But, in the
case now under consideration, there appears the most uniform section
of the vertical strata, their ends go up regularly to the horizontal
deposited bodies. Now, in whatever state the vertical strata had been in
at the time of this event, we can hardly suppose that they could have
been so perfectly cut off, without any relict being left to trace that
operation. It is much more probable to suppose, that the sea had washed
away the relics of the broken and disordered strata, before those that
are now superincumbent had been begun to be deposited. But we cannot
suppose two such contrary operations in the same place, as that of
carrying away the relics of those broken strata, and the depositing of
sand and subtile earth in such a regular order. We are therefore led
to conclude, that the bottom of the sea, or surface of those erected
strata, had been in very different situations at those two periods, when
the relics of the disordered strata had been carried away, and when the
new materials had been deposited.
If this shall be admitted as a just view of the subject, it will be fair
to suppose, that the disordered strata had been raised more or less
above the surface of the ocean; that, by the effects of either rivers,
winds, or tides, the surface of the vertical strata had been washed
bare; and that this surface had been afterwards sunk below the influence
of those destructive operations, and thus placed in a situation proper
for the opposite effect, the accumulation of matter prepared and put in
motion by the destroying causes.
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