THE SURFACE OF THE GLOBE. 27 



Proof's that the Revolutions have been sudden. 

 But, it is of great importance to note that these repeated irruptions 

 and retreats have not all been gradual, not all uniform ; on the con - 

 trary, the greater portion of these catastrophes have been sudden ; and 

 that is easily proved by the last of these events, that which by a two- 

 fold action inundated, and then left dry, our present continents, or at 

 least a great portion of the soil which now composes them. It also 

 left, in the northern countries, carcases of large quadrupeds frozen in 

 the ice, and which have been preserved down to the present period 

 with their skin, their hair, and their flesh. [If they had not been frozen 

 as soon as killed, putrefaction would have decomposed them. And 

 besides, this eternal frost did not previously exist in those parts in 

 which they were frozen, for they could not have existed in such a 

 temperature. The same instant that these animals were bereft of life, 

 the country which they inhabited became frozen. This event was 

 sudden, momentary, without gradation ; and what is so clearly proved 

 as to this last catastrophe equally applies to that which preceded it. 

 The convulsions, the alterations, the reversings of the most ancient 

 layers, leave not a doubt on the mind but that sudden and violent 

 causes reduced them to their present state ; and even the powerful 

 action of the mass of waters is proved by the accumulation of relics 

 and round flints which in many places intervene between the solid 

 layers. Existence has thus been often troubled on this earth by 

 appalbng events. Living creatures without number have fallen victims 

 to these catastrophes : some, the inhabitants of dry land, have been 

 swallowed up by a deluge ; others, who peopled the depths of the 

 waters, have been on land by the sudden receding of the waters, 

 their very race become extinct, and only a few remains left of them in 

 the world, scarcely recognised by the naturalist. 



These are the consequences to which the subjects which meet us at 

 every step, and which we may find in almost every clime, necessarily 

 conduct us. These overpowering and stupendous events are clearly 

 imprinted everywhere, and are legible to the eye that knows how to 

 trace their history in the monuments they have left. But what is yet 

 more remarkable and no less certain is, that life has not always ex- 

 isted on the globe, and that it is easy for the observer to discover the 

 precise point whence it began to deposit its productions. 



Proofs that there have been Revolutions anterior to the Existence of Liv- 

 ing Beings. 

 Let us ascend, let us mount the lofty mountain tops, the steep sum- 

 mits of the great chains ; soon these relics of marine animals, these 



