C 52 j 
follow, that they muft be found juft as the fea, by its 
wa things and motion, laid them j which would of 
courfe firfti waffi many of them together, and then 
wadi gravel, or land, or clay, or other fubftances over 
them ; after which, more fhells or other bodies would 
be depofited, and then more ftones or gravel, £ec. 
according to the nature of the foil. In Ihort, what- 
ever was fpecifically heavier than water, would (after 
its removal by any agitation) foon fubiide, and remain 
fixed, whether the fubftances underneath it were 
fpecifically heavier than itfelf or no : it is fufficient 
that they were but all fpecifically heavier than the 
water. 
We find to this day great changes are continually 
making, within the memory of man, both on the 
face of the earth, in the Ihores, and in the bottom of 
the fea, even in thofe fmall parts of it that we are 
acquainted with ; and fuch changes muft alfo have 
happened before the flood, and might very probably 
produce that fituation of fhells, 6cc. fo different from 
what might be expeded from their fpecific weights. 
Another objedion may perhaps be made by faying, 
if all the antediluvian earth was at once overwhelmed, 
and of courfe all its plants with it, whence came it to 
pafs, that the now dry land was fo foon covered with 
vegetables and herbage of all kinds ? To this I 
anlwer, in the firft place, that the difficulty is juft the 
fame, whether we fuppofe the bottom of the antedi- 
luvian fea to be the prelent continents, or whether we 
fuppofe the face of the earth to have remained the very 
fame ; fincc, by the waters of the deluge, all plants, 
trees, and vegetables, muft in both cafes equally have 
been deftroyed ; and nothing could well remain, 
except 
