home, our own Allegany abounds with them. How were these substances separated from their parent ocean? Do they still remain in their primitive beds? and has the water deserted them? or have they deserted the water? These questions, differently answered, give rise to different theories..

Among these theories, that of the Count de Buffon stands conspicuous. Adorned with all the graces of style, and borrowing a lustre from his other splendid productions, it has long had its full share of admirers. After exhibiting new proofs of a former submersion, in which he discovers great ingenuity, and is certainly entitled to great praise, he proceeds to account for the earth in its present form, by a natural operation of the ocean which covered it. This hypothesis, which the British Spy has partially adopted, is liable to many objections, which, to me at least,

are insuperable. I will briefly notice some of the most obvious.

Although alluvion may account for small accessions of soil nearly on a level with the ocean, it cannot explain the formation of mountains. It is contrary to all the known laws of nature to suppose that a fluid could lift, so far above its own level, bodies many times heavier than itself.

Again, if the ocean, as Buffon maintains, have a tendency to wear away all points and eminences over which it passes, it would exert this tendency on the mountains itself had formed; or rather, it would prevent their formation. It is surely inconsistent to suppose the ocean would produce mountains, and at the same time wear away those that already existed. Indeed, the author himself seemed to be aware of the invincible objections to this part of his theory, and endeavours to evade their force by sinking a part of the

earth, in the cavity occasioned by which, the superfluous waters find a sufficient receptacle; thus abandoning the agency of alluvion, and adopting a new and totally different hypothesis.

But while marine substances are found far above their proper element, vegetable bodies are often found far below the seat of their production. In Europe they often meet with wood, at great depths of the earth, in a state of perfect preservation, and in sinking wells, in this country, trunks of trees frequently obstruct the progress of the work. A Mr. Peters, of Harrison county, not long since, met with pieces of pine, twenty feet below the surface, on a hill of considerable elevation, and at a distance from any water-course. In this town, leaves, believed to be those of the hazle, were found mingled with marine productions. These vegetable matters must have been once exposed to air, heat and

light, to have attained the state in which they were found; and the same exposure would have afterwards caused their decay, unless their interment had been sudden and complete. Bones, shells and other extraneous substances, are often found bedded in marble and other hard bodies; and I myself have seen a specimen of those human bones, which in the fortifications of Gibraltar are often found incorporated with the solid rock. What less than some great throe of nature, or some mighty agent, now dormant and unknown, could have produced the general bouleversement which these appearances indicate?

But the hypothetical reasoning of Monsieur de Buffon is founded on a fact no less hypothetical. The arguments, in favour of a general current to the west, are I confess, very cogent, and would be convincing but for the following difficulties.

1. If the operation of the sun and moon, in producing alternate elevations and depressions of the ocean, produce also a current, the force of this current will be in proportion to the mass of water thus raised and depressed. Now, contrary to the assertion of Baffon, the tides are highest in high latitudes, and gradually diminish towards the equator; where I believe they hardly exceed a foot. By the observations of Captain Cook, the same difference exists in the Pacifick ocean as was long known in the Atlantick. If then there be a general current to the west, it should be strongest in high latitudes and weakest under the line. But the contrary is the fact. No general current to the west is found without the tropicks; and that which prevails irregularly between them is usually and rationally ascribed to the trade winds.