and plants that grew on the surface of the earth before the formation of the present land. 6. Dr Hutton has further observed, that if those ancient continents were at all similar to the present, we can be at no loss to account for the want of any distinct mark of vegetable organization in the greater part of the coal strata. It is plain, that the daily waste of animal and vegetable substances on the surface of the earth, must disengage a great quantity of oily as well as carbonic matter, which, with whatever element it is at first combined, is ultimately delivered into the ocean. Thus, the oily or fuliginous parts of animal and vegetable substances, let loose by burning, first ascend into the atmosphere, but are at length precipitated, and either fall immediately into the sea, or are, in part at least, washed down into it from the land. From other causes also, much vegetable matter is carried down by the rivers; and the whole quantity of animal and vegetable substances thus delivered into the sea, must be very considerable, amounting annually to the whole residuum of those substances, not employed in the maintenance or reproduction of animal and vegetable bodies. Whether chemically united to the waters of the ocean, or simply suspended in them, this matter is at last precipitated, and, mingling with earthy substances, is formed into strata, the place of which will be determined by the currents, the position of the present continents, and many other circumstances not easily enumerated. If, then, an order of things similar to what we now see, existed before the formation of the present strata, it would necessarily happen, that the animal and vegetable substances, diffused through the ocean, being separated from the water, would be deposited at the bottom of the sea, and, in the course of ages, would form beds, less or more pure, according to the quantity of earth and other substances deposited at the same time. These beds being consolidated and mineralized by operations that are afterwards to be considered, have been converted into pit-coal, the parts of which are impalpable, and retain nothing of their primitive structure.[3] [Footnote 3: NOTE II.] If, then, the formation of coal from animal and vegetable bodies be admitted, the general position which derives the origin of the strata from the waste of former land, as it is applicable to all the kinds already enumerated, and of course to all those with which they are alternated, comprehends a very large portion of the earth's surface. It comprehends, indeed, all the strata usually distinguished by the name of _Secondary_; but there is another great division of the mineral kingdom, viz. the rocks, called _Primitive_, which, as they are never alternated with the secondary, but are always inferior to them, must be further examined, before we can decide whether the same conclusion extends to them or not.