VOL. Lvn.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 383 



pass, that the now dry land was so soon covered with vegetables and herbage of 

 all kinds ? To this I answer, in the first place, that the difficulty is just the same, 

 whether we suppose the bottom of the antediluvian sea to be the present conti- 

 • nents, or whether we suppose the face of the earth to have remained the very 

 same ; since, by the waters of the deluge, all plants, trees, and vegetables, must 

 in both cases equally have been destroyed ; and nothing could well remain, ex- 

 cept some of their shoots and seeds ; which might just as well take root on the 

 new continent, on the subsiding of the waters, as on the old. And in the next 

 place, there are not a few instances of barren rocks and plains becoming by de- 

 grees well covered with verdure, though very remote from any places that might 

 apparently furnish seeds. They have first borne a kind of moss, and afterwards 

 other plants of a higher order, the seeds being brought there by accident, and by 

 the various and admirable means of conveyance, which the Creator has given 

 them, till at last they have been covered with rich verdure. To which may be 

 added a very extraordinary fact, now well known, namely, that if a piece of 

 ground which has not been cultivated be turned up, and the clods loosened, it 

 will very soon produce a variety of plants, some of which were never known to 

 grow there before. We find that one acorn is sufficient to produce a forest, and 

 it is by no means to be supposed, let the deluge have happened how it would, that 

 innnediately after it, the earth was as well clothed with verdure, as it has become 

 since. Probably it was for a time in general very barren, except such parts as 

 Noah and his sons cultivated, with seeds which they had preserved in the ark. 



Another objection may perhaps arise from this circumstance, that shells are 

 found in various parts of the earth, which are evidently not the shells peculiar 

 to the seas adjoining, but such as belong to a different climate. This fact at 

 first certainly seems to contradict what has been advanced ; and yet, when well 

 considered, it will perhaps rather be found to confirm this hypothesis. For let 

 any one but look on a terrestrial globe, and he will instantly see, that the present 

 continents are evidently not in tlie same climates as the present seas ; and there- 

 fore, though the shells found in many places of the earth are not found in the 

 neighbouring parts of the ocean ; yet, when those parts of the earth were ocean, 

 they might have had a very proper climate antl situation there. Thus, for in- 

 stance, we may observe that the Mediterranean is in a more southern climate 

 than the neighbouring continent of Europe, and in a more northern climate 

 than that of Africa. And the whole continent of Asia is in a climate much more 

 northern, than the neighbouring Indian ocean. 



Another thing Mr. K. takes notice of, is the horns and bones of terrestrial 

 animals being found in the earth, together with the fossil shells ; which seems to 

 contradict the supposition of the present continents having been originally the 

 bottom of the sea. But with regard to this, he observes, that probably some of 



