352 



ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE 



f 



an, without any long chain of reafon- 



hollowed out. But it is otherwife in the valley 

 of the rivulet ; no perfon can examine it with- 

 out feeing, that the rivulet carries away matter 

 which cannot be repaired, except by wearing 

 away fome part of the furface of the place upon 

 which the rain that forms the flream is gathered. 

 The remains of a former ftate are here vilible; 

 and we c 



ing, compare what has been with what is at the 

 prefent moment. It requires but little lludy to 

 replace the parts removed, and to fee nature at 

 work, refolving the mod hard and folid mafTes, 

 by the continued influences of the fun and at- 

 inofphere *. We fee the beginning of that long 

 journey, by which heavy bodies travel from the 

 fummit of the land to the bottom of the ocean, 

 and we remain convinced, that, on our continents^ 

 there is nofpot on uvhich a river may not formerly 

 have run f. 



The view thus afforded of the ope- 

 rations, in their nafcent ftate, which have (lia- 



ses 



r 



ped out and fafliioned the prefent furface o 

 the land, is neceffary to prepare us for fol- 



lowing them to 



the utmoft extent of their 



I 



effeds. From thefe effeds, the truth of the 



propofition, that rivers have cut and formed, not 



the 



* Theory of the Earthy vol. ii, p, 204. 



t Hid. p. 296 



s> 



