" Like the flood which tests the security of every founda- 
tion that stands in the way of its onward rush, overthrowing 
the house built only on the sand, but leaving unharmed the 
edifice which rests secure on the solid rock; so does a new 
method of research, a new series of facts, or a new applica- 
tion of facts previously known, come to bear with im- 
petuous force on a whole fabric of doctrine, and subject it to 
an undermining power, which nothing can resist, save that 
which rests on the solid rock of Truth."— Dr. W.B. Carpenter, 
F.R.U. 
CHAPTER I. 
Contents. — Assumptions in Mr. Brough Smyth's Progress Keport of uni- 
formity of action of trivial causes of denudation, and the crumpling 
of strata— Development of a Foece in Nature necessarily productive 
of such phenomena — On Polar Ice accumulation and its effect upon the 
equilibrium of a spheroid poised in space— Hypothesis as to unfrozen 
X^olar seas and production of rock salt — Opposition of authorities in 
science to common sense opinions — Oppositions of science, falsely so 
called, to Scriptural statements. 
Ik the recently published Report by the Secretary of Mines 
of the Progress of Geological Survey in Victoria, he alludes 
to auriferous gravels being found under marine fossils 
(page 11), and asserts evidence of enormous denudations 
across the central third of the Australian continent.* His 
" desire is that the result of his mapping out of strata from 
surface indications may give a view of their configuration, 
not as separate and distinct, but as having close connection 
with each other. "t And his stated "primary object is to 
make known observed facts relating to the structure of the 
earth's surface, and to place in due order of succession the 
several rock formations which present themselves to view ; " 
and he " alleges that the maps compiled by him give for the 
first time the lines of strike of upper and lower Silurian 
rocks. "J Mr. Brough Smyth has evidently most assiduously 
and carefully compiled from many sources of information, 
and if he ignores physical laws as tending to alteration of 
structure of sections of rock formations, and thus affecting 
the accuracy of his delineations of their strike and dip, and 
occurrence of marine or other fossils in them, or in drifts 
composed of their detritus, it is doubtless because his train- 
ing, like that of nine-tenths of other geologists and palaeon- 
tologists, did not contemplate necessity for consideration of 
Nature's laws as to the development of forces tending to 
dislocation, denudation, and disintegration of rock forma- 
tions, and to the drift and deposit of their particles. The 
object of the writer of this paper is to endeavour to denion- 
* Page 20. 
t Page 14. 
t Page 15. 
