124 Rev. A. Sedgwick on the Magneslan Limestone. 



During that great epoch of destruction which in the European basin pro- 

 duced the complex deposit of new red sandstone, it is at least certain, as an 

 ultimate fact, that the waters of the ocean had the power of separating great 

 masses of magnesian earth, and arranging them in successive beds. The 

 operation may have commenced mechanically, and have been carried on in 

 conformity to that great principle by which (on a great scale as well as on a 

 small, — in beds as well as in distinct concretions), like things aggregate with 

 like, until, by an operation at once chemical and mechanical, the complex 

 structure of the whole formation was perfected. At all events, the facts stated 

 in this paper depend upon direct evidence, and are not in any way invalidated 

 by our ignorance of the causes which produced them. 



