cppl'icalle to the Theory of the Earth. 201 



tetition for a moment ; and two questions here present 

 themselves to be resolved. Have the niadreporic moun- 

 tains been formed in the bosom of the sea ? and, supposing 

 this to be the case, what revolutions were capable of effect- 

 ins so prodigious a change, either in their antient state or 

 in that of the w-aves ? 



There can be no doubt that the former of these questions 

 may, and ought to be, answered in the affirmative. Ob- 

 servation, — indeed experience, reasoning, and analogy, all 

 unite to prove that these pelagian animals, the vast remains 

 of wlrich cover our continents with an organization similar 

 to that of families now existing, have had the same origin 

 and the same country. No objection has yet been made 

 against this general assent. But if any doubts of this kind 

 had been formed in regard to the different banks of testacea, 

 or even of zoophytes, disseminated throughout the large 

 continents at considerable distances from the sea shore, the 

 consequences could not be extended to those reefs, those 

 islands, and those archipelagoes, several of which still de- 

 clare their origin bv the little elevation they have acquired 

 above the place where they were formed. It may therefore 

 be considered as an incontestable fact, that all the madre- 

 poric productions we have seen raised more or less above 

 the present level of the sea, were formed in its bosom. 



The second question, it appears, may be resolved with 

 as little difficulty. I shall here observe, to make use of an 

 expression of the Nestor of the French navy in regard to the 

 enormous bones seen at the Malouines at a considerable 

 distance in the interior, — the land has cither been raised vp, 

 or the sea has sunk down. In the first supposition, we can- 

 not conceive any other cause susceptible of raising up si- 

 milar masses, but volcanic eruptions as frequent as energetic. 

 But independently of a multitude of other reasons which 

 tend to make us reject a cause of this kind, do we not know 

 that these grand convulsions of nature always leave behind 

 .them indelible traces of the disorder and confusion by which 

 they are exclusively characterized ? But nothing of this kind 

 is observed in the madreporic countries. I have already 

 spoken of the regular forms and insensible gradations of 

 the island of Timor, an image and production at the same 

 time of the calmness of nature : I have already quoted the 

 ingenious observations of captain X'ancouver, which alone 

 are sufficient to show how i)eaceablc was the cause which 

 left these madreporic eminences uncovered, whether its 

 action was slow, rapid, or even instantaneous. Lahillar- 

 tiiere made siniiLir observations : the two i'orslcrs have iur- 



iiislicd 



