IS NATURAL HISTORY. 



tations occasioned by the winds produce great inequa- 

 lities in the tides. By every motion of the sea too, 

 particles of earth, and other materials, must be carried 

 from one place and deposited in another ; and these 

 collections of matter must assume the form of parallel 

 and horizontal strata. Besides, on all coasts where 

 the ebbing and flowing are discernible, numberless ma- 

 terials are brought in by the flux, which are not carried 

 back by the reflux. Thus ths sea gradually increases 

 on some places, and recedes from others. But in order 

 to remove every doubt, let us examine more closely 

 the practicability of a mountain being formed at the 

 bottom of the sea, by the motion and sediments of the 

 water. On a coast which the sea lashes with vio- 

 lence, some part of the earth must be carried off by 

 every stroke of the waves. Even where the sea is 

 bounded by rock, it is a well authenticated fact, that 

 small particles are carried off from the rock by the re- 

 treat of every wave. Those particles of earth or 

 stone being transported to some distance, it happens 

 that, when the agitation of the water is abated, the 

 particles are precipitated in the form of a sediment, 

 and lay the foundation of a first stratum, which will 

 soon be succeeded by a similar one. In process of 

 time this gradually accumulating mass will become a 

 mountain in the bottom 'of the sea, perfectly like, 

 both in external and internal structure, the mountains 

 on the dry land. When the bottom of the sea too, 

 at particular places, is troubled by the agitation of 

 the water, earth, clay, shells, and other matter 

 must be removed from thence, and deposited else- 

 where. For divers assure us, that the bottom of 

 the sea, at the greatest depths to which they descend, 

 is so strongly agitated by the water, that earth, clay, 



