VOL. XLIX.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 1 I 



Pelagian or ocean shells are frequently found fossil very near the surface, as 

 every naturalist knows; which proves, that such places have formerly been the 

 sea shore. Hence it is clear that the cause which transported them thither, acted 

 suddenly; which agrees perfectly with the account of the deluge given by Moses 

 in the holy scripture; and, at the same time, overturns the system of Mons. de 

 Buffon, and the author of Telliamed, who pretend, that the earth was for many 

 ages covered with water, and that in that long course of time it was, that the 

 shells, which we now find fossil, were gradually produced ; hence that they are 

 to be considered as the remains of innumerable successive generations of marine 

 bodies, formerly the only inhabitants of the globe. The greatest depths of the 

 sea, as yet sounded, have been found to be about 3000 fathoms, and the ordi- 

 nary depths are about 150; which makes it evident, that were the theories of 

 these gentlemen true, such fossil shells ought never to be found at less depths in 

 the earth than from 1 50 to 3000 fathoms. 



Though fossil shells are to be found in almost all the plainer parts of the sur- 

 face of the earth, yet there are certain very large tracts, where such bodies are 

 never found, viz. the mountains, which seem to be the remains of the original 

 strata of the earth. It is true indeed, that there are many eminences, which 

 have been by modern theorists taken for mountains, where sea-shells, and calca- 

 reous matters of every kind are to be found in great abundance: but these are 

 very inconsiderable, and only appear as little hillocks, compared with the large 

 mountains, which contain mines, veins of metals, and precious stones, and may 

 be traced in immense chains, without almost any discontinuity from one continent 

 to another; and from continents to neighbouring and opposite islands, &c. inso- 

 much that all these chains, not only of the old, but also of the new world seem 

 connected one with another; an observation, which alone would indicate the im- 

 portance of diligently inquiring into their structure, in order to form a true 

 theory of the earth. Buffon and the author of Telliamed, who endeavour to 

 prove that all mountains have been formed by sea-currents, and bring one of 

 their principal arguments in proof of this opinion from marine bodies being 

 found in great quantities in the strata of which they are composed, seem never 

 to have made observations on mountains; else they might have observed this 

 remarkable difference between them and the calcareous strata of the plains, that 

 -the former contain none of those marine bodies, though the latter are almost 

 entirely made up of them. In the Alps, Appennines, and Pyreneans, no shells 

 nor marine bodies of any kind are to be found; in the Ochels, a branch of the 

 large Grampian mountains in Scotland, which Dr. W. had occasion diligently to 

 examine, he could discover no marine bodies. The same is observed of all the 

 large mountains of Africa, and of Asia; and in the huge chain of Cordilleres in 

 Perou Mons. de la Condamine searched in vain for sucli bodies. This kind of 



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