The question which we would wish to have solved is this; if the vertical
strata had been broken and erected under the superincumbent horizontal
strata; or if, after the vertical strata had been broken and erected,
the horizontal strata had been deposited upon the vertical strata,
then forming the bottom of the sea. That strata, which are regular and
horizontal in one place, should be found bended, broken, or disordered
at another, is not uncommon; it is always found more or less in all our
horizontal strata. Now, to what length this disordering operation might
have been carried, among strata under others, without disturbing the
order and continuity of those above, may perhaps be difficult to
determine; but here, in this present case, is the greatest disturbance
of the under strata, and a very great regularity among those above. Here
at least is the most difficult case of this kind to conceive, if we are
to suppose that the upper strata had been deposited before those below
had been broken and erected.
Let us now suppose that the under strata had been disordered at the
bottom of the sea, before the superincumbent bodies were deposited; it
is not to be well conceived, that the vertical strata should in that
case appear to be cut off abruptly, and present their regular edges
immediately under the uniformly deposited substances above.
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