Dr Fleming’s Bemarhs on the Modern Strata. \Ti 
in thickness and extent, and arrangement, which the strata ex- 
hibit, will more easily be referred to their true cause. In such 
circumstanees, the geologist will discover the importance of at- 
tending to the geognostical relations of the modern strata, and 
the laws which influence the physical and geographical distribu- 
tion of the present races of organised beings ; in order that, by 
proceeding from the distinct to the obscure, he may qualify him- 
seirfor illustrating, with a greater chance of success, the various 
changes which the crust of this globe has undergone. 
In examining the peculiar characters of the causes which ope- 
rate in the production of the modern strata, we discover, in their 
results, three groups possessing very different features. In one 
we witness matter brought from an unnatural state, or from. a 
high level above the sea, and deposited in a more natural condi- 
tion, or nearer the level of the sea. Such are the depositions of 
detritus, lacustrine and marine silt, and lacustrine diluvium. 
In another, the causes in operation prevent, in some measure, 
the tendency of the wearing and lowering of the elevated parts 
of the Earth, and the products are soil and inland sand-drifts. In 
a third group, the matter deposited is brought from a natural 
condition, near the level of the sea, and elevated into an unna- 
tural situation. Such are the products of shore-sand-drifts,— «of 
marine inundations, and of volcanic eruptions. How far these 
may have mutually counterbalanced one another, in the great 
scale, and during the different epochs of the Earth, can scarcely 
be satisfactorily determined, in the present state of geological 
science 
The preceding remarks, on the modern strata, when viewed 
in connection with the observations on the extinct and extirpated 
animals, published in the last number of the Journal, will, I 
hope, serve to throw some light on the modern epoch of the 
Earth’s history, and the important geological phenomena which 
it embraces. 
Manse of Flisk, 1 
Bee. 3. 1824<. j 
• In a future Number, a view of the Carses in the Forth, Tay, &c,, as con- 
nected with the former configuration of the river districts of these rivers, &c., ^ 
will be given»— 
