ever changed from the state of their
first subsidence, should be absolutely consolidated, without any visible
or fluid water in their composition.

Besides this difficulty of having the water separated from the porous
masses which are to be consolidated, there is another with which, upon
this supposition, we have to struggle. This is, From whence should come
the matter with which the numberless cavities in those masses are to be
filled?

The water in the cavities and interstices of those bodies composing
strata, must be in a stagnating state; consequently, it can only act
upon the surfaces of those cavities which are to be filled up. But
with what are they to be filled? Not with water; they are full of that
already: Not with the substance of the bodies which contain that water;
this would be only to make one cavity in order to fill up another.
If, therefore, the cavities of the strata are to be filled with solid
matter, by means of water, there must be made to pass through those
porous masses, water impregnated with some other substances in a
dissolved state; and the aqueous menstruum must be made to separate
from the dissolved substance, and to deposit the same in those cavities
through which the solution moves.

By such a supposition as this, we might perhaps explain a partial
consolidation of those strata; but this is a supposition, of which the
case under consideration does not admit; for in the present case, which
is that of materials accumulated at the bottom of the ocean, there is
not proper means for separating the dissolved matter from the water
included in those enormous masses; nor are there any means by which a
circulation in those masses may be formed. In this case, therefore,
where the means are not naturally in the supposition, a philosopher, who
is to explain the phenomenon by the natural operation of water in this
situation, must not have recourse to another agent, still more powerful,
to assist his supposition which cannot be admitted.

Thus, it will appear, that, to consolidate strata formed at the bottom
of the sea, in the manner now considered, operations are required
unnatural to this place; consequently, not to be supposed, in order to
support a hypothesis.

But now, instead of inquiring how far water may be supposed instrumental
in the consolidation of strata which were originally of a loose
texture, we are to consider how far there may be appearances in those
consolidated bodies, by which