i. 



t, 





I 



I 



^ 



) 



led if 



I'liici 



yet 

 ■el K 



riD 



fed 



1 



leoDi 



,ji^ 



t 



HUTTONIAN THEORY. 



203 



more than a five-hundredth part of the whole 

 mafs oF the earth. 



Thus alfo the argument by which the Nep- 

 tunifts would connect the creation of fifli with 

 the beginning of the fecondary mountains, falls 



entirely to the ground. 



Inde 



^ 



It IS 



ilrange 



that Mr Kirwan (hould have fuppofed it poffi- 

 ble, that the rtiells in queftton were loofe and 



r 



unconneded with the rock, and had continued 



-. 



L 



fo, ever fince the deluge, in fuch elevated ground^ 

 where the torrents wear and cut down the moun- 

 tains with unexampled violence, and have hol- 

 lowed out 

 abrupt than the glens or vallies among other 



^lebradas fo much deeper and more 



mountains. He had not, I believe, feen the paf- 

 fage I have quoted from Ulloa ; but the circum- 

 ilances did not warrant the fhells in queftion to be 

 regarded as extraneous and adventitious foffils. 

 A geologill fhould have known better than to 

 fuppofe this poffible. When we fee Voltaire 

 afcribing to accidental caufes the tranfportation 

 of thofe fliells which he had been told were often 

 found among the Alps, we can excufe in a Poet 

 and a Wit, that ignorance of the fads in mine- 

 ralogy, which concealed from him the ex- 

 treme abfurdity of his alTertion ; 



^1 



b 



when a 



Chemill or Mineralogill talks and reafons in the 

 fame manner, we cannot confider him as enti- 

 tled to the fame indulgence. 



Note 



I 



