CHAP, i.] WEST INDIES. 23 



oysters of the western coast of England; a species not 

 to be found at this time, I believe, in the seas of the 

 West Indies. Here, then, is an ample field for con- 

 jecture to expatiate in; and indeed few subjects have 

 afforded greater exercise to the pens of physical wri- 

 ters, than the appearances I have mentioned. While 

 some philosophers assign the origin of all the various 

 inequalities of the earth to the ravages of the deluge, 

 others, considering the mountains as the parents of 

 springs and rivers, maintain that they are coeval with 

 the world; and that, first emerging from the abyss, 

 they were created with it. Some again ascribe them 

 to the force of volcanoes and earthquakes: cc the Al- 

 mighty/' say they, tc while he permits subterranean 

 fires to swallow up cities and plains in one part of the 

 globe, causes them to produce promontories and islands 

 in another, which afterwards become the fruitful seats 

 of industry and happiness. f 



All these and other theorists concur, however, in 

 the belief, that the surface of the globe has undergone 

 many surprising and violent convulsions and changes 

 since it first came from the hands of the Creator. Hills 

 have sunk into plains, and vallies have been exalted 

 into hills. Respecting the numerous islands of the 

 West Indies, they are generally considered as the tops 

 of lofty mountains, the eminences of a great continent, 

 converted into islands bv a tremendous concussion of 



j 



nature, which, increasing the 'natural course of the 



f Goldsmith's History of the Earth, &c. vol. i. 



