XXVI PREFACE. 



separated from subjects of mere detail. The 

 author hopes, in no long time, to present under a 

 separate form, that which, after having been 

 written, it became necessary to exclude from the 

 present work. 



In as far as the general views which are here 

 entertained of the geological arrangements of 

 nature, are not to be found in the writings of 

 other observers, they have been drawn from 

 the author's observations ; and, as he imagines, 

 confirmed by them when not strictly new. Thus 

 far he is responsible. Where he has differed from 

 such writers in these views, it was because their 

 observations did not appear to him founded on 

 an unbiassed and accurate investigation of na- 

 ture, and because he could not reconcile them to 

 the facts which came under his own notice. 

 Where he differs only in details, or in points of 

 minor importance, from those who have enter- 

 tained the same general views, it is because he 

 imagines their observations imperfect, and that, 

 with the same store of facts, they would have 

 arrived at the same conclusions. He can only 



