HINTS AND CONJECTURES. 317 



a more confused mixture of different substances? These questions it 

 is not very difficult to answer. Among subtances set afloat in a 

 mixed state, an elective attraction, as it has been called, tends to 

 draw together such parts of the mass as are of the same nature. This 

 we see exemplified on our own beach; where the sea often deposits 

 seams of burnt alum shale, of mud or clay, of drift coal, of white 

 sand, of brown sand, of gravel, &c. ; each tolerably homogeneous, as 

 far as it goes. We see also quantities of sea-weed deposited in beds, 

 instead of being confusedly dispersed along the shore; and quantities 

 of shells, often of one species, arranged in a similar form. The same 

 phenomena, but on a far grander scale, appear in the formation of 

 the secondary strata ; the clay, the sand, the lime, the wood, &c., 

 having settled to the bottom in separate sti'ata, or extensive lenticular 

 masses, each running to a thin edge. 



Again, it will be demanded, How could the waters of the deluge 

 hold so much matter in a state of solution? To this we I'eply; that 

 these waters being composed of the whole contents of the ocean, and 

 of all the lakes and rivers of the world, with all that the atmosphere 

 could supply, not to speak of what might issue from caverns in the 

 interior of the globe ; this immense collection would suffice to float a 

 quantity of matter, adequate to form at least a very large proportion 

 of the secondary strata; especially as, from the manner in which 

 the shells and pieces of wood are distributed in the beds of shale, 

 &c., the solution seems to have been, in some instances, very thick 

 and slimy, containing but little water. Besides, it is not necessary 

 to suppose the whole materials of the strata to be suspended in the 

 waters at once: they might be dissolved and deposited in successive 

 portions, according as the ocean rose higher and higher, and extended 

 its depredations on the ancient crust of the globe ; and the waters 

 which deposited the first part of the strata, would thus be set at 

 liberty, to assist in dissolving and arranging the last. Thus far we 



4 I 



