70 



chalk, which they bore with an augre five fret deep. 

 They then withdraw from the pit, before the augre is 

 removed, and upon its extraction, the waters burst up 

 through the aperture with great violence. That which 

 "is most remarkable in the operation is the layers of 

 earth, as we descend. Af the depth of fourteen feet 

 are found the ruins of an ancient city, paved streets, 

 houses, fioors, and different pieces of Mosaic. Under 

 this is found a solid earth, that one would imagine had 

 never been removed; however, under it is found a sort 

 oozy earth, made up of vegetables ; and at twenty-six 

 feet deep, large trees entire, such as walnut trees, with 

 the walnuts still sticking on the stem, and their leaves 

 and branches in exact preservation. At twenty-eight 

 feet deep a soft chalk is found mixed with a vast 

 quantity of shells, and this bed is eleven feet thick. - t 

 Under this vegetables are found again with leaves and 

 branches of trees as before ; and thus alternately chalk 

 and vegetable earth to the depth of sixty-three feet. 

 These are the layers whenever the workmen bore : 

 while iu many of them they also find pieces of charcoal, 

 bones, and bits of iron. From this description it ap- 

 pears that this country has been alternately overflowed 

 and deserted by the sea, one age after another : nor 

 were these overflowings arid retirings of trifling depths, 

 or of short continuance. When the sea burst in, it 

 must have been a long time in overflowing the branches 

 of the fallen forest with its sediment, and still longer in 

 forming a regular bed of shells, eleven feet thick, over 

 them. It must therefore have taken an age at least to 

 make any one of these layers ; and we may conclude, 

 that it must have been many ages employed in the pro- 

 duction of them all. The land also, upon being de- 

 serted, must have had time to grow compact, and to 

 be drained of its waters before it could be disposed to 

 vegetation. 



Likewise in cutting a channel for the canal of Newry, 

 in Ireland, a great multitude of fallen trees was dis- 

 covered lying near two miles in length, and in many 



