which increased in number and magnitude, but continued still separate, until the weight of the water, added to that of the superior vaults, crushed the inferior ones, and deepened more and more the new bed of the ocean; so that, at last, all the waters withdrew from their former bottom, and left our continents dry1.

Proofs of a Series of Geological Events, originating in Changes at successive epochs in the Liquid of the Sea, and in the Atmosphere.

The first proof supplied by the phenomena of such a succession of events, consists in the changes which the various circumstances observed in our strata demonstrate to have taken place at several epochs, both in the liquid of the sea, and in the atmosphere. Within a certain period was formed a class of strata,

pold Von Buch, by Mr. ELIE BEAUMONT." Edinb. Journal. Sept.

1830.

Mr. J. A. de Luc has conjectured, on the other hand, that the antediluvian continent was situated where is now the great Indian ocean, and to the eastward of Africa, as that sea is near Armenia and Mesopotamia, the countries in which dwelt the descendants of Noah. He considers the dialogue of Plato to refer to the Mosaic narrative of the deluge. In the Atlantis, there existed kings who, stimulated by the thirst of conquest, committed devastations upon neighbouring states. Jupiter, whose all-pervading eye nothing escapes, beholding the violence and depravation of those people, resolved on their destruction.

1 Letter II. § 29. Lettres sur l'Histoire de la Terre, &c. Vol. v. part 2d. p. 486. et seq. See also the Author's 26th Letter to M. de la Métherie, in the Journ. de Physique, tom. xli. (part ii.) pp. 227, 228. 1792.

distinguished by the title of primary or primordial, in which no traces of the existence of organized beings on our globe are discoverable. In another class of strata, called secondary, which were subsequently produced, and which differed widely in their nature from the preceding, vast quantities of organic bodies are found1. The greater part of these bodies consist of marine animals; and in strata above those containing the marine bodies, we meet with vegetables and terrestrial animals. It is to be remarked, that in the succession of these strata are found successive changes in the species of the organized bodies, following those which have taken place in the water and the atmosphere 2.

1

Although the author, for the sake of perspicuity, generally divides the mineral strata into these two great and characteristic classes, yet it will appear, from a passage in Letter II. pp. 62, 63, that he already entertained notions, in agreement with those which prevail at this day, respecting the series of formations.

66

2 Letter IV. § 18. "Geological monuments," says the author, are much more within our reach, than those from which the history of ancient nations is deduced. These monuments relate to two collateral histories,-those of our strata and of organized beings. We find in each of these histories, epochs of commencement which are clearly ascertained; that of the strata, is the commencement of their formation, and those of organized beings, which succeed each other in classes, are the commencements of the appearance of these classes in the succession of strata. We also observe in each history progressive changes in respect to the strata, we perceive the successive production of strata of different species; and with regard to organized beings, successive changes in their appearance."Remarques sur l'origine des Etres Organisés," a dissertation annexed to the Paris edition of this collection. So early as in his Lettres sur l'Histoire de la Terre, &c. (1779), De Luc pointed out the difference between the genera of petrified and fossil shells,

66

F

The immediate relation which these facts bear to the whole progress of chymical operations above adverted to, is fully explained by the author in the present, and in other works. It was during the precipitations, that numerous expansible fluids, of various kinds, were disengaged from the liquid, and combined to form the atmosphere, "that confused assemblage of fluids," as De Luc terms it," which astonishes none but naturalists." Further;-if no vestiges of organized beings, vegetables, or animals, whether marine or terrestrial, are found in our primary strata, it is because neither the liquid nor the atmosphere was in a state proper for their existence; but afterwards, when they did exist, they underwent successive changes, in proportion as the liquid and the atmosphere themselves varied. Now that successive revo

and the living kinds; he showed that there are genera having numerous species in their fossil, and few in their living state; and the reverse. Vol. ii. p. 246. In Vol. v. pp. 456–459; 466, and 507, he points out two differences, first, of marine fossil bodies, whose living analogues have not yet been found in any sea; secondly, of others whose analogues are to be met with only in seas extremely remote. It It may here be remarked that with De Luc originated the idea that the different species of marine animals changed with the strata. See Letter III. § § 50, 51.

