[ 54 3 
is not impoflible but the top of fome antediluvian 
mountain, having been but flightly covered, might on 
the cealing of the fird concuffion (as I before obferved) 
remain in the date of an ifland, elevated above the 
furfaceof the fea. 
I apprehend, no objection of any weight can arife 
from the defcription of paradife in Scripture, nor from 
its being faid that the ark reded on the mountains of 
Ararat: fince, whether the continent was changed or 
no, there is no place now remaining that anfwers the 
defcription of the former ; nor is there any thing faid 
about the latter, that fhould lead us to conclude there 
ever was fuch a mountain as Ararat before the flood. 
But, leaving thefe objections from the words of 
Scripture, and the hiflory of the deluge > another 
may perhaps arife, from this circumdance, that £hells 
are found in various parts of the earth, which are 
evidently not the fhells peculiar to the feas adjoining, 
but fuch as belong to a different climate. This faCt 
at fird certainly feems to contradict what I have 
advanced : and yet, when well confidered, it will 
perhaps rather be found to confirm my hypotheds. 
For let any one but look on a terredrial globe, and 
he will indantly fee, that the prefent continents are 
evidently not in the fame climates as the prefent feas ; 
and therefore, though the fhells found in many places 
of the earth are not found in the neighbouring parts 
of the ocean ; yet, when thofe parts of the earth were 
ocean, they might have had a very proper climate and 
fituation there. Thus, for indance, we may obferve 
that the Mediterranean is in a more fouthern climate 
than the neighbouring continent of Europe, and in a 
more northern climate than that of Africa. And the 
whole 
