THE EARTH. 23 



tinents, islands, and low grounds, all in their tui ns. This opinion will 

 receive additional weight by considering, that in those parts of the 

 earth where the power of the ocean is greatest, the '^equalities on 

 the surface of the earth are highest. The ocean's po Ver is great- 

 est at the equator, where its winds and tides are most constant ; and, 

 in fact, the mountains at the equator are found to be higher than in 

 any other part of the world. The sea, therefore, has produced the 

 principal changes in our earth : rivers, volcanoes, earthquakes, storms, 

 and rain, having made but slight alterations, and only such as have 

 affected the globe to very inconsiderable depths." 



This is but a very slight sketch of Mr. Buffon's Theory of the 

 Earth ; a theory which he has much more powerfully supported, than 

 happily invented ; and it would be needless to take up the reader's 

 time from the pursuit of truth in the discussion of plausibilities. In 

 fact, a thousand questions might be asked this most ingenious philoso- 

 pher, which he would not find it easy to answer ; but such is the lot 

 of humanity, that a single Goth can in one day destroy the fabric 

 which Caesars were employed an age in erecting. We might ask, 

 how mountains, which are composed of the most compact and pon- 

 derous substances, should be the first whose parts the sea began to le- 

 move ? We might ask, how fossil-wood is found deeper even than 

 shells ? which argues, that trees grew upon the places he suppose* 

 once to have been covered with the ocean. But we hope this excel> 

 lent man is better employed than to think of gratifying the petulance 

 of incredulity, by answering endless objections. 



CHAPTER V. 



OP FOSSIL-SHELLS, AND OTHER EXTRANEOUS FOSSILS. 



WE may affirm of Mr. Buffon, that which has been said of the 

 chymists of old ; though he may have failed in attaining his principa 

 aim, of establishing a theory, yet he has brought together such a mul 

 titude of facts relative to the history of the earth, and the nature of its 

 fossil productions, that curiosity finds ample compensation, even while 

 it feels the want of conviction. 



Before, therefore, I enter upon the description of those parts of the 

 earth, which seem more naturally to fall within the subject, it will not 

 be improper to give a short history of those animal productions that 

 are found in such quantities, either upon its surface, or at different 

 depths below it. They demand our curiosity ; and, indeed, there is 

 nothing in natural history that has afforded more scope for doubt, 

 conjecture, and speculation. Whatever depths of the earth we examine, 

 or at whatever distance within land we seek, we most commonly find 

 a number of fossil-shells, which being compared with others from the 

 sea, of known kinds, are found to be exactly of a similar shape and 

 nature.* They are found at the very bottom of quarries and mines, 

 in the retired and inmost parts of the most firm and solid rocks, upoc 



* Woodward's Essay towards a Natural History, p. 16. 



