in our own hemisphere ; and it is probables, 
that, in the mountains of Peru, the granites, 
the micaeeous schists, or the different form* 
ations of gypsum, and gritstone, existed 
originally at the same periods as the rocks^ 
of the same denominations in the Alps of 
Switzerland. The whole globe appears to 
have undergone the same catastrophes. At ' 
a height superior to that of Mount Blane, 
on the summit of the Andes, we find petri- 
fied sea-shells ; fossile bones of elephants are 
spread over the equinoctial regions ; and 
what is very remarkable, they are not dis- 
covered at the feet of the palm trees in the 
burning plains of the Orinoco, but on the 
coldest and most elevated regions of the 
Cordilleras. In the New World, as well as 
in the Old, generations of species long ex- 
tinct have preceded those, which now people 
the earth, the waters, and the air. 
There is no proof, that the existenee of 
man is much more recent in Ameriea than 
in the other continent. Within the tropics, 
the strength of vegetation, the breadth of 
