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which have been acting from an indefinite period of time, aided by 

 the occasional heavings of strata, effected by subterraneous heat. By 

 this system by the gradual interchange of situation between land 

 and water, we might account for the mountains of fossil coral which 

 are found at considerable distances from the sea, were it not that so 

 little agreement is observable between the fossil and the recent coral. 

 Had the coral of the mountain and the coral of the sea been con- 

 stantly the same, it would, indeed, have furnished a powerful evi- 

 dence of the gradual change of relative place in the strata, which 

 were once covered by the ocean, but which are now thousands of feet 

 above its surface : the gradual receding of the sea would have sufficed 

 for the explanation. 



But how, according to this theory, shall we explain the disagree- 

 ment between the coral of the mountain and the coral of the sea? I 

 see no explanation which can be thus obtained : every thing being sup- 

 posed to have proceeded in its regular course, the animals of the first 

 creation must then have exactly resembled those of the present hour. 

 Some vast change, of powerful and even universal influence, must be 

 sought for, to explain this wonderful circumstance : and such, doubt- 

 less, can only be found in the destruction of a former world. Thus, 

 indeed, we shall be enabled to account for the existence of various 

 animals, in a mineral state, whose analogues are unknown; but it 

 must be admitted, that even this circumstance is not sufficient to ac- 

 count for the existence of animals at the present period, of which, 

 no traces can be found in the ruins of that former world. 



