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HUTTONIAN THEORY. 



35^ 



producing great eiFedis. It is not, however, in 

 the greateft rivers, that the power to change 

 and wear the furface of the land is moil clearly 



It is at the heads of rivers, and in the 



v/e perceive forae change produced. 



feen. 



feeders of the larger ftreams, where they defcend 



\ 



over the mod rapid flope, and are moll fubjed: 

 to irregular or temporary increafe and diminu- 

 tion, that the caufes which tend to preferve, and 

 thofe that tend to change the form of the earth's 

 furface, are fiirtheft from balancing one another, 

 and where, after every feafon, alnioft after eve- 

 ry flood, 



for which no compenfation can be made, and 

 fomething removed which is never to be replaced. 

 When we trace up rivers and their branches 

 toward their fource, we come at laft to rivulets, 

 that run only in time of rain, and that are dry 



-rJ 



at other feafons. It is there, fays Dr Hutton, 

 that I would wilh to carry my reader, that he 

 may be convinced, by his own obfervation, of 



L 



this great fad, thai the rivers have, in general, 

 hollowed out their valleys. The changes of the 

 valley of the main river are but flow ; the plain 

 indeed is wafted in one place, but is repaired in 



r 



another, and we do not perceive the place from 

 whence the repairing matter has proceeded. 

 That which the fpedator fees here, does not 



therefore immediately fuggeil to him what has 

 t>een the ftate of things before the valley was 



r 



hollowed 



