Mr. Delab.'garre's Excurftons on the Blue Mouniains. 137 



and marine fubltances fo common on the mountains of Europe, 

 are not to be found here. This fmgular circumftance feems 

 to prove, that this New World has not experienced the ravages 

 of the flood ; confequently that it is more ancient than it has 

 been reprefented by many illuflrious writers, BufFon, Abbe 

 Raynal, &c.* 



AVhen I fay that this part of the globe has not experienced 

 the flood pretty well authenticated for fome other part, I do 

 not pretend to efl:ablifli that it has been always free from a 

 precedent or a partial deluge ; and in that cafe I would fuppofe 

 it to have taken place three or four thoufand years before the 

 latter : Becaufe in fuch long procefs of time, all the 

 fhells or marine fubftances mufl: have been triturated, 

 wafiied away, or finally diflblved, fo as to leave not any 



* Mr. Jefferfon's notes on the ftate of Virginia, p. 164 and 165, feem to 

 corroborate my opinion. " But imperfetfl as is our knowledge ot the tongues 

 fpoken in America, it fuffices to difcover the following i^emarkable fadt: 

 Arranging them under the radical ones to which they may be palpably traced, 

 and doing the fame by thofe of theRedMen of Afia, there will be found probably 

 twenty in America, for one in Afia, of thofe radical languages, fo called, becaufe 

 if they were ever the fame, they have loft all refemblance to one another. A 

 feparation into dialedls may be the work of a few ages only ; but for two dialeds. 

 to recede from one another till they have loft all veftiges of their common origin, 

 nmft require an immenfe courfe of time, perhaps not lefs than many people give 

 to the age of the earth. A greater number of thofe radical changes of language having 

 taken place among the Red Men of America^ proves them of greater antiqititj than 

 thofe of Afta." 



s 



