The Natural Btftory Part It 



Here was, we fee, a riiigbty Revoi. 

 lution: and tha attended with Acci- 

 dents very ftrange and amazing: the 

 moft horrible and portentous Cataftro- 

 phe that Nature ever yet law : an ele- 

 gant , orderly, and habitable Earth 

 quite onhingedjfhaittered all to pieces, 

 and turned into an heap of ruins : Con- 

 yuifions fo exorbitant and unruly : a 

 Change fb exceeding great and violent, 

 that the very Repreientation alone is 

 enough to itartle and fhock a Map. In 

 truth the thing, at firft,. appeared fb 

 wonderful and furprizing to rpe, that 

 I mufl; confels I was for fbme tinie at a 

 ftand ; nor could I bring over my Rea- 

 fbn to affent, untiil, by a deliberate 

 and careful Examination of allCircum- 

 ilances of thefe Marine Bodies, I was 

 abundantly convinced that they could 

 not have come into thofe Circumftan^ 

 ces by any other means than fuch a 

 Diffolution of the Earth, and Confu- 

 fion of thingSo And were it not that 

 the Obfervations, made in fb many^ 

 and thofe lb diftant^ places, and re- 

 peated fb often with the moft fcrupu- 

 lous and diffident Circumfpeclion, did 

 fb eftablifli and afcertain the thing, as 

 not to leave any room for Conteft or 



