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The essay assembles geological observations and fossil evidence to reconstruct Earth's successive changes, arguing that strata and petrified remains record numerous abrupt revolutions of the surface that caused mass extinctions and replacement of faunas. It examines how current agencies—erosion, slips, alluvial deposition, coastal cliffs, stalactites, lithophyte growths, incrustations, and volcanic activity—operate, and distinguishes their slow effects from the sudden events inferred in the rock record. It uses stratigraphic sequences and fossil assemblages to date relative episodes and to argue that many major revolutions preceded the appearance of existing life forms, offering a systematic account of Earth's physical and organic history.
In the torrid zone, where lithophytes of many species abound, and are propagated with great rapidity, their strong trunks are interwoven and accumulated so as to form rocks and reefs; and rising even to the surface of the water, shut up the entrance of harbours, and lay frightful snares for navigators. The sea, throwing up sand and mud upon the tops of these shoals, sometimes raises their surface above its own level, and forms islands, which are soon covered with a rich vegetation.