applicable to the Theory of the Earth, 203 



2d, The exclusion of all relation between these two races; 

 the darker colour of the inhabitants of Vai Diemen's Land ; 

 their short, vvoollv, and curled hair, in a country much 

 colder than New Holland, where the coilrary is the case ; 

 appear to me to be new proofs of the imperfection of our 

 systems in regard to the intercourse of natons, their trans- 

 migrations, and the influence of climate ai man. _ 



3d, From the petrified shells and zooph.-tes which T ob- 

 served in different places and at differen heights in Van 

 Diemen's Land, New Holland, and Timor I infer that thii 

 sea formerly covered that part of the Ausral lands which 

 reaches from the 44th degree of south lattude to the Qth, 

 over an extent of 700 leagues from south tc. north : a result 

 the more valuable, as this immense region vas the only one 

 which remained to be known under this poht of view. 



4th, Having given this explanation as sinple as satisfac- 

 tory in regard to the formation of those beaitiful calcareous 

 incrustations so frequent on the south-westand north-west 

 coasts of New Holland, I have taken an opportunity of 

 proving how difficult it is, in certain cases, to distinguish 

 bodies altered in this manner from those vhich are really 

 fossils. 



5th, In my observations on solid zoophy.es I have con- 

 firmed their almost absolute exclusion from tie most Austral 

 seas of the Antarctic hemisphere ; I have p-oved that this 

 important family of animals is banished b) nature to the 

 middle of the warmest seas, to the most peaceful equi- 

 noctial regions, and those which border on tiem. 



6th, We saw them there, in the state ot petrifactions, 

 forming all the low islands of the great equnoctial ocean, 

 and some, at least, of the highest in that sea and in the 

 Indian Ocean. 



7th, We fouiid them there, in the livin; state, inter- 

 spersing the sea with new dangers, multiplnng the reefs, 

 enlarging the islands and archipelagoes, enciunbering the 

 harbours and ports, and every where throwin; up new cal- 

 careous mountains. 



While man, therefore, who styles himsel the k'mg of 

 nature, rears, with labour, on the surface of tic earth those 

 frail monuments of his pride, which the bi-ath of time 

 must soon destroy ; feeble animals, which lave so long 

 escaped his observation, and which he still didaiiis to no- 

 tice, multiply at the bottom of the ocean th.se, immense 

 testimonies gf power which brave ages, anl which our 

 imagination itself can hardly conceive. 



>XXL Letter 



