one vast ocean, covering the whole or parts of the
solid crust according to its greater or less degree of uniformity.

The conversion of the igneous liquid surface into solid matter, could
only have taken place in successive shells or concentric layers; hence
would arise a stratified character. And as the cooling proceeded,
lowering the mean temperature of the whole mass, a consequent diminution
of bulk must have taken place, according to the well known law of
expansion by heat and contraction on cooling. Such diminution in bulk
must have broken the strata into fragments, through the fissures of
which, according to the laws of hydrostatics, the fluid mass beneath
would rise until the equilibrium of rotation would have been obtained,
and the strata, originally concentric, would be dislocated and turned in
every possible direction, pierced with veins and dikes of all possible
magnitude, from slender threads to mountain masses, caused by the
cooling and consolidation of the rising fluid, and occasionally
spreading in overlying currents, congealed and fixed in ridges and
chains. These veins and dykes would present different characters,
according to the dates of their elevation. If raised at a period when
the surface was still of high temperature, they must have crystallized
slowly, and in a perfect manner; at diminished temperatures, the
crystallization would be less complete; if raised into the mass of
ocean, they would assume one character; if coming in contact with air,
another. A breaking of the bed of the ocean, and bringing its waters in
contact with the liquid mass beneath, might produce consequences
extending in their action to districts of the globe, the most remote
from those in which the convulsion occurred; for the water, rising into
vapour, would tend to extend itself in one uniform atmosphere over the
whole surface of the globe, and might be precipitated in unusual
abundance wherever causes of condensation existed. Thus, partial, or
even total deluges, may have occurred, great portions of the ocean being
hurried in vapour from its bed, and precipitated upon the land whose
temperature is not affected by the distant catastrophe.

The waters might, in some cases, flow directly back to the ocean, in
others might accumulate in basins and form lakes, fresh at first, and
gradually becoming saline. These in turn might burst their bounds,
carrying ruin and devastation in their course, or might by evaporation
be dried