rious kinds, is also combined with them; sometimes metallic oxydes, and sometimes those which are termed alkalis and acids.*

As the quantities of the principal earths vary, the soil assumes a new character, and receives a specific denomination, according to the predominating material.†

Chymists have analyzed the ground in various parts which has been found to be most productive of the plants which are used for human subsistence, and find that they are composed of the materials above mentioned. Sir Humphrey Davy's experiments gave this result from an East Lothian farm ;. and he states another, of corn ground, near Paris ; and a third from Somersetshire land.

To make soils of this description, it was therefore essen tial that the upper bed of the new surface should consist of the due mixtures of these three earths, and therefore that

lowing ingredients; CLAY, or argillaceous earth; SAND, or siliceous earth; LIME, or calcareous earth. The other one-tenth may be considered as made up of small portions of maguesia, barytes, or some other earths; with about 20 metals in various states of union."-Lance's Golden Farmer, p. 8.

"The two principal metals are iron and manganese; and are always found mixed with earth in the state of rust, or oxydized metal, which constitutes the colouring matter of all soils. To these may be added the three alkalis, potash, soda, and ammonia, and eight principal acids; which admixtures make up the thousand varieties of soil."--Ib.

"The three earths, when mixed in various proportions, constitute the common distinctions of land denominated a clay, a sand, or a chalk, and a limestone soil. When the clay predominates over the two others It is designated a clay marl; when the chalk predominates it is a chalk or lime marl; and when the sand constitutes the principal portion, it is called a light soil or loam. These three ingredients may be united in a thousand different proportions."--Ib.

"A very fertile soil from Ormiston in East Lothian, afforded me in 100 parts, 11 parts of mild calcareous earth, 25 parts of siliceous sand, 45 parts of finely divided clay, 4 of water, and 9 of decomposed animal and vegetable matter, and also a small quantity of phosphate of lime. The soil was of very fine texture, and contained very few stones or vegetable fibres. Phosphate of lime is found in wheat, oats, and barley." -Sir H. Davy, Anal. Soils, p. 14.

M. Tillet, in some experiments on soils at Paris, found that three eighths clay, two eighths river sand, and three eighths parings of limestone were very proper for wheat.--Ib. p. 15.

"A soil from the lowlands of Somersetshire, celebrated for producing excellent crops of wheat and beans, without manure, I found to consist of one ninth sand, chiefly siliceous, eight ninths calcareous marl, tinged with iron, and about five parts in the hundred of vegetable matter. I could not detect in it any phosphate or sulphate of lime."—Ib.

VOL. II-B b

they should be all brought into that position, and be likewise in that comminuted state, that their particles should be small enough, and could be so intermingled, as to suit the vegetating qualities of the plants.

One of the products of the deluge, and one of the more recent formations of our surface-rocks, is the new red sandstone, allowed by all to be a later deposite than the old red sandstone, or than the carboniferous strata. But it has been found that this peculiar composition of earthy matter, obviously a compound from the fragments of earlier masses, is remarkably fitted for the fertile production of the most valuable corn plants. It is largely diffused in England, and rewards the farmer's tillage with good harvests at the least expense.†

*

As my space will only allow me to glance on these interesting topics, I will not pursue this subject farther, as I have only meant to bring it so far before you that you may yourself, at some future period, make it a part of your geological studies, if you should have time and inclination to do so.

In the formation of that surface which was to remain permanently for the use of man and animals after their renewal, we may be sure that nothing was left to chance. The turbulent agitation would be disorderly turbulence and confusing violence, only to an uninstructed observer; and can be deemed such by us, solely from our ignorance or forgetfulness of the superintending Creator. The comfort and welfare, nay, the very existence of mankind, depended on there being such a surface made from the commotion as they could inhabit, cultivate, and derive subsistence from;

* "Many districts in the west of England do not require any sort of manure; the red soils particularly. The best soil in England for the produce of wheat, or indeed for any other grain, is the RED MARL; the NEW RED SANDSTONE of geologists."-Lance, G. Farmer, p. 14.

