26 HISlVftY OF 



rreat deptbs, and in such prodigious quantities, it seems impos. 

 sible for such numbers to have been supported all alive at one 

 time ; so that they must have been brought there by successive 

 depositions. These shells also are found in the bodies of the 

 liardest rocks, where they could not have been deposited, all at 

 once, at the time of the deluge, or at any such instant revolu- 

 tion ; since that would be to suppose, thai all the rocks in which 

 they are found, were, at that instant, in a state of dissolution, 

 which would be absurd to assert. The sea, therefore, deposited 

 them wheresoever they are now to be found, and that by slow 

 and successive degrees. 



" It will appear also, that the sea covered the whole earth, 

 from the appearance of its layers, which lying regularly one abovo 

 the other, seem all to resemble the sediment formed at different 

 times by the ocean. Hence, by the irregular force of its waves, 

 and its currents driving the bottom into sand banks, mountains 

 must have been gradually formed within this universal covering 

 of waters ; and these successively raising their heads above its 

 surface, must, in time, have formed the highest ridges of moun- 

 tains upon land, togetherwith continents, islands, andlow grounds, 

 all in their turns. This opinion will receive additional weight 

 by considering, that in those parts of the earth where the power 

 of the ocean is greatest, the inequalities on the surface of the 

 cRith are highest. The ocean's power is greatest at the equa- 

 tor, where its winds and tides are most constant ; and, in fact, 

 the mountains at the equator are found to be higher than in any 

 other part of the world. The sea, therefore, has produced the 

 principal changes in our earth ; rivers, volcanoes, earthquakes, 

 storms, and rain, having made but slight alterations, and only 

 such as have affected the globe to very inconsiderable depths." 



This is but a veiy slight sketch of Mr Buffon's theory of 

 the earth J a theory vi'hich he has much more powerfully sup- 

 ported, than happily invented ; and it would be needless to take 

 up the reader's time from the pursuit of truth in the discussion 

 of plausibilities. In fact, a thousand questions might be asked 

 this most ingenious philosopher, which he would not find it easy 

 CO answer ; but such is the lot of humanity, that a single Gotli 

 can in one day destroy the fabric which Caesars were employi:'d 

 an age in erecting. We might ask. How moimtains, which .'ne 

 composed (>f the most compact and ponderous substances, should 



