16 NATURAL HISTORY. 



what we now know to be dry land ; and that, of con- 

 sequence, the vast continents of Asia, Europe, Africa, 

 and America, were then the bottom of an immense 

 ocean, replete with every thing which the present one 

 produces. It is also certain that the different strata of 

 the earth are horizontal and parallel to one another, 

 which situation is occasioned by the operation of the 

 waters. The horizontal position of water is almost 

 universal ; in plains the strata are perfectly horizontal. 

 And it is only in the mountains that they are inclined 

 to a horizon ; because they have been originally form- 

 ed by sediments deposited upon an inclined base. Now 

 these strata must have been formed gradually ; for 

 nothing is more frequent than strata composed of hea- 

 vy materials placed above light ones, which could not 

 have been the case, if the whole had been blended and 

 dissolved by the deluge, and then precipitated. 



Another circumstance requires our attention. No- 

 thing but the motion and sediments of water could 

 possibly produce the regular position of the various 

 strata of which the superficial part of this earth is 

 composed. And as both the highest mountains, and 

 the lowest vallies consist, of parallel strata, this par- 

 allel and horizontal position of strata must be the ef- 

 fect of an uniform and constant cause. And hence 

 we conclude that the dry and habitual part of the 

 earth has remained a long time under the waters of 

 the sea, and must therefore have undergone the same 

 changes which are at present going on at the bottom 

 of the ocean. By examining therefore v.-hat passes 

 in the bottom of this sea, we shall soon be able to 

 draw some rational conclusions respecting the external 

 figure and internal constitution of the earth, 



