22 HISTORY OF 



like the coats of an onion ; that they are replete 

 with shells, and other productions of the sea; 

 these shells being found in the deepest cavi- 

 ties, and on the tops of the highest mountains. 

 From these observations, which are warranted by 

 experience, he proceeds to observe, that these 

 shells and extraneous fossils are not productions 

 of the earth, but are all actual remains of those 

 animals which they are known to resemble ; that 

 all the beds of the earth lie under each other, in 

 the order of their specific gravity ; and that they 

 are disposed as if they had been left there by 

 subsiding waters. All these assertions he affirms 

 with much earnestness, although daily experience 

 contradicts him in some of them ; particularly we 

 find layers of stone often over the lightest soils, 

 and the softest earth under the hardest bodies. 

 However, having taken it for granted, that all the 

 layers of the earth are found in the order of their 

 specific gravity, the lightest at the top, and the 

 heaviest next the centre, he consequently asserts, 

 and it will not improbably follow, that all the 

 substances of which the earth is composed were 

 once in an actual state of dissolution. This uni- 

 versal dissolution he takes to have happened at 

 the time of the flood. He supposes that at that 

 time a body of water, which was then in the 

 centre of the earth, uniting with that whiclTwas 

 found on the surface, so far separated the terrene 

 parts as to mix all together in one fluid mass; 

 the contents of which afterwards sinking accord- 

 ing to their respective gravities, produced the 

 present appearances of the earth. Being aware, 



