But, so far as the
erecting cause is considered as the same with that by which the elevated
bodies were consolidated, and so far as the vertical situation is a
proof of the great exertion of that subterraneous power, the strata
which are most erected, should in general be found most consolidated.
Nothing more certain than that there have been several repeated
operations of the mineralising power exerted upon the strata
in particular places; and all those mineral operations tend to
consolidation: Therefore, the more the operations have been repeated in
any place, the more we should find the strata consolidated, or changed
from their natural state. Vertical strata have every appearance from
whence we should be led to conclude, that much of the mineral power
had been exerted upon them, in changing their original constitution or
appearance. But the question now to be considered is this, How far
it may appear that these masses of matter, which now seem to be so
different from the ordinary strata of the globe, had been twice
subjected to the mineral operations, in having been first consolidated
and erected into the place of land, and afterwards sunk below the
bottom of the sea, in order a second time to undergo the process of
subterraneous heat, and again be elevated into the place where they now
are found.
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