Now, there is not, besides
heat or fusion, any known power in nature by which these effects might
be produced. But such effects are general to all consolidated masses,
although not always so well illustrated in a cabinet specimen.
Thus we have discovered a truth that is confirmed by every appearance,
so far as the nature of the subject now examined admits. We now return
to the general operation, of forming continents of those materials which
had been deposited at the bottom of the sea.
SECTION III.
Investigation of the Natural Operations employed in the Production of
Land above the Surface of the Sea.
We seek to know that operation by means of which masses of loose
materials, collected at the bottom of the sea, were raised above its
surface, and transformed into solid land.
We have found, that there is not in this globe (as a planet revolving
in the solar system) any power or motion adapted to the purpose now in
view; nor, were there such a power, could a mass of simply collected
materials have continued any considerable time to resist the waves and
currents natural to the sea, but must have been quickly carried away,
and again deposited at the bottom of the ocean.
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