, 



107 



uot of barnacles,) and rolled stones of granite, or 

 some other kind, in every layer or stratum, from the 

 depth of twenty feet to the surface ; because these 

 substances being found on land, may every year, be 

 carried away by the currents, in the spring freshes or 

 in ice, and deposited in regular successive layers with 

 their alluvion : but this is not the case ; neither is it 

 possible that it can be so ; because the banks of rivers, 

 in a thousand instances, although composed entirely 

 of alluvion, were never known to have been over- 

 flown. 



On the other hand, we find it equally as difficult to 

 reconcile those circumstances to the opinion, that the 

 alluvial and all other districts are the deposites from 

 the sea, and that, on its gradual subsidence, they have 

 risen to their present height above its surface : for if the 

 various families of shell fish were in existence, at the 

 time the deposites were going on, at the depth of twen- 

 ty feet below the present surface, and particularly the 

 barnacle which belongs exclusively to salt water, and 

 is common, I believe, to every sea and latitude in the 

 known world, we might reasonably expect to find them 

 in every successive layer, from that to the surface. 

 Neither is this the case. 



The latter, in particular, are found adhering to 

 stones in a blue clay, that, in all probability, once form- 

 ed the ancient bed of the ocean ; and which has been 

 buried, with all its animal and vegetable exuviae, by 

 an immense deposite of alluvion, brought from theland 

 by an irresistible current. 



