On the one hand, the subsiding of the surface of the ocean would but
make the former land appear the higher; and, on the other, the sinking
the body of the former land into the solid globe, so as to swallow up
the greater part of the ocean after it, if not a natural impossibility,
would be at least a superfluous exertion of the power of nature. Such an
operation as this would discover as little wisdom in the end elected, as
in the means appropriated to that end; for, if the land be not wasted
and worn away in the natural operations of the globe, Why make such a
convulsion in the world in order to renew the land? If, again, the land
naturally decays, Why employ so extraordinary a power, in order to hide
a former continent of land, and puzzle man?
Let us now consider how far the other proposition, of strata being
elevated by the power of heat above the level of the sea, may be
confirmed from the examination of natural appearances.
The strata formed at the bottom of the ocean are necessarily horizontal
in their position, or nearly so, and continuous in their horizontal
direction or extent.
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