14 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNN0 1755. 



lianied, there disposition is so regular, that it is plain the confusion of a deluge 

 could never have placed them in such a manner. But as to the immense quan- 

 tity of fossil shells, on which these gentlemen insist so much, that they have 

 been misled by imagining that many parts of the surface of the earth contain 

 marine bodies, which evidently do not ; and these parts are, as before observed, 

 the mountains properly so called, in the constituent strata of which no sea-shells 

 nor marine bodies of any kind, no bones of land animals nor impressions of plants, 

 are to be found. And as to the regular disposition of these bodies, this could 

 not have happened in supposing a violent commotion of the waters to have 

 continued the whole time they covered the earth. But is such a supposition 

 natural or necessary? 



The deluge must have produced very considerable changes on the surface of 

 the earth. Many volcanos seem to have been formed at that time by the ac- 

 cumulation of animal, vegetable, and mineral substances, into huge masses, 

 which have afterwards fermented and putrified, and in process of time burst out 

 into flames. Earthquakes must have been frequent the first years after the de- 

 luge by the fermentation of these heterogeneous bodies, before the remains of 

 so prodigious an inundation could be dissipated ; for wherever there is any in- 

 testine commotion in the earths, its violence must be greatly increased, if it 

 meets with water, and by its heat reduces it into vapour, which we know acts 

 with an immense force.* That this must have been the case in the first years 

 after the deluge, may be inferred from the abundance of moisture it must have 

 left, and the fermentation of so great a quantity of heterogeneous substances 

 buried in ruins by that memorable catastrophe. There are many observations 

 which seem to prove that the earth, or at least many parts of its surface, have 

 suffered by fire ; not to mention the marks of it obsei-ved on many mineral sub- 

 stances. The artificial production of potter's earth or clay, is a very strong ar- 

 gument in support of this opinion. Potter's earth, as is well known, is found 

 plentifully in most low grounds and vallies, between mountainous tracts, and 

 where calcareous strata abound. By exposing common flint-stones to the con- 

 fined vapour of boiling water in Papin's digester, a clay of the very same kind may 

 be formed, and is no more than a decomposition of the flints. Hence it would 

 appear, that wherever this clay is to be found, there the earth has undergone 

 some violence from fire ; and that this has been effected by earthquakes soon 

 after the deluge seems extremely probable. 



The deluge has given origin to many fossil substances, and produced many 

 combinations, which otherwise would not have happened. Chalk is no more 



* ThU seems to be the reason, why places situated on the sea-shore, or on large rivers, as was 

 the unhappy city of Lisbon, suffer more from earthquakes than more inland situations, where 

 •ucb circumstances do not concur. — Orig. 



