We have seen, that the copiousness of springs depends on the extent and thickness of the filtrating strata, and that these strata are inclined to the horizon. We have likewise seen, that in cases of rupture and dislocation in the strata, springs may break out either laterally, as at Calstone and Pottern, or perpendicularly upwards, as in every country in which quicksands appear. But should the stratum of water, produced by rains and dew on a considerable expanse of country, and filtrating through its proper bed, as, for instance, through the sand immediately under chalk, or through the great free-stone rock between Bath and Bradford, find either no vent, or one not sufficient to exhaust its contents in the formation of springs and rivers; it must continue to descend over its inclined plain of clay, in its progress towards the centre of the earth, till the top covering, unable to support its pressure, shall give way, and a disruption shall take place. This must naturally happen where, in the bed of the ocean, the incumbent mass of rock is least considerable.

The consequence of this disruption and discharge of water, will be a current in the direction of the filtrating stratum, dependent on the quantity of rain and subject to alternations whenever the supply proceeds from a country, which has its seasons of drought and rain. As the direction of the dip varies in different parts of the globe, so must the direction of the currents, meaning always, not the superficial, affecting navigation, but the ground currents perceptible only by the plumb line.

Now, although we cannot look into the deep, we may be certain, what must be the effects produced by submarine torrents rushing from their beds and pouring forth their copious streams into the ocean. They are two-fold, for first the momentum acquired in a long and rapid descent is not readily destroyed. This we observe in the waters of the Rhone, which for many leagues pursue their course in the Mediterranean Sea, perfectly fresh, without the most minute admixture of salt water. But if such be the momentum in the waters of the Rhone, how much greater must be that of torrents rolling down much steeper descents; and what a battering ram must they present to opposing strata of argil, sand, or other soft materials. Such materials must be washed away, and consequently the superincumbent strata, even of the hardest rocks, must fall.

• But in the second place, such a plentiful supply of water, once in motion, must inevitably dislocate much of the filtrating stratum, in which it was collected, with the clay on which it glides, and thereby let down the superincumbent strata.

This process is taking place in the present ocean, and may have existed in the former. But, however the effect in question may have been produced, certain it is, that superior strata were undermined, and that considerable incroachments were made on the inferior strata by which numerous superincumbent beds sunk down. Such incroachments cannot have been produced by the common agents of destruction, rain, dews, frost, and wind. They must, therefore, have originated in the attrition of inferior currents, however caused,

whilst these strata and the now habitable parts of the globe were covered by the sea.

The scattered fragments of the dislocated strata being perpetually in motion, and agitated by contending currents, may have formed shingle, precisely like the alternations of the tides, on our sea shores, and the same operation may have produced bowlder-stones, which cannot have been formed by land floods and torrents.

On these scattered fragments, some angular, others, by agitation and attrition, rounded, various substances, such as clay, sand, broken' shells, or the paste of these, having been deposited, may have given birth to breccia and pudding-stone.'

The observations on Dr. Hutton's Theory of the Earth, which follow next in course, are prefaced by the ascription of motives to the author of that theory, who can no longer answer for himself. Mr.T. says, He was not an Atheist; but, as far as we can judge by his writings, a firm believer in the wisdom and power of the Creator. His object, therefore, in this work, was not to establish atheism, but to justify his unbelief in Revelation, and to make converts to his infidel opinions.' If sincere and enlightened divines have openly maintained that the Bible was not destined to instruct us in the principles of physical science, and that the interests of Revelation cannot be affected by the highest antiquity which can be assigned to the existence of the globe, we may charitably presume that Dr. Hutton's investigations were prompted by the purest zeal for truth, and tha the idea of disturbing the faith of the narrow-minded interpreters of Scripture was beneath his notice.-In Mr.Townsend's review of this celebrated theory, several forcible objections to some of its leading principles are stated; and we much mistake if difficulties of equivalent weight will not be found to press on every theory of the earth that has been hitherto proposed. At all events, the discussion of the two rival systems of fire and water has been too frequently agitated, to afford either instruction or amusement to our philosophical readers.

In the section on Chronometers, the existence of Delta soils at the mouths of rivers, accretions at the entrance of rivers into great lakes, the gradual conversion of lesser lakes into marshes, and then into meadows, the recent formations of peat-earth, the choaking of bays, creeks, and æstuaries, the retrocession of the Baltic, &c., are adduced as so many physical proofs that the origin of our continents is not more antient than the period of the Deluge: but the advocates for the indefinite antiquity of the world may allege that these measurable diminutions of the quantity of fluid are, comparatively, of yesterday, and that former waters may have repeatedly accumulated and receded in the lapse of ages.

Under

Under the title of Geological Conjectures, the author first considers the changes which may have taken place in the interval between the general Deluge and our earliest records, and which may have been such as to render it difficult for us to give a satisfactory answer to all the questions which have been proposed by infidels, respecting the very brief and compendious relation of our sacred records, when describing the universal deluge.' Such, for example, may have been the formation of many great alluvial flats, and the subsidence of large portions of land. Secondly, the shifting of the poles of the earth is shortly stated as not inconsistent with probability, though not essential to the explanation of the Deluge. The third conjecture is thus summarily dispatched :

In ascending up from granite, the first calcareous rock I have noticed is mountain lime-stone. This seems to be principally composed of the encrinus and a rich assemblage of corals. The species of bivalves are comparatively few. The superior calcareous strata exhibit progressively a greater variety of animal productions.

