OF THE SEA AND LAND. 29 



to any thing that water can be proved to have effected: 

 but I know not that we can yet point out such an 

 effect connected with its cause, and perhaps we never 

 shall. If any doubt could possibly remain respecting 

 such a cause, the very effect and the cause together 

 have occurred repeatedly in our own times, if on a 

 limited scale; in Calabria, in Jamaica, and elsewhere: 

 the sweeping wave of an Earthquake is the current in 

 question. And in this necessary course of former 

 actions, we shall probably find the true causes of such 

 alluvia as cannot be attributed to rivers or other ex- 

 isting ones, and which have so often been attributed 

 to " The Deluge," as I shall more particularly show 

 when speaking of the Alluvia in a future chapter. The 

 subversion and fracture of the upper strata during 

 elevation, is precisely that which wpuld facilitate the 

 action of such currents, or waves, on them; and thus 

 can we easily conceive large bodies of alluvia carried 

 forward to some point of rest, and, where that point 

 was supramarine, remaining to disclose the history of 

 former times. 



With respect to currents or deluges arising from 

 the temporary enlargement of rivers, it is easy to reason 

 on their effects ; since their direction can always be 

 assigned, and as they can also often be proved by par- 

 ticular appearances, and by historical record : while, 

 where such a probable cause can be inferred, we need 

 not have recourse to hypothetical ones. Yet I must 

 repeat, that the presence of alluvia at a higher level 

 than the actual bed of a river, is not evidence, even of 

 inundation ; as I have also shown whence it arises. 

 In mountainous countries, such deposits from occa- 

 sional inundations doubtless occur ; but, the greater 

 number, when carefully examined, will prove to be 



