CONCHO LOGY 



may possibly be considered therefore as a means of at once 

 diminishing this propensity to the formation of volcanoes, and 

 that in the long course of future ages the number and 

 violence of these eruptions will be gradually diminished, 

 until nature at last shall rest in undisturbed repose. The 

 general direction and form of the leading continents of the 

 former earth, seems to have been much the same in their 

 great outlines, as at the present period, all partial deviations 

 of the coast and the efforts of volcanoes, have in general a 

 peculiar character, operating in a very small proportion or 

 scale. The great catastrophe which itself must be supposed 

 to be partial, if produced by the waters of the ocean, might 

 most probably be -jeeasioned by the sudden inclination of 

 the earth's axis, bringing for a certain time an equatorial 

 flood over a great part of the globe. The objection of a 

 modern French writer remarks that these fossil remains are 

 so delicate in their texture and so exquisitely well preserved, 

 that they could not have been violently hurried by the 

 waters into their present situation, but must have alway 

 existed there under a different climate, is unreasonable and 

 contrary to natural appearances. 



For the greatest part of these are really broken and 

 worn away by some violent pressure, as is evident by their 

 appearance and by the circumstances of fragments adhering 

 often in such a way to the Fossil animal body, still preserved 

 as could only have happened from the circumstance of the 

 animal being flexible and alive at the time. 



