MACKIE — ON THE BOTTOM-ROCKS. 



185 



generation disputed about 

 the plastic virtues of the 

 earth, and fancied that in 

 fossils they saw the sports 

 of nature or the germs 

 of future beings. But 

 modern geologists, acting 

 on the principle of ob- 

 serving the actual pheno- 

 mena going on around us, 

 — of studying and noting 

 the things which are, and 

 of referring the pheno- 

 mena of the past to tlik 

 standard, — have acquired 

 a power and lucidity of rea- 

 soning unrivalled among 

 the speculative sciences. 

 The shales, schists, sand- 

 stones, and conglomerates 

 are the ooze, sand, and 

 beaches of the primeval 

 seas, and, denoting a shal- 

 low line of coast, in them- 

 selves present the first in- 

 dication of the proximity 

 of diy land. By this rea- 

 soning we learn more ; — 

 that these primeval strands 

 were flat and level shores, 

 from which the tide re- 

 ceded, for the sun's warm 

 rays bearing down upon 

 them baked and fissured 

 the slimy ooze ; and innu- 

 merable impressions of 

 these " sun-cracks " still 

 traverse the surfaces of 



o 



