depth in the entrails of our globe, and afterwards thrown up to form masses, beds, and dykes among the stratified minerals deposited by the ocean. Let us examine then, into the few phenomena of which we are in possessior, and see how this hypothesis accounts for the said fused sand tone of Salisbury Crag. Mr. Brande certainly does not require to be told, that in the wellknown hill he has mentioned, there is a succession of strata, or beds, of greenstone and sandstone alternating with each other; and this being the case, we are desirous to be informed how the fused trap could make its way through the sandstone mass, and divide it into regular strata, parallel to one another, and to the interposed beds of greenstone! It is admitted by all Huttonians, we believe, that sandstone is a deposition from water, and moreover, that it has never been melted in their mighty furnace at the centre of the earth; how then are they to explain the undeniable fact, that strata, composed of a stone, avowedly of aqueous origin, are found alternating with those of another stone, which they maintain to be of igneous origin, in the most regular succession, and preserving at the same time in their position the strictest parallelism throughout their whole extent. Could the melted greenstone be injected from the deep, in a direction nearly horizontal too, into a superincumbent rock, so regularly, and almost at given distances! We admit that the Wernerians have to encounter no small difficulty in explaining the alternation of sandstone and greenstone, in what they call their independent coal formations; and it is not very easy to conceive that the fluid which covered the face of the earth, should deposite siliceous matter in a state of mechanical division, until it had formed one stratum in a particular place, and then proceeded to deposite hornblende and felspar until it had formed a stratum of greenstone to cover that other stratum, and so on in regular succession, we know not how often. There is a difficulty here, and no candid Wernerian will deny it; but still, when compared with the monstrous assumption, that the one rock was spouted into the other from a great depth in a state of fluidity, it vanishes into nothing. If, however, the Huttonian could prove that, where the sandstone is found in contact with the trap, the former is indurated, or fused, in a way in which it is never found, when in contact with any other kind of rock, we should be compelled to yield to a presumption at least considerably in favour of his hypothesis. But so far is this from being the case, we are prepared, as we have already said, to bring forward a multitude of facts to show that sandstone exhibits the very same appearance; the appearance of induration, or fusion, we mean; where it alternates with slate clay, a substance which no man ever imagined to have been exposed to fire.

When on this topic, we may adduce one or two cases from Dr. Murray, whose book Mr. Brande does not appear to have read. Alluding to the operation of the internal heat of the Huttonians, the Doctor mentions, among other things, that strata of rock-salt

are sometimes covered by strata of sandstone or limestone. The Huttonian geologist, he observes, must suppose that this sandstone has been consolidated by the central heat, acting through the rock-salt below it. But this is plainly an impossibility. The salt is a substance comparatively very fusible, as it can even be volatilized by the heat of a coarse pottery furnace, while sandstone is very infusible. The heat necessary, therefore, to soften sandstone in this position, must have melted the salt beneath; and as this latter substance is of a much inferior specific gravity, the sandstone must have sunk in it, and the arrangement observed by nature could never have been produced. We find, continues the Doctor, in innumerable cases, strata more imperfectly consolidated than others above them, and of course further removed from the consolidating power, though the difference cannot be ascribed to any difference in the fusibility of the substances composing them. An example will place this in a clear light. In a section of the strata at Newcastle, coal is found at the depth of 102 feet; over it is a bed of black clay, 13 feet thick, with impressions of ferns in its substance; above this, another bed of harder clay, 26 feet in thickness. The stratum incumbent on this is a hard quartzose sandstone, with specks of mica, 25 feet thick; and this is again covered by clay. Now, how could this sandstone have been consolidated by the subterranean heat, while so many feet of clay beneath it, and of course, nearer the operation of that heat, had not even been indurated! We may pronounce it impossible that it should be so. Nor is the example uncommon: there are many similar to it, and even less favourable, as the banks of clay extend to eighty, an hundred, or more fathoms in thickness, with perfectly consolidated sandstone above; and this is diversified with alternations of limestone, gypsum, coal, and a great variety of other secondary rocks.

