supposed to be the true one. What if instead of the whole ocean having
been higher, parts of the land were lower? England at one time, parts
of Europe at another time, parts of Asia and America at other times,
may have slowly sunk beneath the ocean, and after long remaining there
have slowly risen again.

This is by no means so wild a supposition as it may seem when first
heard, and as it doubtless did seem when first proposed. For even in
the present day these movements of the solid crust of our earth are
going on. The coasts of Sweden and Finland have long been slowly and
steadily rising out of the sea, so that the waves can no longer reach
so high upon those shores as in years gone by they used to reach. In
Greenland, on the contrary, land has long been slowly and steadily
sinking, so that what used to be the shore now lies under the sea.
Other such risings and sinkings might be mentioned, as also many more
in connection with volcanoes and earthquakes, which are neither slow
nor steady, but sudden and violent.

So it becomes no impossible matter to believe that, in the course of
ages past, all those wide reaches of our continents and islands, where
sedimentary rocks are to be found, were each in turn, at one time or
another, during long periods, beneath the rolling waters of the
ocean....

* * * * *

These built-up rocks are not only called "Stratified," and
"Sedimentary." They have also the name of _Aqueous Rock_, from the
Latin word _aqua, water_; because they are believed to have been
formed by the action of the water.