pearances.

The power of heat for the expansion of bodies, is, so far as we know,
unlimited; but, by the expansion of bodies placed under the strata at
the bottom of the sea, the elevation of those strata may be effected;
and the question now to be resolved regards the actual exertion of
this power of expansion. How far it is to be concluded as having been
employed in the production of this earth above the level of the sea.

Before attempting to resolve that question, it may be proper to observe,
there has been exerted an extreme degree of heat below the strata formed
at the bottom of the sea; and this is precisely the action of a power
required for the elevation of those heated bodies into a higher place.
Therefore, if there is no other way in which we may conceive this event
to have been brought about, consistent with the present state of things,
or what actually appears, we shall have a right to conclude, that such
had been the order of procedure in natural things, and that the
strata formed at the bottom of the sea had been elevated, as well as
consolidated, by means of subterraneous heat.

The consolidation of strata by means of fusion or the power of heat, has
been concluded from the examination of nature, and from finding, that
the present state of things is inconsistent with any other supposition.
Now, again, we are considering the only power that may be conceived as
capable of elevating strata from the bottom of the sea, and placing such
a mass above the surface of the water. It is a truth unquestionable,
that what had been originally at the bottom of the sea, is at present
the highest of our land. In explaining this appearance, therefore, no
other alternative is left, but either to suppose strata elevated by the
power of heat above the level of the present sea, or the surface of the
ocean reduced many miles below the height at which it had subsisted
during the collection and induration of the land which we inhabit.

Now, if, on the one hand, we are to suppose no general power of
subterraneous fire or heat, we leave to our theory no means for the
retreat of the sea, or the lowering of its surface; if, on the other
hand, we are to allow the general power of subterraneous heat, we cannot
have much difficulty in supposing, either the surface of the sea to have
subsided, or the bottom of the ocean, in certain parts, to have been
raised by a subterranean power above the level of its surface, according
as appearan