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From what cause it proceeded, it will perhaps, be impossible 

 ever to determine ; but there is certainly reason to believe, that the 

 waters of the deluge possessed a very considerable solvent power 

 over even those earths which we consider as most untractable. From 

 the intermixture and crystallization of these proceeded those silici- 

 ous and spathous veins which alternate with and intersect the various 

 strata, which form that part of the earth which has been subjected 

 to our examination. 



Not only the form, but the substance, of the surface of the 

 newly-formed postdiluvian world must have differed very much 

 from that which existed before the flood; vast and innumerable 

 must have been the changes, which it must have undergone, before 

 the respective situations of the waters, and of the dry land, could 

 have even made an approach to stability. From the violent action 

 of the waters at the period of their first effusion over the earth, 

 as well as during their residence and their departure, the conti- 

 nuity of the earth must have been broken in many places ; necks of 

 land must have been left, forming, according to circumstances, 

 isthmuses, or promontories ; vast masses of earth, considerably un- 

 dermined, would remain on the superior parts, and on the declivi- 

 ties of mountains ; and, as vegetation would doubtlessly be rapidly 

 renewed, wherever the earth became uncovered from the waters, 

 these projecting parts would soon be covered by the verdure of 

 various vegetables. But the newly-formed surface would, perhaps, 

 for a considerable period, be continually undergoing a change of 

 its form ; the waters, urged by violent tempests, and agitated by 

 receiving the immense fragments of falling mountains, might sepa- 

 rate those necks of land of which we have just spoken, and which 

 its slower action had been continually reducing ; the divulsed parts 

 of which, with the vegetation they bore, would sink in the waters 

 of the ocean. Thus also, by the force of tempestuous winds, and 

 even by the gradual influence of the weather, large projecting and 



