68 
TRAVELS IN 
muft have been overflown, and confequently Africa muft have 
been an ifland, later than 2000 years ago, whereas there Is every 
reafon to fuppofe that, many ages before that period, the 
iflhmus was pretty much in the fame ftate in which it now is. 
The progreiTive retreat of the ocean cannot therefore be general. 
It Is evident, at the fame time, to ufe the language of the facred 
hiftorian, " That all the high hills, that were under the whole 
" heaven, were covered mountains that are now feveral thou- 
fand feet above its level, and as many thoufand miles removed 
from its fhores, bear the moft unequivocal indications of this 
truth. But this effect may, perhaps with more plaufibility, be 
afcribed to the operation of fome fudden caufe, fome convulfion 
in the globe of the earth, or fome check in its diurnal or annual 
motion, which produced an unlverfal change upon its furface ; 
and by which " the waters under the heaven were gathered to- 
" gether unto one place, and the dry land appeared." Whe- 
ther this change happened at the firft creation, or the earth was 
deluged at fome fubfequent period, an idea that the hiftory of 
all the civilized nations on earth feem to glance at, we muft be 
content to remain in ignorance j for man, with all his boafted 
philofophy, will never be able to folve the queftions which the 
Hebrew poet has put into the mouth of the Almighty. Who 
*' fl:iut up the fea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had 
*' iffued out of the womb ? When I made the cloud the gar- 
" ment thereof and thick darknefs a fwaddling band for it, and 
*' brake up for it my decreed place ^ and fet bars and doors, and 
" faid, Hitherto fhalt thou come but no further, and here (hall 
" thy proud waves be ftayed 
Before 
