The supposition, therefore, of the subsidence of the former ocean, for the purpose of discovering the present land, is beset with more difficulty than the simple erection of the bottom of the former ocean; for, _first_, There is a place to provide for the retirement of the waters of the ocean; and, _2dly_, There is required a work of equal magnitude; this is, the swallowing up of that former continent, which had procured the materials of the present land. On the one hand, the subsiding of the surface of the ocean would but make the former land appear the higher; and, on the other, the sinking the body of the former land into the solid globe, so as to swallow up the greater part of the ocean after it, if not a natural impossibility, would be at least a superfluous exertion of the power of nature. Such an operation as this would discover as little wisdom in the end elected, as in the means appropriated to that end; for, if the land be not wasted and worn away in the natural operations of the globe, Why make such a convulsion in the world in order to renew the land? If, again, the land naturally decays, Why employ so extraordinary a power, in order to hide a former continent of land, and puzzle man? Let us now consider how far the other proposition, of strata being elevated by the power of heat above the level of the sea, may be confirmed from the examination of natural appearances. The strata formed at the bottom of the ocean are necessarily horizontal in their position, or nearly so, and continuous in their horizontal direction or extent. They may change, and gradually assume the nature of each other, so far as concerns the materials of which they are formed; but there cannot be any sudden change, fracture, or displacement, naturally in the body of a stratum. But, if these strata are cemented by the heat of fusion, and erected with an expansive power acting below, we may expect to find every species of fracture, dislocation, and contortion, in those bodies, and every degree of departure from a horizontal towards a vertical position. The strata of the globe are actually found in every possible position: For, from horizontal, they are frequently found vertical; from continuous, they are broken and separated in every possible direction; and, from a plane, they are bent and doubled. It is impossible that they could have originally been formed, by the known laws of nature, in their present state and position; and the power that has been necessarily required for their change, has not been inferior to that which might have been required for their elevation from the place in which they had been formed.