Theory of the Earth

now examine, certain means to read the annals of a former earth.

THE object of enquiry being the operations of the globe, during the time when the present earth was forming at the bottom of the sea, we are now to take a very general view of nature, without descending into those particulars which so often occupy the speculations of naturalists, about the present state of things. We are not at present to enter into any discussion with regard to what are the primary and secondary mountains of the earth; we are not to consider what is the first, and what the last, in those things which now are seen; whatever is most ancient in the strata which we now examine, is supposed to be collecting at the bottom of the sea, during the period concerning which we are now to enquire.

WE have already considered those operations which had been necessary informing our solid land, a body consisting of materials originally deposited at the bottom of the ocean; we are now to investigate the source from whence had come all those materials, from the collection of which the present land is formed; and from knowing the state in which those materials had existed, previously to their entering the composition of our strata, we shall learn something concerning the natural history of this world, while the present earth was forming in the sea.

WE have already observed, that all the strata of the earth are composed either from the calcareous relics of sea animals, or from the collection of such materials as we find upon our shores. at a gross computation, there may perhaps be a fourth part of our solid land, which is composed from the matter that had belonged to those animals. Now, what a multitude of living creatures, what a quantity of animal oeconomy must have been required for producing a body of calcareous matter which is interspersed throughout all the land of the globe, and which certainly forms a very considerable part of that mass!

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