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1881.] Scepticism in Geclogy. 
In suggesting that basins of lakes, channels of rivers, the 
deep bed of the ocean, &c., have been the result of contrac- 
tion and shrinkage, while the rocks were “ in the adt of 
cooling down from the state of a molten mass,” “ Verifier ” 
seems to overlook the fadt that the character of the strata 
supposed to be thus affedted entirely ignores the possibility 
of such a conclusion. Whatever may have been the condi- 
tion of heat under which masses of granite have been pro- 
duced, deposits of limestone, coal, and other analogous rocks, 
cannot have been formed when the globe was in the molten 
condition suggested. When limestone was deposited on the 
bed of the ocean, and coal was being formed by long succes- 
sions of vegetable growth on dry land, the surface of the 
Earth cannot have differed essentially from its present con- 
dition. Such a degree of heat as that suggested would have 
converted the waters of the ocean into steam, and burnt up 
the vegetation of the dry land. Certainly the valleys and 
gorges at present existing cannot have been formed when the 
Earth was so hot that, as suggested by “Verifier,” some of 
the “ upper strata,” like the waves in a moving lava stream, 
“ would topple over and be absorbed in the glowing abyss 
below, to be re-melted into granite or trap.” I could take 
him to a wide valley the sides of which consist, besides other 
stratified rocks, of several corresponding seams of coal lying 
at different elevations above the bed of the river. The banks 
slope up gently, the lower seam on each side being separated 
to the extent of about a quarter of a mile, while the seams 
above are divided to a much greater extent. Supposing that 
mere shrinkage from the radiation of heat could have pro- 
duced such a degree of separation, which is very unlikely, 
the seams of coal must have experienced such a degree of 
heat at the time as would have burnt them up entirely and 
destroyed the present character of the other strata. 
“ Verifier” questions the assertion of geologists that con- 
siderable portions of the dry land are rising at the present 
time as the result of “ tranquil movements of elevation and 
depression.” He argues that, “ while the fadt itself is 
doubtful, Geology can furnish no reason why it should occur, 
which is a strong prima facie argument against it.” He 
says that no light is thrown on the time or mode by which 
beds of sea-shells of existing species have been deposited at 
various heights considerably above the Baltic, and “ we 
cannot suppose that Wales is at present emerging from the 
sea merely from the discovery of sea-shells on Moel Trivaen, 
which may have been placed there before the creation of 
man. The question we have to deal with is confined to 
