1 76 Natural History. 



tinct strata, though not now to be found in that 

 state. This he considers as one of the many evi* 

 dences which our earth every where affords of the 

 general deluge. By the high tides, and violent 

 agitation of the diluvian waters, the primitive 

 strata, which had never before felt any rain, were 

 loosened, torn asunder, and ground down by at- 

 trition against each other, and all the superficial 

 parts of the earth reduced again to a chaos. When 

 the waters began to abate, the larger stony par- 

 ticles and fragments subsided first, and formed 

 the compound rocks, and beds of sand; and the 

 finer and lighter sediment was spread, by the tides^ 

 into strata of different consistency. 



The next theory entitled to notice is that of M. 

 Delametherie, of France, which has been, of 

 late, very fashionable in that country, and pro- 

 duced considerable discussion among naturalists/ 

 He supposes that the external crust of our globe 

 was formed in the bosom of the w^aters, from 

 which it emerged in a state not very different from 

 its present appearance. The crust, after its forma- 

 tion, underwent a variety of small alterations, from 

 local causes. The waters surpassed the highest 

 mountains; in other words, they were at least 

 three thousand toises above their present level. 

 All mountains, vallies and plains, were formed by 

 crystallization amidst the waters. The materials 

 w^hich formed them were truly dissolved ; but, as 

 they would require much more water of solution 

 than is now to be found, it is evident that most 

 of the waters of the primitive seas have disap- 

 peared. These, he thinks, have chiefly retreated 

 into the bowels of the earth; that cavities were 

 formed there at the time of the crystallization of 



j I'heonede la Terre, 8vo. 5 torn. Paris. 1797. This large work em- 

 braces much extraneous matter. The fourth an4 fifth volumes contain the 

 author's theory. 



