It is not here
inquired by what mechanism this operation is to be performed; it is
certainly by the exertion of a subterranean power that the land is
elevated from the place in which it had been formed; and nothing is more
natural than to suppose the supports of the land in time to fail, or be
destroyed in the course of mineral operations which are to us unknown.
In that case, whatever were remaining of that land, which had for
millions of ages past sustained plants and animals, would again be
placed at the bottom of the sea; and strata of every different species
might be deposited again upon that mass, which, from an atmospheric
situation, is now supposed to be lower than the surface of the sea.
Such a compound mass might be again resuscitated, or restored with the
new superincumbent strata, consolidated in their texture and inclined in
their position. In that case, the inferior mass must have undergone a
double course of mineral changes and displacement; consequently, the
effect of subterranean heat or fusion must be more apparent in this
mass, and the marks of its original formation more and more obliterated.
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