HUTTONIAN THEORY. 43 



It 



iti 



IS 



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) 



yield on the lide oppofite to that where the 

 prefTure is greateft, and are therefore, in fome 

 degree, fubjed: to the laws of hydroftatics. On 

 this account they will arrange themfelves in ho- 

 rizontal layers ; and the vibrations of the incum- 

 bent fluid, by impreffing a flight motion back- 

 ward, and forward, on the materials of thefe lay- 

 ers, will very much aflift the accuracy of their 

 level. 



It is not, however, meant to deny, that the form 

 of the bottom might influence, in a certain de- 

 gree, the ftratification of the fubftances depoiited 

 on it. The figure of the lower beds depofited on 

 an uneven furface, would neceflarily be afledled 

 by two caufes ; the inclination of that furface, on 

 the one hand, and the tendency to horizontality, 

 on the other ; but, as the former caufe would grow 

 lefs powerful as the diftance from the bottom 

 increafed, the latter caufe would finally prevail, 



r 



fo that the upper beds would approach to hori- 

 zontality, and the lower would neither be ex- 

 actly parallel to them, nor to one another. 

 Whenever, therefore, we meet with rocks, dif- 

 pofed in layers quite parallel to one another, 

 we may reft alTured, that the inequalities of the 

 bottom have had no efievSl, and that no caufe 

 has interrupted the itatical tendency above ,ex- 



Now, 



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