Theory of the Earth

the consolidation of porous or incoherent bodies, we shall generalize a fact, or extend our knowledge in the explanation of natural appearances.

THE power of heat for the expansion of bodies, is, so far as we know, unlimited; but by the expansion of bodies placed under the strata at the bottom of the sea, the elevation of those strata may be affected; and the question now to be resolved regards the actual exertion of this power of expansion, how far it is to be concluded as having been employed in the production of this earth above the level of the sea.

BEFORE attempting to resolve that question, it may be proper to observe, there has been exerted an extreme degree of heat below the strata formed at the bottom of the sea; and this is precisely the action of a power required for the elevation of those heated bodies into a higher place. Therefore, if there is no other way in which we may conceive this event to have been brought about, consistent with the present state of things, or what actually appears, we shall have a right to conclude, that such had been the order of procedure in natural things, and that the strata formed at the bottom of the sea had been elevated, as well as consolidated, by means of subterraneous heat.

THE consolidation of strata by means of fusion or the power of heat, has been concluded from the examination of nature, and from finding, that the present state of things is inconsistent with any other supposition. Now, again, we are considering the only power that may be conceived as capable of elevating strata from the bottom of the sea, and placing such a mass above the surface of the water. It is a truth unquestionable, that what had been originally at the bottom of the sea, is at present the highest of our land. In explaining this appearance, therefore, no other alternative is left, but either to suppose strata elevated by the power of heat above the level of the present sea, or the surface of the ocean reduced many miles below the

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