TWO ANTAGONIST DOCTRINES OF GEOLOGY. 667 



if allowed to operate for an illimitable time, ade- 

 quate to produce all the mechanical effects which 

 the strata of all ages display. And it was declared 

 that all evidence of a beginning of the present state 

 of the earth, or of any material alteration in the 

 energy of the forces by which it has been modified 

 at various epochs, was entirely wanting. 



Other circumstances in the progress of geology 

 tended the same way. Thus, in cases where there 

 had appeared in one country a sudden and violent 

 transition from one stratum to the next, it was 

 found, that by tracing the formations into other 

 countries, the chasm between them was filled up by 

 intermediate strata ; so that the passage became as 

 gradual and gentle as any other step in the series. 

 For example, though the conglomerates, which in 

 some parts of England overlie the coal-measures, 

 appear to have been produced by a complete dis- 

 continuity in the series of changes ; yet in the coal- 

 fields of Yorkshire, Durham, and Cumberland, the 

 transition is smoothed down in such a way that the 

 two formations pass into each other. A similar 

 passage is observed in Central Germany, and in 

 Thuringia is so complete, that the coal-measures 

 have sometimes been considered as subordinate to 

 the todtliegendes*. 



Upon such evidence and such arguments, the 

 doctrine of catastrophes was rejected with some 

 contempt and ridicule ; and it was maintained, that 

 8 De la Beche, p. 414, Manual. 



