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that perceiving how much the least thing in the world hath in 
it more than the wisest are able to reach unto, they might by 
this means learn with humility.” Humbly we confess with 
Bishop Butler, “ other orders of creatures may perhaps be let 
into the secret counsels of Heaven, and have the designs and 
methods of Providence in the creation and government of the 
world communicated to them, but this does not belong to our 
rank and condition.” 
The Chairman. — You will allow me to thank Mr. Mitchell for his very 
able paper. It is another of the valuable contributions that he has made, 
not only in support of revealed truth, but in support of science ; indeed, it is 
more eminently in support of science than of revealed truth. I now invite 
discussion upon the paper, for which we all thank Mr. Mitchell heartily. 
(Applause.) 
R. Baxter, Esq. — I should like to mention a fact or two that relate to the 
law of deposits. Having had considerable means of observation on the 
borders of the great tidal river the Trent, I may mention a few circumstances 
in order to show why we observe the laws of currents and deposits. We 
have on the borders of that river more than 20,000 acres under the level of 
the sea, and we take means to let in the tidal waters on this land, in order to 
make a deposit of the mud carried in the stream, and so improve the land. 
We do this statedly year by year, and it is a regular trade and profession. 
A man embanks about 300 or 400 acres, gets the water all about that area, 
and the principal thing at which he aims is to get the deposit of mud equally 
distributed. In effecting this work, he cannot help observing the law 
of deposits. He finds that there is always a certain quantity of deposit, if 
even the stream is running at the rate of three miles per hour ; but 
according to the strength of the stream so is the quantity of alluvial matter 
carried. I have seen instances, when the spring tides have been coming up, 
where the earth has been carried in such large flakes that you might have 
put your hand in and gathered a great lump of the mud which the stream 
was carrying away. When the strength of the stream is retarded, then the 
deposit most rapidly takes place ; and when it is let into an embanked area 
it becomes perfectly still, and the deposit of the substances then takes place. 
We see in the river Trent islands formed in 20, 30, 40, or 50 years, and in 
the next 20, 30, 40, or 50 years they are carried away. And why is this ? 
Because the current has changed. In the system that I have described, and 
called “ warping,” banks are made here and there to change the current, by 
which means that which has been deposited is often carried away. How 
totally unreliable must be any law of deposits by inches or feet in a century, 
when we remember how, on the principle I have described, one year’s flood, 
if it is higher than usual, will carry away the deposits of previous years, and 
settle them perhaps lower down the stream, where the river is more quiet, 
owing to the extended area over which it has to flow ! I have seen, among 
the results of changing and checking currents, where drains, 150 yards long, 
