WERNKRIAN SYSTEM. 
219 
these are positively disallowed by Werner ; and the mean den- Th**re is no 
sity of the earth will not admit of their existence. There is 
truly no place of retreat for all this water, if it retained its 'f solidified or 
liquid form ; and It can have disappeared only by means of some be pure 
permanent change in its condition j by being converted into 
vapour, or resolved into its elements, or consolidated in some 
of tlie denser material of the globe, conclusions, any of 
which, if (hey be not evidently absurd, encroach on probability 
too largely to be admitted without direct proof — yet these or 
other premises, equally remote from demonstration, are essen- 
tially connected with Werner's view of this question. 
The force of this difficulty is very much increased by the and incoiis-i*. 
existenco of wliat are called the overlyinjg formations 
they imply, according to Werner, repeated risings and depres- lisiugs, See. 
sions of the dissolving fluid. Let us take only the most re- 
markable of these, the newest Floetz-trap rocks. For their 
production, it is stated, that, after a vast extent of land h.ad 
been disclosed, the waters rose again to the height at least at 
which these rocks are found. But at the Pic of Tenerifle, 
there is basalt at 11,000 feet above the present level of the sea, 
and Humboldt found that rock so greatly elevated as 14, /OO 
feet at Pinchinea, near the city of Quito* ; and for every foot 
which the fluid sunk or rose, at either of those places, a shell 
of corresponding depth must have been moved over all the 
surface of the globe. Even supposing the disappearance of 
such a quantity of matter to have been accounted for, how 
was it again produced ? Was it condensed a second time from 
vapour or from gas, or regenerated from the solid form which, 
oilierwise, we must suppose it to have assumed ? 
But a single return of the w’aters will not be enough for Difficulty 
Werner — for several are supposed to h.nve taken place, ^ ^ated 
which gave ri.se to the overlying primitive rocks is one of them, 
and the newest Floetz-trap formation will furnish many 
more. From what has been quoted already, it appears that 
the rapid rise, the calming, and deposition during the settle- 
• Tableau Physique, &c. p. 143. 
R 2 
ment 
