AMSTERDAM ISLAND. 151 
there among the rocks a very few plants that were not unhke 
parsle3\ The whole island, indeed, wears every indication 
of having been a very recent production of subtei'raneous fire, 
which is still burning at no great distance from the surface. 
Such at least appears to have been the case. But geological 
science is yet in its infancy. With all the various systems that 
have been written to explain the structure, the constitution, 
and the external appearances of the earth, and with all the 
aid which modern chemistry has lent to such investigations, 
our real knowledge extends only to a very shallow depth be- 
low the surface. One melts the globe by fire, and throws 
its most prominent features out of the ocean by tlie expansive 
force of steam ; another supposes that the regular and uni- 
form strata, observed in what has been called secondary 
countries, could only have been effected by the agency of 
water. Both may perhaps be right : and I dare say if Dr. 
Hutton and Mr. Kirwan could examine the island of Amster- 
dam, they would each of them produce it as an admirable 
elucidation, one of the Plutonic and the other of the Nep- 
tunian theorv ; for the materials ha^ e evidentlv undero;one 
complete fusion, and they are laid in regular and horizontal 
strata. 
Whether, indeed, it be admitted that stratified mountains 
have been melted by heat or deposited by water, many of 
them bear the most unequivocal proofs of having once been 
immersed under the ocean ; and the grand question seems to 
be reduced to this single point, whether the sea has retired 
from them, or they have been raised out of the sea ? If, 
laying hypothesis aside, we are satisfied to rest on the analogy 
