46 



by its gradual retreat; an opinion as absurd, as it is in- 

 consistent and unphilosophical. 



It will be admitted that the beds of rivers are some- 

 times paved, in a manner, for a considerable distance 

 with rolled pebbles i that they are sometimes amassed 

 in very considerable quantities on the very margins of 

 the rivers, between high and low water mark ; but 

 this is by no means calculated to solve the following 

 question. 



By what physical means, were those immense quan- 

 tities of rolled pebbles amassed together, or thrown up 

 into hills that are from one hundred to two hundred 

 feet above the surface of the river, in the neighbour- 

 hood of which they lie, and which are sometimes 

 spread over many square leagues of country* over 

 which, the current of no one river upon earth has ever 

 flowed? It is both morally and physically impossi- 

 ble that such results could, by any means, be produc- 

 ed by any river flowing through the district of country 

 where they lie. 



Nothing short of a universal current could have pro- 

 duced such eftects ; and it must have been of such ex- 

 tent and rapidity, as to have hurled them into motion 

 with almost as much facility, as the leaves of trees are 

 raised into the air by a whirlwind. 



That such a current did once prevail, they remain as 

 an unequivocal testimony ; and also of 'its operations. 

 That it flowed from the north east, to the south west, 

 is evident from the following circumstances. 



