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be the first whose parts the sea began to remove- We might 

 Hsk, How fossil-wood is found deeper even than shells ? which 

 argues, that trees grew upon the places he supposes once to have 

 been covered with the ocean. But we hope this excellent man 

 i's better employed than to think of gratifying the petulance of 

 incredulity, by answering endless objections. • 



* Since Goldsmith « rote, various other tliecries of the earth have been 

 n-^vanced, the most important of whicli are the Huttonian and WerneriaD. 

 Dr Hutton supposes this globe to be regulated by a system of decay and 

 renovation, and that these are effected by certain processes which bear a 

 uniform relation to each other. The solid matter of the earth, especially the 

 rocks and liigh lands, he supposes to be perpetually separating, by the reite- 

 rated action of air and water, and when thus detached, carried down by the 

 streams and rivers and deposited in the beds of the ocean. From these de- 

 posites, the various strata of our earth are supposed to be formed, obtaining 

 their consolidation from the action of submarine fires ; which being placed 

 at immense depths, must operate on these stratified depositions under the cir- 

 ra;ustance of vast pressure, by wliich volatilization must be prevented, and 

 such changes produced as would not otherwise be effected by the power of 

 heat. The expansive power of subterraneous fire is also called in to explain, 

 by the elevation of strata, their various positions. Thus, whi'ist the ocean 

 is in one part removed by the accumulation and the elevation of strata, fresh 

 receptacles are forming for it in other spots, where new strata will be de- 

 posited, consolidated, and elevated. According to this system, therefore, iu 

 tiie present world — which is made up of the fragments of those which pre- 

 ceded it — the materials are arranging for the formation of a new surface ; 

 new worlds are rising at the bottom of the present oceans ; and imagination 

 pictures successive lands overwhelmed by successive oceans, and these in 

 turn producing new kingdoms, to be peopled by new nations ; the system 

 manifesting, as its author a.'owed, neither vestige of a beginning, nor pros- 

 pect of an end. 



According to Werner the earth is supposed to have existed originally in a 

 state of aqueous fluidity, which is inferred from its splieroidical form, and 

 from the highest mountains being composed of rocks, possessing a structure 

 exactly resembling that of those fossils, which have, as it were, been formed 

 ynder the eye by wate-. From this circumstance it also follows, that the 

 ocean must have formerly stood very high over these mountains; and as 

 these appear to have been formed during the same period of time, it foUov/s, 

 that the ocean must have formerly covered the whole earth at the same time. 

 Contemplating the formation of the mountains themselves, Werner ditco- 

 vered the strongest proofs of the diminution of tlie original waters of the 

 globe. He ascertained, \st, That the outg-oi/igs—th&t is, the upper cxtrerai. 

 ties as they appear at the surface of the earth— of the newer strata are gene- 

 rally lower than the outgoings of the older, from granite downwards to the 

 alluvial depositc— and that not in particular spots, but around the whole 

 globe. 2d. That the primitive part of the earth is entirely composed of chenii- 

 Ciil precipitations, and that the mechanical depositions only appear in those 

 of a later period, that is, in the transition class ; and continue increaii;ig 



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