Theory of the Earth (of 4) Volume 2

Excerpt: ...of the Summits of the Alps. There are two different directions in which we may observe the destruction of our land to proceed; in the one of these, the basis of our continent is diminished by the incroachment of the sea; in the other, again, it is the height of the land above the level of the sea that is lowered. We have been considering the incroachment of the sea upon the continent; let us now examine how far there may also appear sufficient documents, by which we may be led to conclude a long progress in time past, for the destruction of the solid mass of earth above the sea, without diminishing its basis. If we shall suppose this earth composed of horizontal strata, and of one level surface, without the least protuberance remaining by which we might be informed of what had been removed by time in the operation of second causes, we should be ignorant of every thing of cosmogeny but this, That the strata of the globe had been originally formed (by the sea) in the same shape as we had found them on the surface of the land. But this is not the shape of the surface of our continent: We have every where abundance of eminences, sufficient to give us great information with regard to what had passed in former periods of time, if the strata of the globe were in that regular shape which they had originally assumed in being deposited at the bottom the sea. The strata, however, are not in that regular shape and position from whence we might learn, by examining the remaining portions, what had been carried away from the surface in general; they are found variously inclined to the horizon; and this we find both occasioned from the fracture and flexure of those bodies, thus changed from their natural horizontal state. Thus, though there are in many places immense masses of strata cut off abruptly, and exposed to view, without the remainder appearing, we cannot from hence form any estimate of the general quantity of destruction; at the same time, it must be...