Theory of the Earth

We now desire to know, how far those internal operations of the globe, by which solidity and stability are procured to the beds of loose materials, may have been also employed in raising up a continent of land, to remain above the surface of the sea.

THERE is nothing so proper for the **** of land above the level of the ocean, as an expansive power of sufficient force, applied directly under materials in the bottom of the sea, under a mass that is proper for the formation of land when thus erected. The question is not, how such a power may be procured; such a power has probably been employed. If, therefore, such a power should be consistent with that which we found had actually been employed in preparing the erected mass; or, if such a power is to be reasonable concluded as accompanying those operations which we have found natural to the globe, and situated in the very place where this expansive power appears to be required, we should thus be led to perceive, in the natural operations of the globe, a power as efficacious for the elevation of what had been at the bottom of the sea into the place of land, as it is perfect for the preparation of those materials to serve the purpose of their elevation.

IN opposition to this conclusion, it will not be allowed to allege, that we are ignorant how such a power might be exerted under the bottom of the ocean; for the present question is not, what had been the cause of heat, which has appeared to have been produced in that place; but, if this power of heat, which has certainly been exerted at the bottom of the ocean for consolidating strata, had been employed also for another purpose, that is, for raising those strata into the place of land.

WE may, perhaps, account for the elevation of land, by the same cause with that of the consolidation of strata, already investigated, without explaining the means employed by nature in procuring the power of heat, or shewing from what general source of action this particular power had been derived; but, by finding in subterranean heat a cause for any other change, besides

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