624 



GEOLOGY. 



Bided by degrees, the dry land appearing first in 

 places adjacent to that where the first man was placed 

 at the creation ; that the land extended itself 

 gradually, a considerable time elapsing before the 

 waters had returned to their proper bed, during which 

 time the shell-fish, multiplying in great abundance, 

 were universally distributed by the waters of the sea ; 

 and that when the bottom of the sea was raised up 

 by the earthquakes that accompanied the deluge, and 

 formed the mountains, whole beds of such shells were 

 thrown up and distributed as we now behold them. 



About the year 1744, M. le Cat, a French philo- 

 sopher, proposed a theory of the earth, differing from 

 all which had preceded it. According to him, in the 

 beginning, the substance whence metals, stones, 

 earths, and other mineral bodies were ultimately to 

 be formed, was a soft mass, consisting of a species of 

 mud. The earth was a globe, or regular spheroid, and 

 its surface was smooth, and free from hills and valleys. 

 The sun and moon were afterwards created. The fluid 

 which covered the mud became agitated by the flux 

 and reflux to which it was subjected by attraction, 

 and the mud was variously and violently moved. 

 This agitation increasing, a part of the mud became 

 exposed and dried. Continents were thus formed. 

 The materials of the earth being compact and solid, 

 the sea continually excavated its bed ; and from the 

 continual retreat of it, and the excavation of the 

 earth, he considered this globe as doomed to be at 

 last so perfectly undermined as to produce a con- 

 fluence of the sea from hemisphere to hemisphere. 

 Le Cat professed to believe the Sacred Scriptures, 

 and discovered an anxious desire to show that his 

 theory was consistent with them ; but it must be obvi- 

 ous that it is as inconsistent with the structure and phe- 

 nomena of our globe as it is with the Mosaic history. 



About the year 1750, appeared the Tellianned'of 

 M. Maillet, a French writer of some note. He 

 taught, that the earth was once covered water, which, 

 by means of strong currents, raised in its bosom all 

 those mountains which different countries bear upon 

 their surface ; that this water has been ever since 

 continually diminishing, and will continue to diminish 

 until it shall be quite absorbed ; that our globe, being 

 then set on fire, will become a sun, and have various 

 planets moving in its vortex, till its igneous particles 

 being consumed, it will be extinguished ; that then it 

 will roll through the immensity of space, without any 

 regular motion, till it is again covered with watery 

 particles, collected from other planets, when it will 

 fix in the vortex of a new sun, and again go through 

 the same course of motions and changes, being sup- 

 plied with fresh inhabitants, resembling those by 

 which it is tenanted at present ; that the earth has 

 probably been undergoing revolutions of this kind 

 from all eternity, and will continue to go through a 

 succession of them without end. This absurd theory, 

 if theory it may be termed not more hostile to re- 

 velation than to sound philosophy, seems to have 

 gained but few adherents, and but little celebrity. 

 But no one has preceded to the forming of a theory 

 of the earth with the pomp and circumstance of 

 Buffon. It merits attention, not on account of its 

 accordance with present appearances, or as affording 

 plausible solutions of observed phenomena, but from 

 the eloquence with which it is adorned, the extent of 

 information it displays, and the popularity it derived 

 from these sources. He supposes the planets in 

 general to have been struck off" from the sun by a 



comet ; that they consisted of fluid matter, and 

 thence assumed a spherical form ; and that by the 

 union of projectile and centripetal forces, they are 

 restrained in their present orbits. After this he sup- 

 poses that the earth gradually cooled, so that the 

 circumambient vapours were condensed upon its 

 surface, while sulphureous, saline, and other matters 

 penetrated its cracks and fissures, and formed veins 

 of metallic and mineral products. The scorified, or 

 pumice-like surface of the earth, acted on by water, 

 produced clay, mud, and loose soils, and the atmo- 

 sphere was constituted of subtile effluvia, floating 

 above all the more ponderous materials. Then the 

 sun, and winds, and tides, and the earth's motion, and 

 other causes, became effective in producing new 

 changes. The waters were much elevated in the 

 equatorial regions, and mud, and gravel, and frag- 

 ments were transported thither from the poles ; 

 hence, says Buffon, the highest mountains lie between 

 the tropics, the lowest towards the poles ; and hence 

 the infinity of islands which stud the tropical seas. 

 The globe's surface, once even and regular, became now 

 rough and irregular ; excavations were formed in one 

 part, and land was elevated in another ; aiul during 

 a period of many ages, the fragments of the original 

 materials, the shells of various fish, and different other 

 exuviae, were ground up by the ocean, and produced 

 calcareous strata, and other low-land depositions. 

 These relics of marine animals we find at such heights 

 above the level of the sea, as to render it more than 

 probable that the ocean once entirely overwhelmed 

 the earth. 



Every one who contemplates the earth's surface 

 must trace upon it marks of the most dire and 

 unsparing revolutions, which, from the present order 

 of things, it appears impossible should re-occur, 

 except by the united and continuous agency of the 

 most active powers of destruction. This, says Buf- 

 fon, arose from the soft state of the former crust of 

 the earth, and those causes, now imbecile and slow 

 in their operation, were then more effectually exerted, 

 and results were obtained in a few years for which 

 centuries would now be insufficient. This amusing 

 theorist next proceeds to contemplate the production 

 of rivers, which he regards as having cut their own 

 way to the ocean, as gradually wearing down the 

 mountainous lands, filling up valleys, and choking 

 their exits into the ocean by the transportation of 

 finely-divided materials. Thus everything is slowly 

 returning to its former state ; the mountains will be 

 levelled, the valleys heightened, excavations filled up, 

 and the ocean will again cover the earth. 



Buffon's theory was warmly opposed, soon after its 

 publication, by Raspe, a geologist of Germany. He 

 also opposed the theory of Moro, before mentioned, 

 though he considered it as approaching much nearer 

 the truth than the igneous fable of the French 

 naturalist. He insisted, that the opinion of continents 

 and mountains having been thrown up from the bot- 

 tom of the sea solely by submarine conflagrations and 

 volcanoes, was abundantly refuted by close observa- 

 tion. He contended, likewise, that in veins of sand, 

 marble, chalk, and slate, there are found no indica- 

 tions of a burning soil, but rather of a sedimemt 

 disposed by the agitation of the sea. Accordingly, 

 he maintained, that the strata, of which the shell or 

 surface of the earth is composed, were originally 

 formed at the bottom of the sea by the constant agi- 

 tation of the sea, and the continual production of 



