3^4 Reflexions on the Zodiacs 



And when we reflect that, as we are no longer (lopped in 

 regard to the antiquity of our continents by any known chro- 

 nology, the refi.lt is, that they may have exifted millions as 

 well as thoufands of years: there are no more bounds, then, 

 afilgnable to their antiquity, and confequently to the pro- 

 gress of the labour of thefe infect* ; and the Red Sea, narrow 

 and deep, ought to have been to ally choked up by it. 



But the Red Sea is not the only one which exhibits thefe 

 coral reefs, and their continual increaie : a great number of 

 ides fituated between the tropics are furrounded by them in 

 fuch a manner as renders accefs to them as difficult as on the 

 coafts of Arabia. 



Mr. Labillardiere, the author of Voyage a la Recherche de 

 la Peroufe, makes on this fubjeet the following reflection, in 

 confequence of the veflels having been expefed to great danger 

 among fuch reefs, which extend around New Caledonia: — 

 <c Thefe polvpiers," fays he, " the continual increafe of which 

 blocks up more and more the bafon of the leas, are very ca- 

 pable of frightening navigators; and many fhoals which mil 

 afford a paffage will foon form reefs exceedingly dangerous." 



Jf the prefent ftate of the feas and continents had exifted 

 for thoufands of ages, as pretended by thofe geologues who 

 reject the chronology of Moles, is it not evident that thefe 

 reefs, which continually increafe, would have long ago fur- 

 rounded thefe 'iflands with fo great a number of thefe walls 

 of coral, that it would have been impoilible for the firfl 

 navigators to approach even within a confiderable diftance of 

 them ? Nature, then, agrees here with the chronology of the 

 facred fcriptures. The labour of thefe little animals rifes up 

 from the bottom of the fea, in teftimony of the truth of its 

 relation. 



Thefe coral rocks appear to be a production peculiar to the 

 prefent fea ; for we find nothing fimilar in calcareous moun- 

 tain-?, nor in hills confiding of fhells. Coral and madrepores 

 are, no doubt, found in them ; but they are infulated in the 

 ftrata "like all other marine bodies. This example (hows how 

 deceitful the calculations of geometry may be, when applied 

 to facts in the philofophy of the earth without confulting 

 nature. 



The celebrated geometrician Delaplace, calculating the 

 depth of the fea from the Newtonian theory of the tides, 

 has determined that this depth cannot be Id's than four 

 kai. :<*s*. 



The attentive obferver of nature has means more certain 



* Renouvctiemcnt periodiquc des Contincns tctrejircs^ p. 288. 



for 



