Apparent objections to the Glacial Theory. 301 



the swell of the sea must have been inconceivably overwhelming. 

 Sir James Hall supposes, that the upheaving of a large island, like 

 Sumatra, might take place so suddenly, as to drive the ocean with 

 great impetuosity over the summits of the highest mountains, and 

 strip off the glaciers, and transport them into distant countries. Ice 

 being specifically lighter than water, the glaciers would carry away 

 with them the blocks of stone that had fallen from the impending 

 rocks, and had become incased in ice. This theory of Sir James 

 Hall's would, I conceive, offer a better explanation than any other, 

 for the occurrence of groups of fragments of particular rocks, un- 

 mixed with fragments of other rocks. Each glacier, loaded with 

 stones from the rocks above it, may be regarded as a ship freighted 

 with specimens of its native mountains, which it deposits, by thaw- 

 ing in the place where it ultimately rests. Nor would a wave or 

 swell of the sea that had covered the highest mountains, suddenly 

 subside ; it would sweep repeatedly over the whole surface of the 

 globe at a lower and lower level each time ; breaking down oppos- 

 ing obstacles, opening new passages for the water, and scooping 

 out valleys and cols in the softer beds and strata." — BakewelVs 

 Introd. Geol. p. 588. 



If then the elevation of land by modern earthquakes to no greater 

 height than nine feet, can produce such violent agitation in the 

 waters of the sea, what might we not expect from that volcanic force 

 which has been instrumental in times past to the upheavement of 

 whole ranges of lofty mountains ? It will be evident, that the frag- 

 ments of rock torn by the united action of sudden cooling, and re- 

 tiring waters from the uprising mass, would not only have been 

 hurried to the lower lands, and scattered far and wide, but that they 

 would have been rolled backwards and forwards over those plains by 

 the repeated flux and reflux of the debacle, until their edges were com- 

 pletely rounded off, when the final retreat of the waters as equili- 

 brium was restored, would have left the detritus scattered in a de- 

 creasing ratio from north to south, precisely as it exists on the 

 continents of the northern hemisphere. 



That mountains have been as suddenly upraised as this theory 

 would require, there can be no reason to doubt, from the fact, that 

 the strata are not only often lifted up to a vertical position, but are 



