102 EXPLOIU.NU iNAJ UKALlfeTS. 



otlier authors developed it, by hypotheses more or less higenious, but 

 nearly all far enough removed from the truth, and thus tiie onward march 

 of the science was retarded. Among these authors, we may cite Burnet, 

 who, in a work styled byBuffon a beautiful liistorical romance, explained 

 the whole history of the globe from Paradise to the Millenium, and 

 Whiston, who made the comets play an important part in the attraction 

 and displacement of the waters. 



The theory of the transport of all fossils by the Noachic deluge pre- 

 sented too many strong objections not to have been attacked from its or- 

 igin, although this opposition brought the objections in conflict with the 

 theologians. At that time, the strong proofs, capable of demonstration at 

 llie present day, that the present state of tne earth was occasioned, by a 

 continuous series of changes in the form of continents and limitations 

 of seas, were not known. Nevertheless, the facts which were inexplica- 

 ble by a single inundation were so numerous, and striking, that they oc- 

 curred to many naturalists. The variety in the position of fossils, their 

 occurrence in tlie hardest rocks and even in the interior of mountains, 

 the perpendicularity of many strata, and numerous other facts, are so iu- 

 .compatible with a single cataclysm, that was sudden and of short dura- 

 tion, that rather than admit a theory which presented such strong objec- 

 tions, some learned men were induced to go back and doubt the reality 

 of fossils, and regarded them as lusus natara-.. 



But other authors more enlightened sought to substitute for this the- 

 ory something more rational. Stenon in 1669, and llooke in 1688, 

 showed that fossils had necessarily been deposited at tlie bottom of wa- 

 ters and in horizontal strata, and that subsequently these strata had been 

 elevated, inclined or disrupted by convulsions of the earth or the disen- 

 gagement of subterranean gases. Ray, Moro, Gessner, &c. also main- 

 tained and developed this idea, to which Buflbn lent the aid of his ad- 

 mirable style. Although the geological tlieories of BufFon are a mixture 

 of true ideas and false opinions, the popularity of his works contributed 

 much to advance the science, in compelling men generally to abandon 

 the diluvial theory. 



Tlie subscfiuent progress of Paleeontology shall be treated in our 

 jiext number. J. G. M. 



EXPLORING NATURALISTS. 



To tlic lover of nature, — one whose avocations imprison him for a 

 portion of the year within the four walls of a college, a counting house, 

 or some other den or place of duty and of daily toil — nothing is more 



