THE 



PHILOSOPHICAL MAGAZINE 



AND 



ANNALS OF PHILOSOPHY. 



[NEW SERIES.] 



DECEMBER 1830. 



LXI. An Examination of those Phenomena of Geology, which 

 seem to bear most directly on theoretical Speculations. By 

 the Rev. W. D. Conybeare, M.A. F.R.S. F.G.S. $c. 

 [In Continuation from p. 362.] 



To the Editors of the Philosophical Magazine and Annals. 



Gentlemen, 

 II.^T^ROM the organic remains included, &c. we are sure 



■ that far the largest proportion (say T 9 yths) of the strati- 

 fied rocks (viz. all from the lowest transition strata upwards, 

 now forming the surface of our continents,) were deposited gra- 

 dually and slowly through a long series of time beneath the 

 sea ; and a fortiori, the inferior rocks must have been so situ- 

 ated : ergo, originally the whole mass of our continents was 

 beneath the sea. 



III. Interposed among and breaking through these strata 

 are certain intrusive and unstratified masses, which from the 

 phaenomena connected with them are now generally allowed 



* I here shortly recapitulate the principal phaenomena of the subject, 

 however obvious and little disputed, as it may be convenient in the course 

 of the ensuing argument frequently to refer to them: and for the purposes 

 of that reference the numerical arrangement seems convenient. 



I have also to correct an erratum in my last, p. 361, where I must have 

 written Atlas instead of Typhon; — the classical reader will pardon the 

 confusion when he recollects that, besides the celebrated passage in Pindar, 

 a picturesque description of " this overwhelmed and inefficient bulk 

 pressed beneath the roots of iEtna," occurs in a speech in the Prometheus 

 of iEschylus intermingled with the fortunes of Atlas. — While on classical 

 subjects, I would just remark how much I am gratified by finding every 

 quotation in Mr. Lyell's able remarks on the attention of the ancients to 

 geology, identical with those previously given in my own Outlines, with the 

 single exception of the passage from Strabo, to which, however, I have 

 given a reference although certainly partial and imperfect: as there is not 

 a word of acknowledgement, of course this coincidence is accidental. 

 N.S. Vol. 8. No. 48. Dec. 1830. 3 F to 



