220 Natural History. [Chap. IIL 



our continents; that the bottom of the old oqean 

 uas full of mountains, which neither the waters, 

 nor any other cause known to us, formed, and 

 which he therefore calls primordial. These moun^ 

 tains rose above the surface of the waters, and formed 

 islands. These islands, and the ancient continents^ 

 were fruitful and well peopled, and the ancient sea 

 had tides, currents, and tempests, as the present 

 ocean. These powers acting upon the soft mat- 

 ters which are known to have formed the bottom 

 of the ancient ocean, produced accumulations of 

 calcareous substances, which, in process of time, 

 became more or less mixed with marine bodies. 

 The rivers, in the mean while, carried from the 

 land into the sea scattered remains of animal and 

 vegetable productions; the sea itself washed them 

 from its coasts into its bosom ; and these materials, 

 transported by currents, became a secondary soil 

 upon its primordial bottom. Fires and elastic fluids^ 

 formed by fermentations, made various openings 

 in tlie bottom of the ocean, whence proceeded tor- 

 rents of liquid substances and lava, which gave rise 

 to the volcanic mountains observable on the surface 

 of our continents. The continents which existed 

 in a state of population and fertility, while the 

 sea covered those which we now inhabit, though 

 they did not form a solid mass, but \yqyq, pro,perly 

 .speaking, vaults, which covered immense ^a\'ernSj 

 maintained their elevation above the level of the 

 ocean by the strength of their pillars, which, being 

 of primordial matter, were solid and stable. But 

 the clianges wliich the subterranean fires produced 

 at the bottom of the ancient sea opened passages 

 for its waters into the interior of the earth; the 



