THEORY OF THE EARTH. 45 



and have thrown it, in the form of mountains and 

 hills, upon the original valleys or plains of the 

 continent *. 



A fifth makes the various fragments of which 

 the earth is composed, fall successively from hea- 

 ven, in the manner of meteoric stones, bearing the 

 impress of their foreign origin in the unknown 

 beings whose remains they contain f . 



A sixth represents the globe as hollow, and 

 places within it a loadstone nucleus, which is 

 transported from one pole to the other, by the at- 

 traction of comets, carrying along with it the cen- 

 tre of gravity, and the mass of waters at the sur- 

 face ; thus alternately drowning the two hemis- 

 pheres . 



We might mention twenty other systems, as 

 different from one another as those enumerated. 

 And to prevent mistake, we may here state, that 

 our intention is not captiously to criticize or find 

 fault with their authors ; on the contrary, we ad- 

 mit that these ideas have generally been conceived 

 by men of intellect and knowledge, who were not 



* Eolomieu, in the Journal de Physique. 



t MM. de Marschall, in their Researches respecting the 

 Origin and Development of the present order of the World. 

 Giessen, 1802. 



t Bertrand, Periodical Renewal of the Terrestrial Con- 

 tinents. Hamburgh, 1799, 



