62 Analysis of the Protogaa of Leibnitz. 



17. Repetition, " Nunc illiid absolvamus ut quemadmoclum quse- 

 dam ignisoli; alia soli motui aqimrum et sedimentis deberi dicimus; 

 ita interdum caloris et aquae junctas operas requiri ostendamus; ali- 

 cubi variantibus causis arabiguum judicium esse declaremus." 



18. Of the copper slates with ichthyolites of Eisleben and Oste- 

 rode. The number of the ichthyolites, their size, and the accuracy 

 of the delineation, prove them to be real fish and not lusus naturae. 

 A lake was overwhelmed — the mud enveloping the fish hardened 

 by heat into slate — the animal matter consumed or dissipated, and 

 the metallic matter brought in to supply its place. 



19. We are not to be incredulous in regard to the agency of sub- 

 terranean fire producing the effects here ascribed to it, hardening the 

 strata, fusing the mineral masses, and producing crystals by sublima- 

 tion and the refrigeration of matter that had been melted or dissolved, 

 inasmuch as earthquakes and volcanoes either now active, as in Italy, 

 or extinct, as on the Moselle, prove the existence of an internal fire. 



20. If the idea is preferred that the copper slates have been hard- 

 ened by time or that they have been produced by a lapidific and 

 metallic vapor, he will not dispute the point, though he considers this 

 opinion less probable — only let it be allowed, that these are real fish 

 and not mere appearances like those of Luther and the Pope shewn 

 at Eisleben, where you would never have discovered the resemblance 

 had it not been pointed out to you. 



21. These fish were overwhelmed by some great convulsion. 

 Salt springs as well as shells, are a proof that the sea once covered 

 what is now dry land. Steno's treatise de solido intra solidum is 

 referred to with approbation. Different catastrophes have produced 

 in succession, three different varieties of dry land — the lofty moun- 

 tains, hills of moderate elevation, and the low level shores of the 

 ocean. 



22. As shells are found upon high land, it is has been supposed 

 by some, that the mountains were raised by the elasticity of an in- 

 terior wind or vapor. Small effects of this kind may have been 

 produced, but so far as the great ranges are concerned, the opinion 

 is inadmissible. Some accounts of the prodigious effects of wind — 

 probably in a great measure fabulous. 



23 — 35. Of organic remains'. They have been observed from 

 the most ancient times, and in all parts of Europe. The Spanish 

 ambassador at the court of Persia saw them in the lofty mountains 

 of Caramania, That they are real remains is proved by their va- 



