4 ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE 



SECTION I. 



OF THE PHENOMENA PECULIAR TO STRATIFIED 



BODIES. 



I. Materials of the Strata 



^ 



I. 1*T is well known that, on removing the 



loofe earth which forms the immediate 

 furface of the land, we come to the folid rock, 

 of which a great proportion is found to be re- 

 gularly difpofed in ftrata, or beds of determi- 

 nate thicknefs, inclined at different angles to the 

 horizon, but feparated from one another by 

 equidiftant fuperficies, that often maintain their 

 parallelifm to a great extent. Thefe ftrata bear 

 fuch evident marks of being depolited by water, 

 that they are unrverfally acknowledged to have 

 had their origin at the bottom of the fea ; and 

 it is alfo admitted, that the materials which they 



r 



conlift of, were then either foft, or in fuch a 

 flate of comminution and feparation, as render- 

 ed them capable of arrangement by the action 

 of the water in which they were immerfed. 



Thus far moft of the theories of the earth agree ; 



but 





c 



