STUDY IV. 



213 



our coafts the moft formidable of Tides. They 

 rolled along, in their furges, a part of the fpoils of 

 the Ocean, fituated between the ancient and the 

 new Continent. They fpread the vaft beds of 

 fhells which pave the bottom of the Seas at the 

 Antilles and Cape-Verd Iflands» over the plains of 

 Normandy ; and carried even thofe which adhere 

 to the rocks of Magellan's Strait, as far as to the 

 plains which are watered by the Saône. Encoun- 

 tered by the general Current of the Pole, they 

 formed at their confluences horrible counter-tides, 

 which conglomerated, in their vaft funnels, fands, 

 flints, and marine bodies, into malfes of indigefted 

 granite, into irregular hills, into pyramidical rocks, 

 whofe protuberances variegate the foil in many 

 places of France and Germany. Thefe two gene- 

 ral Currents of the Poles happening to meet be- 

 tween the Tropics, tore up, from the bed of the 

 Seas, huge banks of madrépores, and toffed them, 

 unfeparated, on the fliores of the adjacent illands, 

 where they fubfift to this day *. 



In 



* I have feen in the Ifle of France, fome of thefe great beds 

 of madrépores, of the height offevea or eight feet, refembling 

 ramparts, left quite dry, more than three hundred paces from 

 the fhore. The Ocean has left, on eveiy land, fome traces of 

 it's ancient excurfions. There have been found, on the fteep 

 ftrand of the diftriA of Caux, fome oi" the fliells peculiar to the 

 Antilles Iflands, particularly a very large one, called the Thuilée; 



p 3 in 



