188 Rev. Mr Smith on a Submarine Fore'sl 



nishing as a necessary consequence of the waste of their sub- 

 stances in the formation of land ; whilst Browallius and others 

 maintained, on the contrary, that the level of the ocean was in 

 progress of being gradually elevated, and supported their theory 

 by contrary facts. So blinding is the influence of theory, 

 and so plausibly does it warp facts to suit itself, that the rocks in 

 the neighbourhood of GefHe were adduced both by Celsius and 

 Browallius as proofs of the truth of their respective systems. 

 Celsius supposed that the rocks at LofFgrand to the west of 

 Gdffle, entitled him to infer that the levd of the sea lowered at 

 the rate of 45 geometrical inches (pouces geometriques) in the 

 hundred years ; while Browallius, from other rocks in the same 

 neighbourhood, endeavoured to prove that the level of the sea was 

 rising ; and M. Gadolin again concluded, from his observations 

 on the rocks on which the Chateau d'Abo was built 500 years 

 before, and which, by either of the former suppositions, ought to 

 have been considerably elevated or depressed, as well as from 

 the existence of a tree which was ascertained to have been in 

 the same station in regard to the sea for 364 years, that 

 there could be no considerable change of level on the waters of 

 the ocean. Facts, indeed, have been adduced by Manfredi re- 

 garding the foundations of the Cathedral of Ravenna, which seem 

 to prove a rise in the level of the Mediterranean. But, on the 

 other hand, Tournefort has shewn that the relative positions of 

 many of the islands in the Archipelago, is the same as when they 

 were described by Pliny and Strabo ; and M. Ferner having 

 travelled over a great part of Europe to ascertain this question, 

 found that Ravenna was built in a marsh, which, notwithstand- 

 ing the use of stakes, might sensibly yield to the weight of the 

 buildings raised on it, even as many of the houses in other cities 

 of Italy were much sunk in the earth; and as the wall of Severus, 

 which still extended from sea to sea, as well as that of Adrian, 

 were covered by a mould of several feet ; and so concluded that 

 the facts assumed annihilated their own evidence, and that no* 

 thing could be determined regarding the elevation or depression 

 of the superficies of the ocean *. 



• See Introduction aux Observations sur la Physique, par M. I'Abbe Rozier, 

 for the preceding and additional facts. 



