brises et bouleverses
comme eux? Il est donc evident, que quoiqu'il soi arrive au schiste qui
les porte, ces lits, et tous les autres de meme genre qui sont au haut
de ces montagnes, ont ete deposees au niveau ou ils sont; et que
par consequent la _mer_ les surpassoit alors. Ainsi le systeme de
soulevement perd son but, s'il tend a expliquer pourquoi nous avons des
_couches_, formees par la mer, qui se trouvent maintenant si fort au
dessus de son niveau. Il est evident que ces _couches_ n'ont pas ete
soulevees; mais que la _mer_ s'est _abaissee_. Or c'est la le grand
point cosmologique a expliquer: tous les autres, qui tiennent a la
structure de certaines montagnes inintelligibles, n'appartiendront qu'a
_l'histoire naturelle_, tant qu'ils ne se lieront pas avec celui-la."

Here are two things to be considered; the interesting facts described
by our author, and the inference that he would have us draw from those
facts. It would appear from the facts, that the body of schistus below,
and that of lime-stone above, had not undergone the same disordering
operations, or by no means in the same degree. But our author has formed
another conclusion; he says, that these lime-stone strata must have been
formed precisely in the place and order in which they lie at present;
and the reason for this is, because these strata appeared to him to
follow perfectly the contour of the summit of this mountain. Now, had
there been in the top of this mountain a deep hollow encompassed about
with the schistus rock; and had this cavity been now found filled with
horizontal strata, there might have been some shadow of reason for
supposing those strata to have been deposited upon the top of the
mountain. But to suppose, _first_, that shells and corals should be
deposited upon the convex summit of a mountain which was then covered by
the sea; _secondly_, that these moveable materials should remain upon
the summit, while the sea had changed its place; and, _lastly_, that
those shells and corals left by the sea upon the top of a mountain
should become strata of solid limestone, and have also metallic veins
in it, certainly holds of no principle of natural philosophy that I am
acquainted with. If, therefore, such an appearance as this were to be
employed either in illustration or confirmation of a theory, it
would itself require to be explained; but this is a task that this
cosmologists does not seem willing to undertake.

He has formed a hypothesis