171 



while the north west side is alluvions, affording plains 

 and meadows Terre del Fuego, likewise, presents 

 to view, an aspect which leads to the conclusion, that it 

 has suffered by an agent, more general, if not more vi- 

 olent in its operations, than the volcano that exists in 

 one of its highest mountains Many other places dis- 

 cover the most decided and unequivocal marks of the 

 operations of dreadful currents from the southern ocean, 

 and which, as in all cases of the kind, occasioned the 

 most sensible effects in parts most exposed to its opera- 

 tions. 



The borders of the Red Sea seems, likewise, to afford 

 proofs of the operation of these currents. 



As the waters of the Indian Ocean were probably ur- 

 ged into this sea with inconceivable force and rapidity, 

 the shelly tribes that had long held the undisputed pre- 

 rogative of inhabiting its oozy bottom, were torn up and 

 carried in a north westerly direction into the interior 

 of Egypt Hence it is, that great quantities of shells 

 of various species are distributed over the country, 

 and mixed with the soils and sands of Egypt."* 



" Betwixt Suez and Cairo, likewise, " says Dr. 

 Shaw, " and all over the mountains of Lybia, every 

 little rising ground, and hillock that is not covered 

 with sand, discovers great quantities of the Echini, as 

 well as of the bivalve and turbinated shells, most of 



* These are doubtless the same as alluded to by Herodotus in 

 book 2, chap. 12. 



