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cavated these : and the lake is but a valley, though such reasoners forget it: while if the early surface con tained valleys of such a form, it might as well have contained all others. The original courses, if not the channels, of the rivers were made for them, hut they have modified those : as they have necessarily .been the fabricators of their own beds where these exist in allu vial and protruded lands. All this is as obvious as it is simple. But all geology is, throughout, like all the works of nature, too simple for those who cannot see what is, who seek in their own inventions for what is not, and who also delight in mysteries. It has been the history of all the sciences : and all flounder alike, till a Newton arises, to see and demonstrate the truth. I ought not to be compelled to pursue this subject through such asserted cases as the Lake of Geneva : but authority sanctions every absurdity—while it holds, -as it is the steady enemy to improvement and truth. If we compare that lake with the Valais, it is impossible to believe that it could have received all the materials of that valley, and still retain the depth which it possesses ; increase the original extent of the cavity as we may: while, since there was such a va cuity, such a valley, here, from the beginning, why w r as there not one also in the Valais, and why should that, peculiarly, have been excavated by its river? What power of rivers excavated the great Caledonian valley, even though it had not contained Loch Ness: and where are the rivers which produced all the W estern Highland inlets ? for these are valleys also. Like thousands more, they are the original valleys of the surface : rivers may have modified their forms ; but they were not made by any river. If I have thus terminated this part of the subject, I can afford but little further illustration ; while gladly pointing out, at home, where ail can sec, what those