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-'■'/ions of 



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binerj iv 



1. tranfp 

 ,n(s of roci M 

 at foDie 





■ ;ibout d^'""' 



HUTTONIAN THEORY; 



.- * 



B89 



iiidtion, undermined by the influx of heat from 

 the earth, and impelled down the declivities on 

 which they reft by thei'r own enormous weight, 

 together with that of the innumerable fragments 

 of, rock with which they are loaded. Thefe 

 fragments they gradually tranfport to their ut- 

 moft boundaries, where a formidable wall afcer- 

 tains the magnitude, and attefts the force, of the 

 great engine by which it was erected. The im- 

 menfe quantity and iize of the rocks thus tranf- 

 ported, have been remarked with aftonidiment 

 by every obferver *, and explain fufficiently how 

 fragments of rock may be put in motion, even 

 where there is but little declivity, and where the 

 adual furface of the ground is conhderably un- 

 even. In this manner, before the valleys were cut 

 out in the form they now are, and when the moun- 



tains were ft ill more elef ated, huge fragments of 

 rock may have been carried to a great diftance; and 



it is not wonderful, if thefe fame mafles, greatly 



diminiftied in fixe, and reduced to gravel or fand, 



have reached the fliores, or even the bottom, of 



the ocean. 



349. Next in force to the glaciers, the torrents 



are the nioft powerful inftruments employed in 



Bb3 



the 



* The ftones coUefted on the Glacier de Miuge, whea 

 SauiTure vifited it, were in fuch quantity as to conceal 

 tha ice entirely. Voyages aux Alpes, tom. ii. § 054. 



