214 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



In Other places, their waters, llackcned at the 

 extremity of then- courfe, fpread thenifelves over 

 the furface of the ground in vaft fheets, anddepo- 

 fitedj by repeated undulations, in horizontal layers, 



in the vineyards of Lyons, that which they call the cock and 

 hen, which is caught alive in no Sea whatever but the Straits 

 of Magellan ; the teeth and jaws of fliarks, in the fands of 

 Eflampes. Our quarries are filled with the fpoils of the Sou- 

 thern Ocean. On the other hand, if we may believe the 

 Memoirs of Father le Comte, the Jefuit, there are in China 

 ftrata of vegetable earth from three to four hundred feet deep. 

 This Miffionary afcribes to thefe, and with good reafon, the ex- 

 treme fertility of that country. Our befl foils in Europe are 

 not above three or four feet deep. If we had Geographical 

 Charts which fliould reprefent the different layers of our foffil 

 fliells, we might diftinguifli in them the directions and the fo- 

 cufes of the ancient currents which lodged them. I fliall purfue 

 this idea no further; but here is another, which may prefent 

 nev,' objefts of curiofity to the learned, who put greater value 

 on the monuments raifed by Man, than on thofe of Nature. It 

 is this, As we find in the foflils of thefe VAcftern regions, a mul- 

 titude of the monuments of the Sea, we might, perhaps, be able 

 to trace thofe of our ancient Continent, in thofe lirata of vege- 

 table earth, of three and four hundred feet depth, in the coun- 

 tries of the Eaft. Firft, it is certain, from the teftimony of the 

 ]Mifiionary above quoted, that pit-coal is fo common in China, 

 that moft of the Chinefe make ufe of no other fuel. Now, it 

 is well known that pit-coal owes it's origin to the forefts which 

 have been buried in the bowels of the Earth. It might be pof- 

 fible, therefore, to find araidfi: thefe wrecks of the vegetable 

 creation, thofe of terreftrial animals, of men, and of the firft 

 arts of the World, fuch, at lead, as poflefled fome degree of 

 folidity. 



the 



