306 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 



( 3 ) The conformity and close succession of the strata, viewed in 

 connection with their contents, also furnish insurmountable difficul- 

 ties in the way of the system. — ^The members of the strata succeed 

 each other so closely, and with so little appearance of interruptions, 

 or long intervals, between their deposition; that the abettors of this 

 theory must find it difficult, if not impossible, to determine where one 

 formation ends, and another begins. The members of the series often 

 run into one another. The chalk might be deemed one of the most 

 distinct formations ; and yet we have seen (p. 58) that at its junction 

 with the upper shale, there is a gradual transition of the one into the 

 other, the clay growing chalky, and the chalk clayey. Similar ap- 

 pearances occur at the junction of other members of the series ; and 

 even where there is a distinct line of separation, the evenness of that 

 line is a proof, that the inferior member has not lain so long uncovered 

 by its successor, as to allow the hand of time, or accidental causes, 

 to produce inequalities in its surface. — Besides, the contents of the 

 strata do not accord with the formation system. If each member of 

 the series was formed so leisurely, and if its animals expired on the 

 spots which they occupy, why are almost all the larger petrifactions, 

 particularly the large marine animals, so mangled and broken; often 

 parted into a thousand j)ieces, and their fragments scattered in all 

 directions? — Again, if the strata were formed in the way supposed, 

 why do we find in so many of them, both low and high, masses or 

 fragments of petrified wood? Why is there wood in the alum shale, 

 the ironstone, and the oolite, as well as in the coal and sandstone 

 strata? Had each world its own trees, as well as its own animals? 

 Where are the soils in which the successive races of vegetables grew? 

 And why are the plants and the shells, the trees and the fishes, of 

 these numerous creations, blended together? — On the whole, the 

 formation system may please the imagination, and give scope to 

 the fancy, but it will not stand the test of an appeal to facts. 



