THE EARTH. 241 



yet we have numberless testimonies of another na- 

 ture, that prove it beyond the possibility of doubt : 

 I mean those numerous trees that are found buried 

 at considerable depths in places where either rivers 

 or the sea had accidentally overflown.* At the 

 mouth of the river Ness, near Bruges, in Flanders, 

 at the depth of fifty feet, are found great quan- 

 tities of trees lying as close to each other as they 

 do in a wood ; the trunks, the branches, and the 

 leaves, are in such perfect preservation, that the 

 particular kind of each tree may instantly be 

 known. About five hundred years ago, this very 

 ground was known to have been covered by the 

 sea ; nor is there any history or tradition of its 

 having been dry ground, which we can have no 

 doubt must have been the case. Thus we see a 

 country flourishing in verdure, producing large 

 forests, and trees of various kinds, overwhelmed 

 by the sea. We see this element depositing its 

 sediment to a height of fifty feet ; and its waters 

 must therefore have risen much higher. We see 

 the same, after it has thus overwhelmed and 

 sunk the land so deep beneath its slime, caprici- 

 ously retiring from the same coasts, and leaving 

 that habitable once more, which it had formerly 

 destroyed. All this is wonderful ; and, perhaps, 

 instead of attempting to inquire after the cause, 

 which has hitherto been inscrutable, it will best 

 become us to rest satisfied with admiration. 



At the city of Modena, in Italy, and about 

 four miles round it, wherever it is dug, when the 



* Buffbn, vol. ii. p. 403. 

 VOL. I. Q 



