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HUTTONIAN THEORY. 



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t?hat the application of forces to clifTerent points 

 of a plane, which is flexible, though with a cer- 

 tain degree of rigidity, will naturally produce. 

 The fuppofition, therefore, that thefe (Irata were 

 once flat and horizontal, and were impelled up- 

 ward from that fituation before they had be- 

 come rigid or hard, will explain their having 



the kind of curvature which removes them as 

 little as poflible from their original condition. 

 Eut no other hypothefis affords any reafon why 

 they fliould have that curvature more than any 

 other. From the falling in of roofs of caverns, 



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we might exped: fracSture and diflocation, without 

 any order or regularity ; but certainly no bend- 

 ing or finuofity, nor any fymmetrical arrange- 

 ment. If, as fome mineralogifts allege, the curva- 

 ture, as well as inclination of the ftrata, arofe from 

 the irregularities of the bottom on which they 

 were depofited, why is the former in one dimen- 

 iion only, and why is it not in every di region 

 like that of hills and valleys, or the adual furface 

 of the earth ? Or, laftly, if the whole f!:rud:ure 



of the primitive mountains is an effed of cryftal- 

 lization, and if thefe mountains are now fuch as 

 they have ever been from the time of their con- 

 folidation, whence is it, that, in their bcndirgs 

 the law juft mentioned is fo conftantly obfer- 

 Ved ? Indeed, the idea of afcribinor the inflex- 



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ions of the fl:rata to cryltallization, though fa 





gelled 



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