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The wreck of fo conflderable an integrant part of the globe 

 muft of neceffity have convulfed the adjacent ftill fubfifting con- 

 tinents previoufly conne£led with it, rent their ftony ftrata, burft 

 the ftill more folid maffes of their mountains, and thus in fome 

 cafes formed, and in others prepared, the infular ftate to which 

 thefe fradured tra(Sts were reduced ; to this event therefore I think 

 may be afcribed the bold fteep and abrupt weftern coafls of Ireland, 

 Scotland and Norway, and the numerous ifles that border them, 

 as well as many of thofe of the Weft Indies. The Britannic iflands 

 feem to have acquired their infular ftate at a later period, 

 though it was probably prepared by this event ; but the bafaltic 

 maffes on the Scotch and Irilh coafts and thofe of Feroc appear 

 to me to have been rent into pillars by this concuffion. 



During this elemental conflict, and the crafh and ruin of the 

 fubmerged continent, many of its component parts muft have been 

 reduced to atoms, and difperfed through the fwelling waves that 

 ufurped its place. The more liquid bitumens muft by the agitation 

 have intimately mixed with them. They muft alfo have abforbed 

 the fixed air contained in the bowels of the funk continent; and 

 further, by this vaft continental deprefllon, whofe derelinquiflied 

 fpace was occupied by water, the level of the whole diluvial ocean 

 muft have been funk, and- the fummits of the higheft mountains 

 muft then have emerged. In this ftate of things it is natural to 

 fuppofe that if iron abounded in the fubmerged continent, as it does 



Vol. VI. O o at 