In this book of Mr. Brande's there is not the slightest attempt made to remove the objections now stated; indeed he does not seem to be aware that such objections have ever been urged. With regard, again, to the difficulty attending the fundamental position of the Huttonian hypothesis, that there exists a subterranean fire, which consolidates and raises mineral strata; the pabulum which maintains it, if it does feed upon consumable materials, the causes and periods of its renovation, if it is ever extinguished or sup pressed; our author merely observes, that "the discoveries of Sir Humphrey Davy, concerning the true nature of earthy bodies, have furnished unexpected evidence in defence of these apparent incongruities of the Huttonian doctrines." With the utmost desire to appreciate the value of this evidence, we are entirely thrown out in our search for the particular point, on which it may be sup posed to bear. That the alkaline earths have a metallic base of small specific gravity, and easily combustible, is a fact, the discovery and confirmation of which we owe to Sir H. Davy; but as no attempt has been made to deduce from that fact, either that

lime or any other earth constitutes the burning substance in the centre of our globe, or that these bodies have become more combustible since their constituent parts were brought to light, by the analytic processes now attached, we cannot possibly discover the connexion to which Mr. Brande refers us, between the splendid experiments in the institution and the doctrines of the Huttonian theory. But, leaving professor Brande, who has not said any thing new, either for the theory which he has chosen to defend, or against that which it has pleased him to oppose, we cannot help observing, in relation to the Huttonian hypothesis, that its author has undertaken to explain, from an assumed and very doubtful principle, the most magnificent phenomena on the earth's surface. What an immense body of granite and other primary rocks must be contained in the Andes, and in the Thibet chain of mountains, the latter of which ascend nearly twenty-seven thousand feet above the level of the ocean! If the secondary strata, which rest upon the sides of those gigantic ridges were as the Huttonian maintains, at one time, a dead flat at the bottom of the sea, how incalculably large the quantity of matter, and how immeasurably great the force, necessary to raise and support them at such an elevation. Those astonishing chains of mountains which, as Cuvier says, constitute the frame-work of this globe, stretching from the arctic nearly to the antartic circle, and giving a form and character to all our continents, in the old world as well as in the new, originated, says the disciple of Dr. Hutton, in the spouting up of melted granite from the bowels of the earth! The mighty Andes themselves, towering into the clouds, and extending more than a thousand leagues in length, are to be traced to a Plutonic furnace, belching forth quartz and mica in a state of fusion!

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A thought has just struck us, which, we imagine, might be applied with some success, to ascertain whether transitive and secondary rocks have been deposited, according to the Wernerian hypothesis, on the primitive masses, placed at their present height above the level of the waters, or whether, agreeably to the views of Hutton, they were broken and forced up from a horizontal sition at the bottom of the sea. If the secondary strata, covering the sides of a primitive mountain would, when restored to their level posture, occupy more ground than the base of that mountain, we might justly infer that they had not been deposited in horizontal layers. If, for example, a mountain elevated four thousand feet above the ocean, presented on its sides, at the height of three thousand feet or upwards, a stratification of secondary rocks, we might safely conclude that these rocks had been deposited upon it, and not broken through and lifted up during its ascent from below; for, according to the latter supposition, the separated strata would not have attained so great an elevation. Something no doubt, depends upon the length of the base, and the angles at which the mountain rises from the plain, but in no case can the sum of the two sides, to the point at which they are over laid secondary strata, exceed the base, without furnishing po

sitive proof that these strata were not disrupted by the propulsion from below, of the central granite. We have not the means at present of making any reference to facts in relation to this subject; but considering that the principal waste takes place in the strata which cover the primitive rocks, and that, consequently, these strata must now be found at a level considerably lower than they originally stood, the Huttonian can have no reason to challenge this test.

