They cannot say that it is from a collection of earthy matter
which had been afterwards bituminized by infiltration; for, although
we find many of those earthy strata variously impregnated with the
bituminous and coaly matter, I have shown that the earthy and the
bituminous matter had subsided together; besides, there are many of
those coaly and bituminous strata in which there is no more than two or
three _per cent._ of earthy matter or ashes after burning; therefore
the strata must have been formed of bituminous matter, and not simply
impregnated with it.
To avoid this difficulty, we shall allow them to form their strata,
which certainly is the case in great part, by the collection of
vegetable bodies; then, I desire them to say, in what manner they are
to consolidate those bodies. If they shall allege that it is by simple
pressure, How shall we conceive the numerous veins of spar and pyrites,
which traverse those strata in all directions, to be formed in
those bodies consolidated by the compression of the superincumbent
masses?--Here is a manifest inconsistency, which proves that it could
not be.
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