nor regularity. If we penetrate into the bowels of the earth, we find metals, minerals, stone, bitumens, sands, earths, waters, and matter of every kind, placed, as it were, by mere accident, and without any apparent design. Up pon a nearer and more attentive inspection, we discover sunk mountains, caverns filled up, shattered rocks, whole countries swallowed up, new islands emerged from the ocean, heavy substances placed above light ones, hard bodies enclosed within soft bodies: in a word, we find matter in every form, dry and humid, warm and cold, solid and brittle, blended in a chaos of confusion, which can be compared to nothing but a heap of rubbish, or the ruins of a world." In examining the bottom of the sea, he observes, that we perceive it to be equally irregular as the surface of the dry land. We discover hills and valleys, plains and hollows, rocks and earths of every kind; we discover, likewise, that islands are nothing but the summits of vast mountains, whose foundations are buried in the ocean. We find other mountains whose tops are nearly on a level with the surface of the water; and rapid currents which run contrary to the general movements; these, like rivers, never exceed their natural limits. The bottom of the ocean and shelving sides of rocks produce plentiful crops of plants of many different species: its soil is composed of sand, gravel, rocks, and shells; in some places it is fine clay, in others, a compact earth and in general, the bottom of the sea has an exact resemblance to the dry land which we inhabit. In short, Buffon supposed that the dry land was formerly the bottom of the sea: he says, moreover, that it is impossible that the shells and marine substances which we find at an immense depth in the earth, and even in rocks and marble, should have been the effects of the deluge: for the waters could not overturn, and dissolve the whole surface of the earth, to the greatest depths. The earth must, therefore, have been originally much softer than it now is, and that it is has acquired its present solidity by the continual action of gravity, and consequently, the earth is much less subject to change now than formerly.

With regard to the original formation of the earth and all the planets in our system, he supposes that they were detached from the sun all at once by a mighty stroke of

a comet ;* not in the form of globes, but in the form of torrents; the motion of the foremost particles being accelerated by those which immediately followed, and the attraction of the foremost particles would accelerate the motion of the hindmost; and that the acceleration produced by one or both of these causes might be such as would necessarily change the original motion arising from the impulse of the comet; and a motion might result similar to that which takes place in the planets. The revolution of the primary planets on their axes, he accounts for from the obliquity of the original stroke, impressed by the comet "It is therefore evident, says he, that the earth assumed its figure when in a melted state; and to pursue our theory, it is natural to think that the earth, when it issued from the sun, had no other form but that of a torrent of melted and inflamed matter; that this torrent, by the mutual attraction of its parts, took on a globular figure, which its diurnal motion changed into a spheroid: that when the earth cooled, the vapours which were expanded like the tail of a comet, gradually condensed, and fell down in the form of water upon the surface, depositing at the same time a slimy substance mixed with sulphur and salts; part of which was carried by the motion of the waters into the perpendicular fissures of the strata, and produced metals; and the rest remained on the surface, and gave rise to the vegetable mould which abounds in different places, the organization of which is not obvious to our sen

ses.

Thus the interior parts of the globe were originally composed of vitrified matter. Above this vitrified matter were placed those bodies which the fire had reduced to the smallest particles, as sands, which are only portions of glass; and above these pumice-stones and the scoriæ of melted matter, which produced the diffcrent clays. The whole was covered with water to the depth of 500 or 600 feet which originated from the condensation of vapours when the earth began to cool. This

* Here Mr. Buffon loses himself in conjecture, scarcely within the verge of possibility, and very improbable.

+ This is a wild theory to account for the diurnal motion of the earth and other planets!

water deposited a stratum of mud, mixed with all those matters which are capable of being sublimed or exhaled by fire; and the air was formed of the most subtile vapours, which, from their levity, rose above the water.

Such was the condition of the earth when the tides, the winds, and the heat of the sun began to introduce changes on its surface. The diurnal motion of the earth, and that of the tides, elevated the waters in t he equatorial regions, and necessarily transported thither great quantities of slime, clay, and sand; and by thus elevating those parts of the earth, they perhaps sunk those under the poles about two leagues, or a 230th part of the whole; for the waters would easily reduce into powder, pumicestones, and other spongy parts of the vitrified matter upon the surface, and by this means excavate some places and elevate others, which, in time, would produce islands and continents, and all those inequalities on the surface, which are more considerable towards the equator than towards the poles."

