ON GEOLOGY ANI3 GEOGNOSY. 405 
rated. Delametherie, for instance, thinks that almost every 
thing was formed by crystallization. Dolomieu will have it 
that immense currents, of many hundred fathoms deep, swept 
at various periods the bottom of the ocean, and from thence 
throwing up sand and shells and other substances, deposited 
them upon the continents, to form hills and mountains, 
M. de Marschall, as late even as 1802, has informed us, that 
the superficies or outer crust of our globe is made up of a 
variety of fragments, which at different times fell down from 
heaven in the way of meteoric stones, and, as a proof of 
the same, refers us to the exuviae of the unknown animals 
now found in the strata. 
In the very same year with this discovery, the scientific 
world was called upon to believe a truly sublime and beauti- 
ful doctrine, namely, That there exists in the central parts 
of the earth an immense fire, or source of heat, which at cer- 
tain periods breaks out, and acts with intense and irresistible 
violence, after having lain dormant for an indefinite number 
of ages ; — that the matter of the different continents and 
islands over the world being constantly washed down by 
the rains, and other wasting processes of the atmosphere, 
into the rivulets and rivers, is by them conveyed to the sea, 
and ultimately to the deepest parts of it ; and that, when 
this is sufficiently accomplished, and an abundant stock of 
mud and other things is there deposited (which probably 
takes place in some millions of millions of years), the great 
fire begins to burn, and, under the immense pressure of the 
waters of the ocean, bakes, as we may call it, the stuff, 
melting or at least softening it that then the fire for a 
time ceases or goes out, permitting the materials to cool, 
and so form strata ; — that when this has happened, and the 
strata are sufficiently hardened or consolidated, the fire 
lights itself up anew, and, in a far more furious and irresis- 
tible form than before ; not waiting, as it did in time past^ 
