210 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



at forty leagues diftance from the (liore of the Sea, 

 IS only twenty-two fathom above the level of neap- 

 tides, and no more than eighteen above the higheft 

 fpring-tides. A great part of both the Old and 

 New World is of an elevation much inferior even 

 to this. 



For my own part, if I may venture to declare 

 my opinion, I afcribe the general Deluge to a to- 

 tal effufion of the polar ices, to which may be added 

 that of the icy mountains, fuch as the ices of the 

 Cordeliers and of Mount Taurus, the chains of 

 which extend from twelve to fifteen hundred 

 leagues in length, with a breadth of twenty or 

 thirty leagues, and an elevation of from twelve to 

 fifteen hundred fathom. To thefe may be ftill 

 farther added the waters diffufed over the Atmo- 

 fphere, in clouds, and imperceptible vapours, 

 which would not fail to form a very confiderable 

 mafs of water, were they collefted on the Earth. 



My fuppofition then is, that, at the epocha of 

 this tremendous catraftophe, the Sun, deviating 

 from the Ecliptic, advanced from South to North*, 



and 



* I find an hiftorical teftimony in fupport of this hypothells, 

 in the Hiftory of China by Father Martini, Book I. " During 

 *' the reign of Tails, the feventh Emperor, the Annals of the 

 " Country relate, that for fix days together the Sun never fet, 



" fo 



