

dJ 





Ch. III.] 



DILUVIAL THEORY.— QUIRINI. 



39 



to the end of the eighteenth century, he must expect to be 

 occupied with accounts of the retardation, as well as of the 

 advance, of the science. It will be necessary to point out the 

 frequent revival of exploded errors, and the relapse " 



, absurd opinions ; and to dwell on xutue 

 »nary hypothesis, because some of the most 



from 



mos 



stems were invented or controverted by men 



acknowledged talent. In short, a sketch of the progress of 

 geology is the history of a constant and violent^struggle of 

 new opinions against doctrines sanctioned by i1 ~" 

 faith of many generations, and supposed to rest on scriptural 

 authority. The enquiry, therefore, although highly interest- 



the im 



human 



him 



truths in physical science. 



Q 



Q 



to Scilla, that the diluvial waters could not have conveyed 



summit of mountains 



demonstrated) 



re at 



depths ;t and still less conld the testacea, as some pretended, 

 have lived in these diluvial waters ; for ' the duration of the 

 flood was brief, and the heavy rains must have destroyed the salt- 



>/ 



f 



He was the first writer who ventured to ma 



Mosaic cataclysm 



be insisted upon . As to the nature of petrified shells, he con- 

 ceived that as earthy particles united in the sea to form the 



mollusea, the same 



ins 



animals might" have been disseminated 



um 



many 



* De Testaceis fossilibus Mus. Sep- 



taliani. 



t The opinions of Boyle, alluded to 

 by Quirini, were published a few years 

 before, in a short article entitled ' On 

 the Bottom of the Sea.' From obser- 



were no signs of agitation at the depth 

 of fifteen fathoms; and that even during 

 heavy gales of wind, the motion of the 

 water was exceedingly diminished at the 

 depth of twelve or fifteen feet. He had 

 also learnt from some of his informants, 



vations collected from the divers of the that there were currents running in 



pearl fishery, Boyle inferred that, when opposite directions at different depths. — 



the waves were six or seven feet high Boyle's Works, vol. Hi. p. HO. London, 



above the surface of the water, there 1744. 



