata in the fossiliferous, and 

 always in the'primary formations ; and, in the case of the latter, 

 such beds have been described as dipping various ways, and 

 as being sometimes parallel with the laminae and at other 

 times differently inclined, in consequence of the mass being 

 composed of several concretionary layers. Now, numerous 

 examples have been adduced to show that such inclined layers, 

 whether laminae or beds, are not confined to the primary 

 slates ; but that they actually occur in every group of sedi- 

 mentary rocks, whether these consist of pebbles, sand, mud, 

 and similar mechanical deposits, or of precipitates from a state 