"This soil extends from Devonshire, through Somerset, Gloucester, Worcester, Warwick, Shropshire, Stafford, and Cheshire, branching to the east through parts of Leicester, Nottingham, and Yorkshire. In many parts of this district the farmers scarcely ever put on their land any sort of animal or vegetable manure. Lime is their principal dressing."-" So congenial is it to the produce of wheat, that in particular seasons, the old stools will throw up a second crop the succeeding year." -Lance, ib. p. 15. Mr. J. Dickson, of Walton, confirms this in his Letter. "With respect to the soil which produced the second crop of wheat from the old root, I can assure you it was a fact; and had I left it to ripen, I have no doubt I should have had 15 bushels per acre, which I consider a fair average crop upon the soil where it grew."-Ib.

with such an atmosphere, temperature, and seasons, and climates, as they could breathe and live in, and such a resulting course of things as would suit and promote their moral and intellectual formation. No casual or natural movements or results could provide or ensure these: plan, direction, control, and government; wisdom adequate to design what was proper, and power sufficient to execute what was devised, were essentially requisite. We may therefore be certain, that the mighty commotion was in every part vigilantly and efficaciously overruled and guided, with the most foreseeing sagacity and the most adapting care.

The consideration of what the new races of mankind were to be in numbers, state, and nature, and future forms of society, and habits of intercourse, and various localizations, modes of, and means of happiness, must have been benignly attended to, because they have been most benignantly provided for. The new additions to the old surface, and the changes and new dispositions of the fragmentary masses, which were moved by torrents and tumultuous waves, as they rolled or rushed along, would be everywhere only such as suited the future purposes of the presiding Deity, and would be therefore actuated and governed conformably to these. This assumption is the natural inference, from the fact of a creating Divinity, interested in the wellbeing of his creatures; providing for their welfare while he permitted their existence, and executing his own designs by efficient means and instruments. A Deity not providential, is, to us, no Deity at all.

The importance of a special arrangement and composition of a habitable and cultivable surface for our welfare, appears from the fact that neither of the primordial rocks could support our present vegetation. GRANITE admits lichens to grow upon it, but will not nourish herbs, grass, trees, or corn. When it decomposes it is favourable to vines, and

*At the Horticultural Society in Sept. 1834, a piece of granite was produced with a very fragrant lichen upon it, the chroolepus iolithus.

† Captain Ross found the district in the Arctic Regions, which he named Boothia, to be composed of granite rocks of various kinds, and destitute of vegetation. So in Africa, Captain Owen describes the Dassen Island, near the Zaire, as " formed of rugged masses of granite, and absolutely sterile."-Voy. v. ii. p. 268.

Mr. C. Redding, in his Treatise on modern Wines, mentions, that granite decomposed, and quartz, in favourable sites, offer good vine land,

admits the commencement of other vegetation, which increases as length of time makes a growing humus upon it.* Gneiss is also a barren rock ;† but the feldspar in gneiss is often decomposed, and passes into clay; then some kind of plants begin to appear upon it.§

Mica slate is also infertile in its natural state, but by disintegrating more easily than either gneiss or granite, becomes, as it decomposes, more susceptible of vegetation.||

It is with the rocks and strata which have been imposed upon the primordial, that our present vegetation decidedly begins. CLAY SLATE is more favourable to vegetation than any of the three preceding rocks. It is observed that the quantity of vegetation increases from granite to clay slate." Hence in Cornwall and Devon, wherever that kind -"Hermitage was first grown among granitic rocks and stones broken smaller by art, and little or no dressing was used."

* Thus the granite near Plymouth, which has been subjected to the action of weather, displays a comparative fertility in grass. "But it is said by gentlemen possessing estates on the granite, and my observation agrees with it, that trees, after reaching a certain height, rise no farther; spreading and twisting their branches without proportionate increase of trunk. In Westmans Wood, a plot of oaks, supposed to be a thousand years standing, the largest less than a man's waist, and within 20 feet high, is an extreme instance."-Trans. Plym. Instit.