At all events, it is high time to have a truce with hypothesis. The speculations of the theorist have already far outstripped the progress of actual knowledge: the geologist has already advanced too far without the aid of the mineralogist. Kirwan himself was not deeply versed in the details of simple minerals; Hutton was still less so; and Mr. Playfair puts forth no pretensions to that kind of science. It is to the works of Werner and his later disciples that the world has been indebted for the recent improvements in this field of inquiry; and guided by the same views, the members of the Wernerian and geological societies, in different parts of Britain, are at this moment occupied, not in imagining hypothetical conditions to explain the past and present state of the earth's crust, but in endeavouring to ascertain the natural arrangement of rocks, and the various relations which subsist among them. The memoirs accordingly, which make up the transactions of these societies, are almost entirely descriptive: they are collections of facts gathered immediately from nature, pure from the drossof hypothesis, and unaffected by the spirit of controversy. Since the publication of Mr. Jameson's Elements of Geognosy, which afforded at once the first connected view of Werner's principles, and the first regular system of geology in the English language, we have several works of considerable merit, drawn up in the same practical and descriptive manner. Among these, we cannot fail to give a place to the elegant little work of professor Kid, of Oxford, and to the Geological Treatise by Mr. Phillips. Cuvier's Essay towards a Theory of the Earth, is indeed a performance in rather a different line of study: but, superficial as it unquestionably is, it will be found of no small use to the beginner in mineralogy. The works of Parkinson and Martin, on petrefactions too, merit high commendation, and ought to be in the hands of every student.

A parting word to the royal institution, and we have done. Let the professors prosecute their experiments, and employ their powerful apparatus, without ceasing; for they have thereby done great service to chemical science, and may yet do more; but let them write sparingly. Their manipulations ought not to extend to pens and paper. Popular lecturers, like popular preachers, should seldom publish; for the kind of style which suits addresses to the heart and the imagination of half learned youths, or susceptible damsels, will not be endured in a book having any pretensions to scientific accuracy. We allude chiefly to the retrospect prefixed to the last journal of the institution, than which we certainly never read any thing of greater pomp, and worse taste.

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ART. IV. A Morning's Walk in the State of Delaware. Dover, 1st October, 1817. THE patriotic sir John Sinclair when he designed a statistical account of Scotland, for the benefit of his native country, with a view to apply those improvements of which it might be susceptible, had recourse to the correspondence of the established clergy in the several parishes, whom he knew to be generally a most enlightened body. A concern for the welfare of their respective cures, he was aware, had led them to form an intimate acquaintance with the interests, and wants, temporal as well as spiritual, of their several districts, and from such a class of men, the most accurate and intelligent reports were to be expected. To each minister he transmitted a series of queries, which were answered in a manner altogether so clear and explanatory-in language so correct and philosophical-embracing every relative point unconfined, and abounding in useful practical suggestions, as to form a most valuable and admired contribution to the stock of knowledge in rural and political economy. The encomiums of Europe have awarded the due praise to the venerable author of the project, as well as to the clergy of Scotland, whose papers bear internal evi. dence of their learning and talents.

May we profit by so happy an example; and, though the want of a national establishment of religion, may appear, at the first glance, to oppose some obstacle to the success of the plan, yet surely, some expedient might be devised to set the necessary researches in motion, by promoting local attention and examination. I propose to supply this defect in my district, by way of instance of the feasibility of the scheme; scarcely hoping, however, to do more than reflect the objects which come within the range of a country clergyman, leaving more experienced economists to deduce the higher conclusions.

Dover is the seat of government for this state, being wisely chosen for that purpose, on account of its situation in the centre of it. Inferior to Wilmington, which deserves to be ranked as the capital of Delaware, in size and population, it can boast none of those manufactures or works of public utility which distinguish that borough, but surrounded by a country wholly agricultural, assumes no other feature than that of a mart for the productions of the soil, and the resort of law officers, barristers, attornies, with occasionally a "purba clientum" from every quarter of the state. Here the public elections are held, and hence emanate the dispensation of justice, the provisions of the constitution, and the representa tive character of the people.

It would seem, from the names of some places in this state, that a Kentish interest from England had formerly been seated in these parts. We have Kent county, and Dover and Canterbury, both places in it. So, in England, they have Dover, a well known sea port, and Canterbury, an archbishop's see, the Metropolitan of Great Britain; both in Kent. About three miles to the south of