MUTTONIATsf THEORY. 



Al 



tliat mull certainly have been formed in a ho 

 rizontal fituation*." 



4 



Nothing can be more found and conci 



five than this reafoning 



d, had the ingeniou 



author purfued it more fyflematically, it mull 

 have led him to a theory of mountains very lit- 



tle difFe 



from that which we 



now 



deavouring to explain. If fome of the vertical 

 ftrata are proved to have been formed horizon- 

 tally, there can be no reafon for not extending 

 the fame conclufion to them all, even if we had 

 not the fupport of the argument from the paral- 

 lelifm of the layers, which has been already Ha- 

 ted. 



42. The highly inclined pofition, and the 

 manifold inflexions of the ftrata, are not the 

 only proofs of the difturbance that they have 

 fufferctl, and of the violence with which they 

 have been forced up from their original place. 

 Thofe interruptions of their continuity which 

 are obferved, both at the furface and under it^, 

 are evidences of the fame fact. It is plain, that 

 if they remained now in the fituation in which 

 they were at firft depofited, they would never 

 appear to be fuddenly broken off. No ftratum 

 would terminate abruptly ; but, however its na- 

 ture 



X 



\ 



^ Voyages a:ix Al^es, tom.ii- § 690. 