1 Letter IV. § 17.-" General chymistry teaches that chymical precipitations, always produced by the addition or subtraction of some substance, or by both operations simultaneously, may be occasioned by expansible fluids, whether ponderable, or imponderable. Accordingly the chymical operations which have produced the mineral strata must have disseminated all around the globe a great accumulation of different species of expansible fluids, and have thus given birth to the atmosphere." Correspondance entre le Docteur Teller et De Luc, p. 357. In that work the author describes the atmosphere as being probably the greatest chymical laboratory of nature upon the globe.

lutions at the bottom of the sea were the cause of those two classes of changes, the following is the direct proof:-Since the cessation of the catastrophes, no precipitations have taken place in the ocean; nor have any perceptible changes in organized beings occurred. All precipitations, and all such changes, were terminated by the revolution which changed the bed of the sea, and thus brought the surface of the globe into its present state of stability'. Of this great revolution, there is the clearest evidence. Since there was a period during which the sea was at a much higher level than it is at present, more elevated lands must have then existed, which served as barriers to its waters 2. Such continents must therefore of necessity have sunk, before the ocean could have retired from the surface of our present tracts of land. And that the emersion of our continents was the effect of a single revolution, would appear from the important fact, that since then the level of the sea has not changed. This is rendered manifest from the circumstance that all new lands, which every where may be easily distinguished from the original coast, are perfectly horizontal, excepting where they have suffered partial depressions behind dikes; and their level has been determined by the largest waves at the highest tides 3.

3

1 Travels in France, vol. ii. p. 390.

2 Letter V. § 4.

An interesting passage on this part of the subject, occurs in the Travels in the North of Europe, § 114. Having shown in a preceding section that the new lands along open coasts and in gulphs, are composed "not only of the sediments of rivers, but of the materials detached from some parts of the coasts, and of the sand of the sea," De Luc thus proceeds :-" Now, as these accu

It is impossible not to be struck by the sagacity and the powers of observation which have enabled

mulations of materials have, and can only have been produced, in all their parts, at the greatest height of the tides and of the waves, they must, when considered altogether, afford us a history of the level of the ocean, during the whole period in which it has occupied its present bed. This standard of the level of the sea is one of our most important geological monuments; for by it alone, several fabulous histories of the earth have been overturned. For example: in Buffon's theory, the sea was represented as passing slowly from east to west, and constantly attacking and demolishing the eastern coasts, while it retreated from the western; which supposed a slow transportation of the continents around the globe. Among other arguments, which, in my first geological work, I opposed to this idea, were the following: first, that new lands have been formed on the coasts in every position, and particularly no less on eastern than on western coasts, wherever rivers discharge themselves, and the sea near the land has no great depth: and secondly, that, on every coast, these additions are as horizontal in their whole extent, as the sea, of which they occupy the place. BUFFON lived for some time after I had published that work; and neither himself, nor any other for him, ever undertook to support his system against it. DE MAILLET and LE CAT supposed our continents to owe their existence to the successive sinking of the level of the sea; the former imagining that the water evaporated, and was lost in space; and the latter, that the sea was continually deepening its bed, by throwing out on its shores those materials, with which our continents were formed. After having refuted the fundamental hypotheses of these theories, I stated, as a common objection to both, that all the lands formed by the sea upon its shores are every where perfectly distinct in their composition from those to which they are joined; that they are absolutely horizontal, from the point of that junction, to their actual extremity; and that they are continuing to increase which circumstances irrefragably prove, 1st. that the existence of our continents is due to some cause entirely different from those which are still in action, and particularly from every operation of the present sea. 2dly. That the original coasts of our continents were com