666 A FEW REMARKS 



together anil squeezed in mud within a few years from the 

 present time. 



One remarkable place, easy of access, where any person can 

 inspect these shelly remains, is Port San Julian. There, cliff's, 

 from ten to a hundred feet high, are composed of nothing but 

 such earth and fossils ; and as those dug from the very tops of 

 the cliff's are just as much compressed as those at any other 

 part, it follows that they were acted upon by an immense 

 weight not now existing. From this one simple fact may be 

 deduced the conclusions — that Patagonia was once under the 

 sea ; that the sea grew deeper over the land in a tumultuous 

 manner, rushing to and fro, tearing up and heaping together 

 shells which once grew regularly or in beds : that the depth of 

 water afterwards became so great as to squeeze or mass the 

 earth and shells together by its enormous pressure ; and that 

 after being so forced down, the cohesion of the mass became 

 sufficient to resist the separating power of other waves, during 

 the subsidence of that ocean which had overwhelmed the land. 

 If it be shewn that Patagonia was under a deep sea, not in 

 consequence of the land having sunk, but because of the 

 water having risen, it will follow as a necessary consequence 

 that every other portion of the globe must have been flooded 

 to a nearly equal height, at the same time; since the ten- 

 dency to equilibrium in fluids would prevent any one part 

 of an ocean from rising much above any other part, unless 

 sustained at a greater elevation by external force ; such as the 

 attraction of the moon, or sun ; or a strong wind ; or momen- 

 tum derived from their agency. Hence therefore, if Patagonia 

 was covered to a great depth, all the world was covered to a 

 great depth ; and from those shells alone my own mind is 

 convinced, (independent of the Scripture) that this earth has 

 undergone an universal deluge. 



The immense fields of lava, spoken of in a preceding 

 page (633), and which to an ordinary observer appear to be 

 horizontal, are spread almost evenly over such an extent of 

 country, that the only probable conclusion seems to be, that 

 the lava was ejected while a deep sea covered the earth, and 



