ON STRATIFICATION^ 



they will be found to meet under determinate 

 angles, just as folia do in crystals^. 



The strata, according to this view, are to be 

 considered ^s the cleavage of the earth ; and con- 

 sequently their formation must have been more 

 simultaneous than is generally supposed. The 

 prevailing opinion in regard to the formation of 

 strata, is, that each stratum is a separate deposite ; 

 that the strata are distinctly separated from each 

 other by what are termed the Seams of Stratifica^ 

 tion ; and that cotemporaneous veins never pass 

 from one stratum into another. But the follow- 

 ing considerations induce me to call in question 

 the accuracy of this opinion, and incline me rather 

 to believe in the more simultaneous formation of 

 strata. 



1. The seams of the strata, or those lines which 

 are said in all cases to mark the boundaries of 

 a stratum, do not always continue throughout the 

 whole mountain range ; on the contrary, we some- 

 times find seams of several strata terminating in 

 the substance of a larger stratum, and these again 

 in the substance of a still larger stratum, in this 

 way exhibiting nearly the same characters as 

 those observed in the seams of the distinct con- 

 cretions of crystalline rocks of the trap and por- 



* As the true figure of the earth is still unascertained^ may 

 Fe not conjecture from what is already known, that it is a poly- 

 edron, and that the strata under determinate angles form the 

 sides and cleavage of this great crystal ? 