5. DR. HUTTON'S THEORY.

In the first volume of the Edinburgh Philosophical Transactions, Dr. Hutton has laid down a new theory of the earth, perhaps the most elaborate and comprehensive that has hitherto appeared; to give a general abstract of it would much exceed the bounds allotted to this chapter. Wherefore, all that can be done here is, to point out some of the most striking passages.

He says, the general view of the terrestrial system conveys to our mind a fabric erected in wisdom, and that it was originally formed by design as an habitation for living creatures. In taking a comprehensive view of the mechanism of the globe, we observe three principal parts of which it is composed, and which, by being properly adapted to one another, form it into an habitable world; these are the solid body of the earth, the waters of the ocean, and the atmosphere surrounding the whole. On these Dr. Hutton observes >

1. The parts of the terrestrial globe more immediately exposed to our view, are supported by a central body, commonly supposed, but without any good reason, to be solid and inert.

2. The aqueous part, reduced to a spherical form by gravitation, has become oblate by the earth's centrifugal force. Its use is to receive the rivers, be a fountain of vapours, and to afford life to innumerable animals, as well as to be the source of growth and circulation to the organized bodies of the earth.

3. The irregular body of land raised above the level of the sea, is by far the most interesting, as immediately necessary to the support of animal life.

4. The atmosphere surrounding the whole is evidently necessary for innumerable purposes of life and vegetation, neither of which could subsist a moment without it.

:

Having thus considered the mechanism of the globe, he proceeds to investigate the powers by which it is upheld these are the gravitating and projectile forces by which the planets are guided; the influence of light and heat, cold and condensation: to which may be added electricity and magnetism.

With regard to the beginning of the world, though Dr. Hutton does not pretend to lay aside the Mosaic accounts respecting the origin of man, yet he endeavours to prove, that the marine* animals are of much higher antiquity than the human race.

The solid parts of the globe are, in general, composed of sand, gravel, argillaceous and calcareous strata, or of these mixed with some other substances.

Sand is separated and sized by streams and currents; gravel is formed by the mutual attrition of stones agitated in water; and marly or argillaceous strata have been collected by subsiding in water in which those earthy substances had floated. Thus, so far as the earth is formed of these materials, it would appear to have been the production of water, wind, and tides.

The doctor's next inquiry, is into the origin of our land, which he seems willing to derive entirely from the exuviæ of marine animals.† After adducing some argu

* According to the Mosaic account of the creation, the marine animals were created the fifth day, and man the sixth.

To give this any appearance of probability, the marine animals must have been created many centuries before either the dry land or the land animals were created; yet, according to the Mosaic account of the creation, the dry land appeared on the third day!

ments in support of this opinion, the principal of which is drawn from the quantity of marine productions found in different parts of the earth, he says, "The general amount of our reasoning is this; that nine-tenths perhaps, or 99 hundredths of this earth, so far as we see, have been formed by natural operations of the globe, in collecting loose materials, and depositing them at the bottom of the sea, consolidating those collections in various degrees, and either elevating these consolidated masses above the level on which they were formed, or lowering the level of that sea."

With respect to the different strata, he thinks it most probable that they have been consolidated by heat and fusion; and this hypothesis he imagines, will solve every difficulty respecting them; and, as the question is of the greatest importance in natural history, he discusses it to a considerable length. He considers metals of every species as the vapour of the mineral regions, condensed occasionally in the crevices of the land.

His next consideration is the means by which the dif ferent strata bave been elevated from the bottom of the ocean; (for he looks upon it as an indubitable fact that the highest points of our land have been for ages at the bottom of the ocean ;) and concludes, that the land on which we dwell has been elevated from a lower situation by the same agent which has been employed in consolidating the strata, in giving them stability, and preparing them for the purpose of the living world. This agent is matter, actuated by extreme heat, and expanded with amazing force.

The doctor imagines the world to be eternal, and endued with renovating power; for he says, "When the former land of this globe had been complete, so as to begin to waste and be impaired by the encroachment of the sea, the present land began to appear above the surface of the ocean. In this manner, we suppose a due proportion of land and water to be always preserved upon the surface of the globe, for the purpose of a habitable world," such as we possess." After endeavouring to prove a succession of worlds in the system of nature, he concludes his dissertation in these words; "The result, therefore, of our present inquiry is, that we find no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end."