NOTES AND gUERIES. 
405 
consistency whicli strict logic demands, and are not therefore snpcrior to or- 
dinary hypotiieses. From its nature, Geology can never attain that degree of 
ccrtanity wiiich characterizes the mathematical and other sciences ; neverthe- 
less, as far as possible, strict logic may dictate all its facts. That this is not 
the case now I wUl endeavour to show. 
Supposing that a man should for the first time behold the various strata in a 
well, or appearing slantingly in an ordinary dyke, it is probable he would 
imagine three things : — 1st, which was the oldest ; 2, which was the earliest 
formed; and 3rd, were they originally placed as they now appear. These 
three questions strike me as formmg the basis of geological science, as leading 
to the various ramifications into which this interesting inquiry is afterwards 
developed. 
As regards the question of antiquity it is judged, and rationally enough, that 
the rock which is universally found as the basis of every other is tlie oldest ; 
and this because it is absurd to suppose that the upper rocks and beds were 
first formed, and that the under-one was then miraculously (using tliis term of 
course in its highest seusc) placed under them. This idea is quite un-needed, 
because the phenomenon can be explained in a simple and highly probable 
maimer. Graiiite is this rock, and as it has never been found, which is for 
obvious reasons improbable, that any other rocks dip into it, no doubt as 
to its antiquity can remain ; and this is absolutely confirmed upon considering 
that it is an igneous rock, and hence must have existed prior to its neighbours. 
The reasons of this are well known, or I shoidd have given them. 
To determine the periods of the formations of various rocks, every one will 
allow that we can only judge, if we judge at all, by the rate of time the like 
operations progress at in the present age. Now, I maintain that tliis is a very 
doubtfid rule upon which to rear theories, or assumed-facts, of such moment 
as have been laid down by geologists ; and I find that Dr. Brewster agrees 
with me, whose remarks upon this subject I shall take the liberty of quoting. 
He says, in " More Worlds than One," " It is taken for granted that many of 
the stratified rocks were deposited in the sea by the same slow processes which 
are going on in the present day ; and as the thickness of the deposits now pro- 
duced is a very small quantity during a long period of time, it is inferred that 
nine or ten miles of strata must have taken millions of years for their forma- 
tion." I apply this scepticism to every rock either above or below the earth's 
surface since the commencement of human history. It camiot be said what 
time sedimentary deposits have taken to form, inasmuch as their present pro- 
gress is no criterion. This may be denied, but the denial cannot be substan- 
tiated ; whereas it is quite easy to suppose that such deposits have been formed 
very quickly. Hence this geological assumption is at the best an hypothesis, 
and in my opinion by no means a probable one. Tlicre is a logical flaw about 
it which renders it at once a matter of doubt. And if this notion of the high 
antiquity of the earth is put aside, there need be no controversy respecting the 
length of the days of creation : each day may coincide in duration with those 
of the present period. The world is in the Mosaic account said to have been 
created, and other changes follow, when we hear of the first day, from which I 
judge that all was effected within this period. But, to keep to the philoso- 
phical part of the question, I do not tliink that the antiquity of the world, 
which geologists presume, is at all substantiated, to say nothing of the use, 
and consequently wisdom of such an act. 
The author I have quoted further remarks, "The dry land upon our globe 
occupies only one-fourth of its whole superficies, all the rest is sea. How 
ranch of this fourth part have geologists been able to examine ? and how small 
seems to be the area of stratification whicli has been explored ? We venture 
to say not one-fifiicth part of the whole, and yet upon the result of so partial a 
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