"remote times, occupied the greater part of the PART III. "continents which we inhabit; it is to its resi 86 dence, that is owing the prodigious quantity of ' 1 shells, of skeletons of fishes, and of other "bodies, which we find in the mountains and "strata of the earth, in places often very "distant from the bed which the sea actually occupies. In vain would any one attribute "these phænomena to the Universal Deluge; we "have shown, under the article FOSSILS,' that "that revolution, having been merely transient, ❝ could not have produced all the effects which "the greater part of naturalists have attributed "to it. Whereas, in supposing the residence of "the sea upon our earth, nothing will be more 66 easy than to form to oneself a clear idea "of the formation of the strata (i. e. the se“condary strata) of the earth; and to conceive, "how so great a number of marine bodies are 66 found in a soil which the sea has abandoned1." Those writers were little aware, that they were urging the very statement of the record; and that what they so authoritatively opposed, was, in fact, not the record itself, but the misinterpretation of the record. With the clear and satisfactory authority of this historical clue, to guide our reason in in 1 Tom. x. art. MER, p. 359. Ed. fol. 1765. CHAP. V. CHAP. V. PART III. vestigating the various phænomena of the earth, one would have thought that adequate causes were assigned, and in rich abundance, to account generally for every phænomenon that can occupy the attention of geology; for, the mineral geology itself does not presume to account for every particular effect; but is constrained to refer many of them to causes which are unknown," or, to 66 causes which have ceased to act." 66 Yet, those causes are not sufficient to satisfy the mineral geology, even where it is led to infer the very same four periods in the history of the earth. For, thus it likewise states: "The epocha, in which we perceive that so great à quantity of brescia, sand-stone, coal, "&c. were produced, differs so entirely from that which preceded it, and from that "which followed it, that one would be tempt 66 ed to discern in it a real change, rather "than a mere oscillation, in the course of nature. It proves to us, a time of destruction; it indicates a violent and almost sudden action, "between the tranquil formation of primitive "rocks, and the formation, generally tranquil, of "calcareous soils1." We here perceive a remarkable approximation, by the acuteness of D'AUBUISSON, i. p. 361. CHAP. V. observation alone, to the true order of events as PART III. they are reported in the record. The able observer perceives, 1. a primitive period, in which primitive rocks were tranquilly formed; 2. a period of violent and sudden destruction; 3. a long interval, in which the calcareous formations were more or less tranquilly deposited in the sea; And, 4. he has elsewhere noted the retreat of that sea1. Here, then, are all the true periods, which the Mosaical record enables us to arrange in their proper order, and to assign to their proper dates. But, through neglect of that guide, imagination interferes; and the periods, thus correctly stated, are afterwards multiplied by the insertion of conjectural revolutions, in order to account for the variety of effects, which those four periods, in fact, alone produced. Let us, therefore, proceed to examine, with some attention, the reasons which have prompted those conjectural insertions; and to investigate, in their detail, the principal phænomena, which have seduced the mineral geology to require more revolutions, than it can be supplied with from the Mosaical. But, first of all, it must consent to renounce, and for ever to relinquish, all those revolutions, which it had invented merely to contrive the first See above, p. 277, 8. X CHAP. V. PART III. formation, or primitive composition, of the mineral system of the earth, by the chemical modes of dissolution, precipitation, and crystallization, in an elementary Chaos; such process being absolutely denied, disclaimed, and derided, by true philosophy, and flatly contradicted in history, by adequate witness of the fact, as has been fully shown in the two preceding parts of this disquisition. Our inquiry concerning revolutions, must be exclusively limited to such phænomena as bear unequivocal characters of mechanical action, or, if of chemical, of such as has been exercised in the decomposition of first-formed or created substances, or in their recomposition; it cannot extend to any thing but that, in which alteration or real revolution, of parts or place, is distinctly and incontestably manifested. CHAPTER VI. CHAP. VI. THE first great difficulty, which the mineral PART III. geology has created for itself, occurs in that amazing and principal phænomenon, the remains of animals of all species and climates, which are discovered in exhaustless quantities in the interior of the earth; so that the exuvia of animal species now subsisting only within the torrid zone, and those of species which no longer exist at all, are found confusedly huddled together in the soils of the most northerly latitudes. "In examining the "mineral masses in the interior of the earth, 65 says the mineral geology, the observer is "astonished at the prodigous quantity of the "fragments of animals and vegetables which it " contains. He will recollect the order, in "which organic beings are distributed upon. "the surface of the globe; some, can only live " in the bosom of the sea, others, in fresh-water; 66 some, are only to be found within the torrid zone, "while there are others, which would perish "the moment they should be removed from the frigid zone; in a word, each species appears as 66 |