OF the qualifications which this undertaking requires, there is one that I may safely suppose my self to possess. Having been instructed by Di Hutton himself in his theory of the earth; having lived in intimate friendship with that excellent man for several years, and almost in the daily habit of discussing the questions here treated of; I have had the best opportunity of understanding his views, and becoming acquainted with his peculiarities, whether of expression or of thought. In the other qualifications necessary for the illustration o a system so extensive and various, I am abundantly sensible of my deficiency, and shall therefore with great deference, and considerable anxiety wait that decision from which there is no appeal. EDINBURGH COLLEGE, } 1st March 1802. } TABLE OF CONTENTS. INTRODUCTION. Object of a Theory of the Earth. Division of minerals into _Stratified_ and _Unstratified_. Page 1 SECTION I. PHENOMENA PECULIAR TO STRATIFIED BODIES. 1. Materials of the Strata. Page 4 Present strata composed of the remains of more ancient rocks, § 1. Proofs from calcareous strata, § 2.--from siliceous, § 3.--from argillaceous, § 4.--from bituminous, § 5, 6. Absence of organized remains from the strata called _primitive_, not universally true, § 8, 9.--Term Primary substituted for Primitive. Composition from the materials of more ancient rocks, § 10. 2. Consolidation of the Strata. p. 15 Consolidation, what, § 11. Objections to aqueous consolidation, § 12, 13, 14. Compression affects the action of fire on bodies, § 15, 16, 17.--Igneous consolidation of minerals prove from fossil wood, § 19.--From the flints in chalk, § 20.--from sandstone, § 21.--from the calcareous strata, § 23, 24, 25.--from the argillaceous, § 26, 27.--from the bituminous, § 28, 29.--from the saline, § 32. Salt mines in Cheshire. Trona of Africa, § 54, 35. 3. Position of the Strata. p. 40 Strata formed at the bottom of the sea, § 36. Apparent elevation not produced by the retreat of the sea, § 37.--Strata, horizontal, when formed, § 38, 39. Disturbance of the strata proved from their inclined position § 40, 41, 42.--from shifts, &c. § 42. Shifts of different dates, _ib._ Disturbance of the primitive strata visible at their junction with the secondary, § 43, 44. This disturbance produced by a force directed upward, § 45, 46. This force the effect of subterraneous heat, § 47, 48.