THE EARTH. 



79 



and shipping. No skill in the mariner, nor 

 strength of rowing, can work an escape : the 

 sailor at the helm finds the ship at first go in 

 a current opposite to his intentions ; his ves- 

 sel's motion, though slow in the beginning, 

 becomes every moment more rapid ; it goes 

 round in circles still narrower and narrower, 

 till at last it is dashed against the rocks, and 

 instantly disappears ; nor is it seen again for 



six hours : till the tide flowing, it is vomited 

 forth with the same violence with which it 

 was drawn in. The noise of this dreadful 

 vortex still farther contributes to increase 

 its terror, which, with the dashing of the 

 waters, and the dreadful valley, if it may 

 be so called, caused by their circulation, 

 makes one of the most tremendous objects in 

 nature. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



OF THE CHANGES PRODUCED BY THE SEA UPON THE EARTH. 



FROM what has been said, as well of the 

 earth as of the sea, they both appear to be 

 in continual fluctuation. The earth, the 

 common promptuary that supplies subsist- 

 ence to men, animals, and vegetables, is con- 

 tinually furnishing its stores to their support. 



But the matter which is thus derived from 

 it, is soon restored and laid down again to 

 be prepared for fresh mutations. The trans- 

 migration of souls is no doubt false and whim- 

 sical ; but nothing can be more certain than 

 the transmigration of bodies : the spoils of 

 the meanest reptile may go to the formation 

 of a prince ; and, on the contrary, as the po- 

 et has it, the body of Caesar may be employ- 

 ed in stopping a beer-barrel. From this, and 

 other causes, therefore, the earth is in con- 

 tinual change. Its internal fires, the devia- 

 tion of its rivers, and the falling of its moun- 

 tains, are daily altering its surface ; and geo- 

 graphy can scarcely recollect the lakes and 

 the valleys that history once described. 



But these changes are nothing to the in- 

 stability of the ocean. It would seem that 

 inquietude was as natural to it as its fluidity. 

 It is first seen with a constant and equable 

 motion going towards the west; the tides 

 then interrupt this progression, and for a 

 time drive the waters in a contrary direction ; 

 beside these agitations, the currents act their 

 part in a smaller sphere, being generally 

 greatest where the other motions of the sea 

 are least ; namely, nearest the shore : the 

 winds also contribute their share in this uni- 



versal fluctuation : so that scarcely any part 

 of the sea is wholly seen to stagnate. 



Nil enim quiescii, widis impellitur undo, 

 Et spiritua et calor toto se corpore miscent. 



As this great element is thus changed, and 

 continually labouring internally, it may be 

 readily supposed that it produces correspond- 

 ent changes upon its shores, and those parts 

 of the earth subject to its influence. In fact, 

 it is every day making considerable altera- 

 tions, either by overflowing its shores in one 

 place, or deserting them in others : by cover- 

 ing over whole tracts of country, that were 

 cultivated and peopled, at one time ; or by 

 leaving its bed to be appropriated to the 

 purposes of vegetation, and to supply a new 

 theatre for human industry at another. 



In this struggle between the earth and the 

 sea for dominion, the greatest number of our 

 shores seem to defy the whole rage of the 

 waves, both by their height, and the rocky 

 materials of which they are composed. The 

 coasts of Italy, for instance, a are bordered 

 with rocks of marble of different kinds, the 

 quarries of which may easily be distinguished 

 at a distance from sea, and appear like per- 

 pendicular columnsof the most beautiful kinds 

 of marble, ranged along the shore. In gene- 

 ral, the coasts of France, from Brest to 

 Bordeaux, are composed of rocks; as are 

 also those of Spain and England, which de- 



Buffon, vol. ii. p. 199- 



