il2 CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY. 



Beautiful Arrangement of Loose Materials, 



Nothing in geology strikes the observer, with more interest, than 

 the beautiful arrangement, in strata, of the beds of sand, graVel, clay, 

 loam and pebbles, which may be observed in every conntry.* A sec- 

 tion of a bank of any of these deposits — or better still, an avulsion 

 or fall, which leaves the stratification exposed, without being obscured 

 by the rubbish, produced by digging, or by the sliding of loose sand 

 — never fails to exhibit the effects of sedimentary deposit ; sometimes 

 horizontal — sometimes inclined at various angles, great or small — 

 sometimes undulatory, and recording, in a language that cannot be 

 misunderstood, the effects of subsiding water. The beds are not al- 

 ways in the order of tlie magnitude of the parts. Sometimes coarser 

 gravel, or even pebbles, will form a layer, above fine sand, and then 

 perhaps the order will be reversed, indicating that there were currents; 

 and these, relenting and increasing, alternately, as they were impelled 

 probably by tides or storms, so that coarser or finer materials were 

 transported and deposited, as the waters were more or less agitated; 

 for currents must have existed to the last. Could these sedimentary 

 deposits be now all removed, we should see the naked, scarred and 

 devasted skeleton of the planet, exhibiting the most decisive proof 

 that it had been swept by violence, of which we find evident marks in 

 the scratches and furrows, found in the fixed rocks, that are covered 

 by diluvium. 



If a section of the deepest diluvium could be made quite down to 

 the solid rock, there can be little doubt, that, on the whole the mag- 

 nitude of the parts would correspond with the depth, and the larger 

 fragments of these materials would often be found at the bottom. 

 This does not render it improbable, that bowlder stones should be oc- 

 casionally deposited on the surface, especially when they are found on 

 the firmer materials, or on rocky ledges. 



Contrast between Diluvial, and Tranquil Aqueous Ageney. 



The agency of water, whether fresh or salt, in sustaining, deposit- 

 ing and burying organized bodies, (except the effects of occasional 

 convulsions) was, evidently, tranquil and long continued ; giving time 

 for many generations of the same or of different races ; and for all 

 the alternations and successions of different strata with different or- 

 ganized bodies. 



* For our present purpose it is immaterial whether these depositions be referred 

 to tertiary deposits, or to those that are strictly diluvial. 



