DOMAIN XII. VOLCANIC. 



while none exist in the adjacent country. 

 Whether this effect could be produced by 

 currents at the bottom of the primeval 

 waters (and similar currents continue to be 

 observed in many seas), which, by their 

 continual action, abraded the lower parts, 

 without reaching the summits of these then 

 submarine hills; or from whatever other 

 cause this effect may have proceeded, must 

 for ever remain among the inscrutable se- 

 crets of nature, which despise the puny 

 efforts of human intellect. Perhaps it may 

 simply arise from the circumstance that 

 these portions, sometimes from their posi- 

 tion, and sometimes from internal causes, 

 may have been harder than the rest of the 

 mass, and thus have remained like some 

 large fragments of granite, after the softer 

 parts had wasted away. However this be, 

 we must never, in geological discussions, 

 forget the amazing power of time, which 

 enables the water to destroy the hardest 

 rocks ; and which, though important in the 

 short period of human life, may be said to 

 be nothing, in the eternity of Him, with 



