254 STUDIES OF NATURE, 



The iflands which deviate from thefe difpofi- 

 tions, and which are but few in number, have re- 

 mote relations ftill more wonderful, and certainly 

 well worthy of being ftudied. They furnilh, be- 

 fides, in their vegetable and animal produflions, 

 other proofs, that they are fmall Continents in mi- 

 niature. But this is not the place to bring them 

 forward. If they were, as is pretended, the re- 

 mains of a great Continent fvvallowed up by the 

 Ocean, they would have preferved part, at leaft, 

 of their ancient and vaft fabric. We Ihould fee 

 arife immediately out of the middle of the Sea, 

 lofty peaks, like thofe of the Andes, from twelve 

 to fifteen hundred fathom high, without the moun- 

 tains which fupport them. In other places, we 

 Ihould fee thefe peaks fupported by enormous 

 mountains, proportioned to their magnitude, and 

 which Ihould contain in their cavities great lakes, 

 like that of Geneva, with rivers ifTuingfrom them, 

 fuch as the Rhône, and precipitating themfelves at 

 once into the Sea, without watering any land. 

 There fliould be, at the bottom of their majeftic 

 protuberances, no plains, nor provinces, nor king- 

 doms. Thefe grand ruins of the Continent, in the 

 midft of the Ocean, would have fome refemblance 

 to thofe enormous pyramids reared in the fands of 

 Egypt, which prefent to the eye of the traveller 

 only fo many frivolous and unmeaning ftrudures ; 

 or to thofe vaft royal palaces, which the hand of 



iim.e 



