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Ch. III.] 



EASPE.— FUCHSEL. 



03 



estimated. Great admiration is expressed for the hypothesis 

 of Hooke, and his explanation of the origin of the strata is 

 shown to have been more correct than Moro's, while their 

 theory of the effects of earthquakes was the same. Easpo 

 had not seen Michell's memoirs, 



the 



(reological structure of the 



and his views concerning 

 earth were perhaps less 



enlarged ; yet he was able to add many additional arguments 



Hool 



nearer approach to what H ooke would have written had he 

 lived in later times. As to the periods wherein all the earth- 

 quakes happened, to which we owe the elevation of various 

 parts of our continents and islands, Easpe says he pretends 



Hool 



convuls 



ge of Noah 



He adverts to the apparent indications of 

 the "former tropical heat of the climate of Europe, and 

 the changes in the species of animals and plants, as among 



the most obscure and difficult problem 



geology. In 



om 



history or tradition, lie declares 



some 



com 



matter. His 



of them were 



organic remains, and that 

 ;ed, made of mere volcanic 

 . an eloquent exhortation 



to naturalists to examine the isles which rose, in 1707, in the 

 Grecian Archipelago, and, in 1720, in the Azores, and not 

 to neglect such splendid opportunities of studying nature 



That Hooke's writings should 

 more than half a century, was mat- 



< in the act of parturition/ 



ter of astonishment to Easpe ; but it is still more wonderful 

 that his own luminous exposition of that theory should, 



than another half centurv, have excited so little 



more 



interest. 



Fuchsel, 1762-1773. — Fuchsel, a German physician, pub- 

 lished, in 1762, a geological description of the country 

 between the Thuringerwald and the Hartz, and a memoir on 

 the environs of Rudolstadt j* and afterwards, in 1773, a 

 theoretical work on the ancient history of the earth and of 





* Acta Academise Electoralis Magnntinse, vol. ii. Erfurt. 



