WEaNBTUAN SYSTEM. 
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confusion witli fragments of the solid matter of ilie globe. To 
this great event the rocks df the “ newest floetz-trap formation 
owed their birth ; and it is imagined that these were originally 
deposited in continuity around large tracts, if not the whole o( 
the earth ; thougli found at present to occur only in detadicd 
and broken portions. 
“ It is evident,” says Mr. Jameson, " from the nature and Newest 
aositiosi of these rocks, that they have been formed by a vast 
ieluge •, the water .appears to have risen rapidly ; again to have 
aecome more calm ; and, during the period of its settling, to 
lave deposited the different rocks of this formation, and lastly, to 
aave retired to its former level with considerable rapidity.-— 
fbe broken stratification, which is so characteristic of this 
'brmation, was occasioned “ partly by the rapid retiring of the 
vater. The heaps of trees, the beds of gravel, sand, and clay, 
ind their more frequent occurrence in low than high sitoalions, 
'heir const.ant occurrence in the lower parts of the formation, 
re evident proofs of (he rapid and tumultuous rising of the 
vaters ; the calmness of the water is proved by thevfineness of 
■he mechanical, and the increasing fineness of the chemical 
olution according as we approach to the newer members or 
pperpart of the formation.” And greenstone, a precipitate 
com a state of solution comjdetely chcnnc.al,” which is 
tsually thenppermost rock, is the most ciystalline.” (P. 63. 85.) 
The rapid retreat of the waters, after the deposition of the - 
tor.iiaiiiiti. 
wBtz-trap rocks, must have been attended with very destructive 
iJects, and considerable changes must thence have been pro- 
Miced, upon what had, previously, been the surface of the globe, 
from the succeeding deposition of the ruins of former rocks, 
id of other substances .still retained in chemical suspension, 
■'ose the class of hills denominated altuvicc, whose appearances 
*';ry plainly tell the history of their formation. The latest 
■woluiion which the waters .seem to have acco:nplihhed, was 
iw complete; and their subsidence to their present level, 
lally exposed a surface, which has been moulded, by the 
incessant 
