considered the arguments which have here been employed for the manifold,
the general operations of subterranean fire, as well as for the long
continued operations of water on the surface of the erected land, he
will not seek after any other explanation than that which had naturally
occurred to himself upon the occasion, and which he most ingenuously
declares to have great weight, although not sufficient to persuade him
of its truth.



CHAP. II.

_The same Subject continued, with examples
from different Countries._

Our theory, it must be remembered, has for principle, that all the
alpine as well as horizontal strata had their origin at the bottom of
the sea, from the deposits of sand, gravel, calcareous and other bodies,
the materials of the land which was then going into ruin; it must also
be observed, that all those strata of various materials, although
originally uniform in their structure and appearance as a collection
of stratified materials, have acquired appearances which often are
difficult to reconcile with that of their original, and is only to be
understood by an examination of a series in those objects, or that
gradation which is sometimes to be perceived from the one extreme state
to the other, that is from their natural to their most changed state. M.
de Saussure who will not be suspected of having any such theory in his
view, will be found giving the most exemplary confirmation to that
system of things.