144 
SURTURBRAND. 
kind, consisting of numerous horizontal 
strata; and as, in many instances, fifteen or 
twenty of these strata are piled above the 
bed of mineralised wood, the theory will be 
freest from embarrassment that refers its 
entombment to one or other of those dread¬ 
ful elemental conflicts to which the terra¬ 
queous globe has repeatedly been subjected. 
It formed perhaps part of the forests that 
grew on the sunk continent that now sup¬ 
ports the Atlantic, and which on the sub¬ 
mersion of that continent, must have been 
completely overturned, and carried in va¬ 
rious directions, according to the motion of 
the currents. This hypothesis is corrobora¬ 
ted by the fact, that the bed of surturbrand 
in the west of Iceland, runs uniformly in 
the direction of N. E. by N. N. E. ; and 
however broken and separated by the 
intervening bays and vallies, fonns one 
continued stratum in the crust of the earth. 
That it is found to dip in some places 
more than others, is a necessary conse¬ 
quence of the earthquakes and volcanic 
derangements of subsequent date.”* 
* Henderson’s Iceland, vol. 2, p. 114. 
