207 



M. Deluc and Dolomieu, that if there be any 

 fact well established in geology, it is this, that 

 the surface of our globe has suffered a great and 

 sudden revolution, the period of which cannot 

 be dated farther back than five or six thousand 

 years. This revolution has, on the one hand, 

 ingulphed and caused to disappear the countries 

 formerly inhabited by men, and the animal spe- 

 cies at present best known ; and on the other, 

 has laid bare the bottom of the last ocean, thus 

 converting its channel into the now habitable 

 earth." 



To enter into the scientific induction of par- 

 ticulars by which Cuvier arrives at this conclu- 

 sion, would be inconsistent with my present plan ; 

 and I must content myself with stating, in a few 

 words, the principles on which he proceeded, and 

 some of the leading facts which he has success- 

 fully demonstrated. 



In considering the general aspect of the globe, 

 one of the first things which attract the attention 

 of the geologist, is the existence of great undula- 

 tions and inequalities in its surface, a circum- 

 stance which is entirely inconsistent with the 

 belief of the very remote antiquity of its present 

 condition. There are so many agents constantly 

 at work in breaking down, abrading and remov- 

 ing every thing elevated above the general level, 

 that any series of ages approaching to infinity 

 would certainly crumble to dust the hardest pro- 

 jecting rocks, cause the highest mountains to dis- 

 appear, and reduce the whole earth to a uniform 



