421 
of Edinburgh , Session 1868 - 69 . 
I could state in contrast, which must be very great indeed, the 
present condition of that territory after seventy-six years more of 
enterprise. My limited time has not sufficed to ascertain this point. 
I do not know at how early a period we possess a scientific record 
of the Comrie earthquakes ; but there is a precise one by Mr Ealph 
Taylor in the Society’s Transactions, read in 1790, with additions 
in 1793, describing several visitations, but especially one in 1789, 
during market-day on 10th November, which made the earthen- 
ware vessels clatter in the market-place, terrified horses, and caused 
the people to think the surrounding mountains were falling on 
them. 
In March 1785 Dr Hutton commenced the reading of his theory 
of the earth, under the title of “ Investigation of the Laws observ- 
able in the Composition, Dissolution, and Eestoration of Land 
upon the Globe.” The Huttonian theory may be shortly stated as 
follows : — 
Providence, for the wise purpose of preserving and maintaining 
the excellence of its works, has ordained that all creation, so far as 
we can study it, shall be subject to alternate decay and renovation 
arising out of that decay. For this purpose are provided suitable 
materials and the necessary forces. The earth itself is not ex- 
cepted. Its present stage of decay is obvious to all eyes on survey- 
ing its surface ; a prior renovation is almost equally obvious on 
examining into its crust ; and a decay antecedent to that renova- 
tion is abundantly evident on careful inquiry in the same quarter. 
Under the force of the waves, currents, and alternate flow and 
ebb of the sea, we may observe that the waters are gradually steal- 
ing upon the land, sweeping into their depths the waste so oc- 
casioned ; but much more under the action of alternate frost and 
thaw, rains and winds, rivers and floods, earthquakes and other 
forces, we may behold a never-ceasing wear, slow indeed, but con- 
tinual and universal, going on over the surface of the dryland; 
the result being that the waste, along with that of animal and 
vegetable forms, is constantly carried by the rivers into the ocean. 
In the depths of the ocean the waste settles down in stillness; and 
we may safely assume that it settles in the shape of layers, varying 
in nature and kind, in different ages and at different places, with 
the prevailing soil, rocks, and vegetable and animal remains from 
