James Hutton and the study of the rocks--His theory of the earth--His
belief in volcanic cataclysms in raising and forming the continents--His
famous paper before the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1781---His
conclusions that all strata of the earth have their origin at the bottom
of the sea---His deduction that heated and expanded matter caused the
elevation of land above the sea-level--Indifference at first shown this
remarkable paper--Neptunists versus Plutonists--Scrope's classical work
on volcanoes--Final acceptance of Hutton's explanation of the origin
of granites--Lyell and uniformitarianism--Observations on the gradual
elevation of the coast-lines of Sweden and Patagonia--Observations on
the enormous amount of land erosion constantly taking place,--Agassiz
and the glacial theory--Perraudin the chamois-hunter, and his
explanation of perched bowlders--De Charpentier's acceptance of
Perraudin's explanation--Agassiz's paper on his Alpine studies--His
conclusion that the Alps were once covered with an ice-sheet--Final
acceptance of the glacial theory--The geological ages--The work of
Murchison and Sedgwick--Formation of the American continents--Past,
present, and future.