MODIFIED by COMPRESSION. 175 



ceeding each other from below, would at laft elevate the flrata 

 into their prefent fituation. 



The Huttonian Theory embraces fo wide a field, and com- 

 prehends the laws of fo many powerful agents, exerting their 

 influence in circumflances and in combinations hitherto un- 

 tried, that many of its branches muft ftill remain in an unfi- 

 nifhed ftate and may long be expofed to partial and plauiible 

 objections, after we are fatisfied with regard to its fundamen- 

 tal doctrines. In the mean time I truft, that the object of 

 our purfuit has been accompliihed, in a fatisfactory manner, 

 by the fufion of limeflone under prefTure. This fingle refult af- 

 fords, I conceive, a ftrong prefumption in favour of the folu- 

 tion which Dr Hutton has advanced of all the geological phe- 

 nomena; for, the truth of the moft doubtful principle which 

 he has affumed, has thus been eftablifhed by direct experi- 

 ment. 



APPEN- 



