400 TEE BOTTOM OF THE SEA. 



work of ages shall have raised the bottom of the sea 

 above the waters, and the mountains, which now 

 form the grandest features of the earth's surface, 

 shall have sunk beneath the waves, the successors of 

 the present race of mankind will look with astonish- 

 ment on this new species of fossil, the relic of a for- 

 gotten civilisation, buried out of sight in the same 

 way as the vestiges of the past which we ourselves 

 are so interested in studying. 



Shipwrecks, too, with the debris of their various 

 freights, will lend their irrefragable testimony to the 

 former existence of man, and increase the perplexity 

 of the geologists of the future. Still more, in the 

 midst of the most sharply-defined marine deposits, 

 the observer will discover the remains of our vanishing 

 race. He will see artificial tunnels pierced through 

 the most varied strata ; and in these, at least, he will 

 find evidence of our present labours to reward his 

 researches. If hereafter, not contented with piercing 

 the mountains to avoid the labour of ascent and 

 descent, we drive our roads beneath the seas them- 

 selves, what would come to pass ? Above our secure 

 highway, storms and cyclones would pass harmlessly ; 

 we should hear, perhaps, their fearful music, and be 

 deafened by the roar of the weaves, or the rush of the 

 locomotive with its ugly train of carriages ; but we 

 should speed with the swiftness of the wind from one 



