154 



HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



merous volcanos of the Moluccas, the Philippine iflands, 

 and Japan, and the frequent earthquakes of thofe iflands, 

 ; and of China, Perfia, Syria, Turkey ^ &c. let us alfo fee 

 that even the old world is not yet at repofe in our day (V). 



The veins of metals, adds de Paw, which are found 

 in fome places on the furface of the earth, appear to 

 indicate that the foil was once overflowed, and that the 

 torrents carried away part of it. But would it not be 

 better to fay, that fome violent eruptions of fubterrane- 

 ous fires, which appear manifeft in the many volcanos of 

 the Cordilleras, deftroying the furface of fome foils, left 

 the veins of metals almoft naked ? 



The finding of marine bodies heaped together in fome 

 inland places of America, if it fhould prove the pretend- 

 ed inundation would prove dill more ftrongly a greater 

 inundation of the old continent ; for whereas there are 

 few places in America in which thefe mafles of fea- 

 fliells, and other petrified marine bodies, are found ; 

 Europe, on the contrary, is almoft full of petrifications 

 of fuch bodies, which demonftrates with certainty that it 

 was formerly overflowed by the fea (s). Every perfon 

 knows the wonders and the calculations which feveral 

 French natural philofophers have made of that immenfe 

 quantity of flaells which are feen in Tourain, and nobody 



is 



(r) M. de Paw himfelf, after having made mention of Vefuvius, Etna, He- 

 cla, and the volcanos of Liparis, fpeaks thus : " Amongft the great volcanos are 

 reckoned the Paranucan, in the ifland of Java ; the Canapis, in the ifland of 

 Banda ; the Balaluan in the ifland of Sumatra. The ifland of Ternate has a 

 flaming mountain, the irruptions of which are not inferior to thofe of Etna. 

 Of all the iflands, fmall and large, which compofe the empire of Japan, there 

 is not one which has not a volcano that is not more or lefs confiderable ; and 

 alfo the Philippine ifles, the Azores, the Cape de Verd Iflands, &c." Letter 

 III. Sur les Vicijfitudes du noire Globe. 



{/) Burguet, in his Treatife on Petrifications, and Torribia, in his Introduction 

 to the Natural Hijlory of Spain, gives us a very long account of the places of 

 Europe and Afia, where petrified marine bodies are found. 



