6 ~  Reafons for fuppofing that 
of each generation interweaving their: fibres with 
the remains of their predeceffors; and by the 
depofitions of the water, which, falling to the 
bottom, will be lodged in its interftices. All 
foreign bodies, brought hither by accident, will in 
time be buried in the increafing foil, where they 
will remain for ages, without undergoing any 
changes, befides thofe, which are produced by, 
the folvent power of water on particular fub- 
ftances. Should the water be moft fhallow at the 
fides, and increafe in depth as you advance to the 
middle, which is generally the cafe, the margin 
of the pond will be progreffively advanced, and its 
furface contra&ed in proportion, If any part of it 
be too cold to favor vegetation, that part will. ftill 
- remain a pool furrounded with a flat, fedgy border. 
If it be fupplied and emptied by two rivulets, the 
intermediate current will. preferve itfelf a. channel 
through the growing land, Laftly, the folid plain, 
‘thus produced, will, in time, be covered with a 
bed of vegetable earth, whofe thicknefs will deter- 
mine the difference of high and low water-mark; 
for the matter tetween thofe two limits, being 
alternately wet and dry, will, at particular periods, 
-be expofed to the action of the air, and will, con- 
fequently, be decompofed, and changed into 
mold, 
This method of converting a pond into land 
‘evidently points out a procefs that would diminifh 
the inequalities of a difordered continent: And, if 
we 
