38 A Dissertation on the proballe Cause of the Deluge. 
_ find it again, by the manner in which it broke off. In this 
he is never misiaken: he sees it, as it were, through many. 
fathoms of earth! Evidently suggesting, that some revolu- 
tion on the earth has broken up its naturally arranged strata, 
and introduced this ** regular confusion.” 
“‘ The various strata of the earth seldom lie on one an- 
other horizontally: they generaliy dip; and near the shore 
commonly incline towards the sea. On the south coast of 
England, the rocks incline southerly ; on the opposite coast 
of France, they incline to the north. Is it not probable, 
that at the deluge, the horizontal stratum was broken be- 
tween these countries; and the ends falling lowest at the 
breach, formed the channel, into which the sea flowed, 
when it lost the infiuence of the comet, and again obeyed the 
power of gravity 2 Countries separated by narrow channels, 
universally have their shores inclining towards the sea; 
showing that the general geography was at that time altered. 
‘it is true, we have an old doctrine revived, and sup- 
ported by respectable authority, that mountains were formed 
originally by these eruptions we call volcanoes. The vo- 
tarles of this theory pronounce the hollows and cavities on 
the tops and sides of mountains, craters, or the cups of ex- 
tinguished volcanoes ; and if the stone of the mountain be 
of a blueish colour, then it 1s declared lava; and the proof 
of a volcano having existed there becomes incontrovertible! 
History, however, ‘affords us very few. instances ‘of moun- 
tains so formed. This doctrine has received very just au- 
thority from the late scientific circumnavigators. The rocks 
which surround the islands of the Pacific Ocean, generally 
break off perpendicularly about a mile out at sea, which 
makes their approach very difficult and dangerous; and as 
the stratum immediately under the loam of the surface has 
an ashy or lava-like appearance, the voyagers very naturally 
concluded, that the immense number of small islands which 
stud that extensive ocean, were the product of subaqueous 
eruptions. 
“If I might be allowed to hazard an opinion against such 
respectable authority, I should rather apprebend that the 
Pacific Ocean had been once a continent, and that at the 
deluge, when the earth’s suxface was disarranged and broken 
up by the violent motion of the waters, the general body of 
it sunk heneath the level, or was washed away to other 
parts, leavirig only the more elevated and solid part re- 
maining. For volcanoes throw up matter piecemeal ; islands, 
therefore, formed by them would have a sloping, or gradually 
sinking shore; whereas the islands of the Great South Sea 
- are 
