That strata may exist, whether at the bottom of the sea, or any other where, without being consolidated, will hardly be disputed; for, they are actually found consolidated in every different degree. But, when strata are found consolidated, at what time is it that we are to suppose this event to have taken place, or this accident to have happened to them?--Strata are formed at the bottom of water, by the subsidence or successive deposits of certain materials; it could not therefore be during their formation that such strata had been consolidated; consequently, we must necessarily _conclude_, without any degree of _supposition_, that _strata had existed at the bottom of the sea previous to their consolidation_, unless our author can show how they may have been consolidated previous to their existing. This then is what our author has termed a gratuitous supposition of mine, and which, he adds, "is a circumstance which will not be allowed by the patrons of the aqueous origin of stony substances, as we have already seen."--I am perfectly at a loss to guess at what is here alluded to _by having been already seen_, unless it be that which I have already quoted, concerning things which have been never seen, that is, _those interior parts of the earth which were originally a solid mass_.--I have hardly patience to answer such reasoning;--a reasoning which is not founded upon any principle, which holds up nothing but chimera to our view, and which ends in nothing that is intelligible;--but, others, perhaps, may see this dissertation of our author's in a different light; therefore, it is my duty to analyse the argument, however insignificant it may seem to me.