This progress seems to indicate successive periods, and periods of uncertain length, which in Scripture language, as it is conjectured, may have been denominated days. Certain it is, that we have no other measure for time but the motion of bodies through a given space. Our moving body is the earth itself in its annual orbit and in its diurnal revolution, the latter of which is marked by the succession

atht and day, that is, of darkness and of light. But as these are dependant on the sun, strictly speaking there could be neither of them before its existence; yet, in perfect conformity to prophetic language, the term day may be referred to period in general, without meaning to restrict the word to its present acceptation.'

By this latitude of interpretation, notwithstanding its vagueness, we may contrive to get rid of a formidable difficulty in the first chapter of Genesis: but, if we do not apply it with great moderation to the history of the flood, Noah and his attendants must have been well stricken in years before they came out of the ark.

The fourth conjecture has a reference to the formation of chalk and flint. It is alleged that the former may have proceeded from submarine volcanozation; and the latter, sometimes from filtration, and sometimes from igneous fusion.-Vthly, says Mr. Townsend, granulated marble, by its crystalline appearance, and by its vicinity to volcanic regions, leads me to acquiesce in the opinion of Sir James Hall, that it has passed through fire.'

A section of some length is devoted to the great Importance of Geology. First, it directs the landed proprietor to a judicious and appropriate management of particular descriptions of soil;

secondly,

secondly, it guides and facilitates the operations of the civil engineer, in conducting canals, and furnishing them with a permanent supply of water; thirdly, it points out to builders the materials most suitable to their designs, and the spots in which wells may be found; fourthly, it is of eminent service to the commissioners of turnpikè-roads, and the surveyors of highways; fifthly, it is of direct benefit to the brick-maker; sixthly, to the statuary and marble mason; seventhly, to the collectors of fuller's earth; eighthly, to coal-adventurers; and, ninthly, to mineral adventurers.-Far be it from us to impugn such obvious and salutary truisms: but really we cannot refrain from remarking that they have nearly the same affinity to the Character of Moses,' as the demonstration of the ass's bridge, or the wind-mill of Pythagoras.

In treating of the tenth head, however, Mr. Townsend returns to the proper business of his treatise, and labours to inculcate the existence of an essential connection between the science ́ of geology and our immortal hopes. We most sincerely trust that the latter rest on a more firm foundation than the very imperfect state of our knowlege relative to the structure and revolutions of our globe; that Neptunist and Plutonist may alike " inherit the kingdom of heaven;" and that, if the earth was ever wholly submerged in water, we may be piously allowed to ascribe such an awful visitation to the direct and miraculous interposition of the Deity, rather than anxiously seek to trace it to the operation of regular physical causes, or attempt to reconcile it with the obscure and scanty elements of human science.

The futility of the argument for the antiquity of the world, deduced from the strata of vegetable soil interposed between the lavas of volcanic districts, is justly exposed by the present writer: but he seems, on the other hand, to rely with too much confidence on the alleged fact that we can discern no traces of vegetable soil, except on the surface of the earth. The accuracy of the fact itself may certainly be questioned, since, even if we reject the hypothesis of the vegetable origin of coal, it will not be denied that strata of peat earth and surturbrand have been observed at considerable depths; and that the remains of trees and various plants indicate levels of vegetation consider ably lower than the present. Granting, however, that no such visible symptoms existed, it would still be within the range of possibility, nay, of probability, that they had been obliterated by subsequent changes and revolutions.

Mr. T. apparently concludes his work by announcing the eventual appearance of another, On the Languages, Customs, and Manners of the human Race, as described in the Pentateuch,

and

and in the most venerable Records of the Pagan World;'-when, lo! another section, on Extraneous Fossils,' takes the reader by surprize. Its object, however, is chiefly technical; namely, to enable the purchasers of his book, by means of extraneous fossils, to distinguish the several strata of our island;' and', in this point of view, the plates and descriptions may doubtless prove of very considerable service. The whole performance, indeed, bespeaks much industry and observation, and contains a great variety of important statements, relative especially to the geology of our own country: but, considered as a train of theological argumentation, it appears to us to be liable to objection. Some of the principal difficulties, for example, which have been proposed with regard to the inspiration of the books of the Old Testament, the record of the death of Moses, the faculty of articulate language ascribed to the Serpent, the apparent attribution of human speech and human passions to the Deity, the circumstance of Cain building a city, &c. &c., are wholly omitted; while the materials of several of the selected topics are spread into such indefinite diffusion, that the inferences which they were intended to support nearly vanish from contemplation, and the Character of Moses at length recurs to our recollection rather as the appended title than as the subject of the volume. Of the propriety of any attempt to amalgamate the doctrines of Revelation with the discoveries of modern science, we entertain very serious doubts: but, if the truth of the former be supposed to derive confirmation from an appeal to the latter, we could wish to see that appeal conducted in a more luminous and connected manner than the present author has adopted.

ART. II. Travels through Canada, and the United States of North America, in the Years 1806, 1807, and 1808. To which are added, Biographical Notices and Anecdotes of some of the leading Characters in the United States. By John Lambert. With a Map and numerous Engravings. 2d Edition. 8vo. 2 Vols. pp. 1076. 11. 10s. Boards. Cradock and Joy. 1813.

IT

T appears that Mr. Lambert had long been desirous of visiting America, and of exploring the scenes which are rendered interesting in history by the names of a Wolfe and a Washington, before he was enabled to accomplish his wish. In the year 1806, however, his purpose was put in execution, and Canada was the first district that fell under his observation. He has appropriated a volume respectively to that province and to the United States, describing the former with great minuteness, and marking his more rapid survey of the latter with a disposition

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