64 



sides of the globe : and whether the sun passed through 

 the meridian of the Atlantic ocean and south sea, as 

 is pretended, or upon a meridian passing through the 

 continent of North and South America, and Asia, is 

 immaterial in the present view, since by far the great- 

 est proportion of the waters must have been thrown in- 

 to the Atlantic ocean. No sooner was this operation^ 

 established, and this accession of strength and power 

 thrown into the Atlantic ocean in particular, than its 

 tide began to rise above its common limits, accompani- 

 ed by a consequent current, both constantly increasing, 

 the one in height, the other in rapidity proportioned to 

 the increase of power at the focus. These, following 

 the natural course of the Atlantic, soon swelled its wa- 

 ters above the shores of the atljacent continents, over 

 which they began to flow in riotous disorder. 



At the commencement of this frightful drama, it is 

 highly probable that the current, issuing from the pole, 

 was divided by the craggy heights of Spitzbergen, and 

 a part thrown into the White Sea ; while the other, di- 

 recting its force against the inhospitable shores of Lap- 

 land, and the rocky cliffs of Sweden and Norway, was 

 thrown back upon the eastern and southern coast of 

 Greenland ; from thence in a south western direction, 

 until it struck the south eastern coast of Labrador, along 

 which it swept, through the straits of Bell-Isle, across 

 Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and along the Atlantic 

 coast into the gulf of Mexico. The rapid dissolution of 

 the ices at the pole, constantly progressing, and as con- 

 stantly increasing the rapidity of the current and quail- 



