ating of beds or bodies deposited in water, and
preserving the natural situation in which they had been formed, he would
have had reason to conclude that the superior bed was of the latest
formation; but here is no question of superincumbent strata; it is a
stratum which is superincumbent on a lava; and it is equally natural to
suppose the lava posterior to the stratum as the stratum posterior to
the lava.

Our author meets with a limestone too much erected in its position to be
supposed as in its natural place, and then he explains this phenomenon
in the following manner, p. 333. "Les rochers d'Ehrentbreitstein et
de Lahnstein sont donc des faits particuliers. Ces rochers la ont ete
formes par des depots de la mer: Les corps marin qu'ils renferment en
font foi. Des lors ils ont du avoir dans leur origine la seule position
que la mer put leur donner; l'horizontale ou legerement inclinee. Leur
couches sont aujourd'hui rompues, et leur inclination n'est plus
celle de depots immediats de la mer. Les collines, auxquelles elle
appartenoient, sont en meme tems entourees de volcans anciens; et il est
naturel d'en conclure, que c'est a eux que ces grands rochers doivent
leur position actuelle."

Here one would expect our author is to allow that volcanos may erect
rocks in heightening them in their place; but this is not the light
in which it has been seen by him, as will appear from what follows.
"L'enfoncement d'une de leurs cotes n'est rien, quand on considere le
prodigieuse excavation qui ont du se faire, pour porter au dehors toutes
les montagnes, les collines, et les plaines volcaniques qui se trouvent
dans ce vaste circuit."

When a small portion of a stratum is examined, such as the present case,
it is impossible from inspection to determine, whether it owes its
inclined position to the sinking or the raising of the ground; the
stratum is changed from its original position, but whether this has been
brought about by the raising of the one side, or the sinking of the
other is not apparent from what then is seen. But unless we are to
explain the appearance of strata above the level of the sea by a
supposition which is that of the retreat of the ocean, a theory which
this author has adopted, it is as impossible to explain the present
appearance of horizontal strata as of those that are inclined. At the
same time, if a power placed below the strata is to be employed for the
purpose of raising them from the bottom of the s