Mr. Flint says of New-York: "Its island is composed chiefly of gneiss. Whenever the gneiss shows itself on the surface it is barren and desolate. Scarcely can a cedar or a sumach find sustenance for its roots in the crevices of the rock."-Trav. in Am. 42. In his Journey over the Northern Regions of America, Dr. Richardson remarks: "Gneiss was the most extensively distributed on our track, and always attended with a very scanty vegetation."-P. 535. "The gneiss reappeared, presenting the genuine barren ground, hills, and precipices, together with their vegetable associates; cenomyce; rangiferina; cetraria nivalis; cornicularia ochrileuca; doufourea arctica; arbutus alpina, rhododendron lapponicum; empetrum nigrum; plants which seem to characterize the barren grounds."-Frankl. Journ. p. 534. "The soil is favourable to these and to some congenerous lichens: but very inimi. cal to every other species of vegetation."-Ib. 520.

Kirwan's Geol. v. i. p. 347.

"In many other countries even the granitic gneiss decomposes as readily as some granites, forming a deep and rich soil; as in Guernsey, and also in Aberdeenshire, remarkable for the destruction of all its rocks, and for the great depth of its untransported alluvia."-McCull. v. ii. p. 154.

"This rock often presents considerable fissures, and mouldering more readily than gneiss, is favourable to vegetation: the lower clefts and precipices are often covered with trees."--Ib. p. 157.

Jameson, Miner. v. iii. p. 124. "Mountains of slate are covered with verdure on their declivities, as they contain less silex, and a more equal admixture of the earth favourable to vegetation."-Bakew, Geol.

of slate which they call killas lies upon the granite, a flourishing vegetation is seen.*

But limestone is as important to prolific vegetation as clay; it was therefore necessary to provide this in due abundance, and to place it so near the surface, as to be disintegrated enough to mingle with the other earths, and to be useable by man. This has been admirably accomplished in the last disposition of our surface. It is in every country in a sufficient quantity for its fertilizing benefit,† and due provision has also been made, that the primordial rocks should everywhere be so broken and comminuted, as to furnish every region with a competent proportion of sandy soil; a due mixture of which is highly serviceable to the growth 124. "As clay slate generally decomposes readily into clay, of different degrees of tenacity, it presents a great variety of soil, favourable both to agriculture and the growth of wood."-McCull. v. ii. p. 192.

"At Buckland, on the Dart, where the killas runs in a trough between two granite mountains, the vivid green of the turf, and the rich wood running up the acclivities, contrast strikingly with the pale herbage and bald crowns of its over-topping neighbours. At Yalland estate some fine trees appeared in the midst of the granite. On approaching them, they were found to be growing in a patch of the killas; not a tree spreading out to either side."--Prideaux, Trans. Plymouth Instit.

Mr. Flint mentions this effect in several of the new states of North America. "The soil in East Tennessee has uncommon proportions of dissolved lime, and nitrate of lime, mixed with it, which give it a great share of fertility."-Flint, Am. Geol. p. 335. In Kentucky, "Under its great valley, at a depth of from three to ten feet, is a substratum of limestone. So much dissolved lime is mixed with the soil, as to impart to it a warm and forcing quality, which, when the earth is sufficiently moist, imparts an inexpressible freshness and vigour to the vegetation."-Ib. 347. The Mississippi Valley. "From its character of recent formation; from the prevalence of limestone everywhere; from the decomposition it has undergone and is constantly undergoing; and from the considerable proportion of decomposed limestone in the soil, probably results its uncommon fertility."--Ib. p. 17. Of the Missouri State he mentions: "The warmth and looseness of the soil, and the large proportion of dissolved limestone in it; and even the dryness of the atmosphere, render it an admirable country for wheat. Twentyfive bushels an acre are an average crop, though it sometimes runs as high as thirty."--Ib. 288.

The animal-made lime rocks are as beneficial in the Arkansas territory. "In the whole depth vast quantities of seashells appear. In a state of pulverization, they are mixed with the soil, and communicate a very great fertility to it."--Flint, N. Am. p. 280.

Captain Franklin observed the same effect near the Arctic Regions at Cumberland House. "The land around it is low, but the soil, from having a considerable mixture of limestone, is good, and capable of producing abundance of corn, and vegetables of every description."— Journ. 55.