Principles of Geology. 21 
think that little is wanting to complete the evidence of this portion of 
the physical chronology of the earth. 
Werner, and most of the moderns, consider the phenomena which 
have been unfolded by geological research, as the effects of causes 
no longer in action. But Dr. Hutton believed that all the revolutions 
which have visited the earth, were but the result of the ordinary op- 
erations of nature, continued through very long periods of time. He 
Was of opinion that what is now sea, was formerly dry land; and that 
by the action of rains and rivers, materials are accumulated on the 
bed of the sea, to produce the strata of new continents, which by 
some convulsion, like many that have happened before, will be up- 
lifted and laid bare, whilst that part of the earth which we inhabit, 
will be sunk under the new ocean.* To this hypothesis it may be 
objected, that it ascribes to the ordinary agents of nature, effects 
which appear much beyond their power. General changes in the 
relative situation of sea and land have been often supposed, but never 
established by evidence ; for Cuvier’s conclusions drawn from the 
alternations of marine and fresh water formations, apply only to lim- 
ited districts ; and since well-conducted inquiries into the natural his- 
tory of antediluvian quadrupeds, have shewn satisfactorily that they 
lived before the flood over a very large portion of the present con- 
We have proof that at the period of the deluge, the sea | 
land did not change their relative situations. pace Premiers 
he natural agents now employed in altering the face of the globe, 
are fie and water, The former forces fluid matter from the interior, 
and Spreads it around the voleanie mountains ; the latter is incessant- 
ly Sccupied in lowering heights, wasting and smoothing precipices, 
Ng Up vallies, and equalizing the surface. 
Action. op THE SEA AND TIDE RIVERS.—The records of his- 
hd declare what large tracts of inhabited country have been lost in 
Sea, and what extensive surfaces of new land have arisen to con- 
tract the dominion of water. Observation shews on our own shores 
ioe the reciprocal process of demolition and augmentation ; 
ae = enabled to form a correct estimate of the effects of re 
ines oI and land.”+ Every sea-coast, and especially every 
Ges ap ary, furnishes examples for contemplation; and these ef- 
© SO similar in al] parts of the world, that the mode of ex- 
‘6 n . 
~~ Eluvie mons est deductus in wequor. 
OVID, METAM. Xv. 
t Hutton. 
