be, from the current, by the newly risen earth,) the waters will always be comparatively low and calm. The result is clear. The sands borne along by the ocean's current over the northern and

that the stratum of globules immediately in contact with the earth, would adhere more strongly thereto, than to the fluid stratum which rested upon it; while this adhesion to the surface of the earth would be assisted by the many rugged protuberances on that surface. Hence, at the first motion of the earth, the lowest part of this circumambient ocean, being most powerfully attracted and attached to the earth, would slide under the fluid mass above it, and thereby produce an. inequality in the upper surface of the water itself; an elevation in the eastern, a concavity in the western side of each partition; while the waters from their tendency to seek their level, would strive to restore the balance, by falling constantly from cast to west. Whether this ef fect would continue forever, or how long it would continue in our oceans as they are at present arranged, it is not easy to solve. But that a cur rent from the east to the west would be at first produced, is as evident as the light of heaven: if it be denied, I demand the solution of the follow ing phenomenon; if a plate be filled with oil or other fluid, and the plate be then drawn in any direction, how does it happen that the fluid will manifest a tendency to flow in the opposite direction; in so much, that if the draught of the plate be sudden, the fluid running rapidly over the adverse edge of the plate, shall discharge itself com

southern extremities of this pinnacle, will always have a tendency to settle in the calm behind it ; and thus, by perpetual accumulations, form a

pletely; leaving little behind but the inferior stratum? I take it that the man who solves this phenomenon, satisfactorily, will be compelled to resort to principles, which, when applied to cur o ceans resting loosely as they do on the eartly which rolls under them, would inevitably produce a western current ; and this current once produced, it will be difficult to say why and when it should cease. A current thus produced would be unequal, from the nature of it's cause, at various depths; it would be subject to temporary affections and alterations near its surface, by the winds, the tides and the diversified shapes of the coasts on which the ocean rolls. The general tendency, however, of the great mass of the waters would be to the west.

I see no sound reason in renouncing Mr. Buffon's theory, either on account of the eloquent and beautiful manner in which it is explained; nor because it has long had its just portion of ad--mirers; nor because there are other more modern theories. While we are children, it may be well enough to lay passively on our backs and permit others to prepare and feed us with the pap of science; but when our own judgments and understandings have gained their maturity, it behoves us, instead of being "a feather for every wind that blows," instead of floating impotently before the capricious current of fashion and opinion, to heave out all our anchors; to take a position:

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western coast, more rapidly perhaps than an ens tern one; as we may see in miniature, by the capes and shallows collected by the still water, on each

from which nothing shall move us but reason and truth, not novelty and fashion. In the progress of science, many principles, in my opinion, have been dropped to make way for others, which are newer, but less true. And among them Mr. Buffon's theory of the earth. The effect of aliuvion is so slow, that any one generation is almost unable to perceive the change wrought by it; hence, many people, unable to sit down and reflect on the wonders which time can do ; fly off with a kind of puerile impatience, and resort to any thing, even a bouleversemente of a whole continent, rather than to depend on so slow and imperceptible an operation as that of alluvion. This is not philosophical. Neither on the other hand would it be philosophical, to reject a theory because it might be new and unsupported by a name.

the contrary, the man who on any branch of philosophy starts a new hypothesis, which has even the guise of reason, confers a benefit on the world; for he enlarges the ground of thought, and altho' not immediately in the temple of truth himself, may have dropped a hint, an accidental clue, which may serve to lead others to the door of the temple. In this spirit, I not only excuse, but am grateful even for the wildest of Dr. Darwin's philosophical chimeras. In the same spirit, I offer, without the expectation of its final adoption, the idea suggested by this note as to the cause of a

avestern current.

side, at the mouths of creeks, or below rocks, in the rapids of a river.

After this new born point of earth had gained some degree of elevation, it is probable that successive coats of vegetation, according to Dr. Darwin's idea, springing up, then falling and dying on the earth, paid an annual tribute to the infant continent, while each rain which fell upon it, bore down a part of its substance and assisted perpetually in the enlargement of its area.

It is curious that the arrangement of the mountains both in North and South America, as well as the shape of the two continents, combine to strengthen the preceding theory. For the mountains, as you will perceive on inspecting your maps, run, in chains, from north to south; thus opposing the widest possible barrier to the sands, as they roll from east to west. The shape of the continents is just that which would naturally be expected from such an origin; that is, they lie along, collaterally, with the mountains. As far north as the country is well known, these ranges of mountains are observed; and it is remarkable, that as soon as the Cordilleras terminate in the south, the continent of South America ends; where they terminate in the north the continent dwindles to a narrow Isthmus.

Assuming this theory as correct, it is amusing to observe the conclusions to which it will lead

us..

As the country is supposed to have been formed by gradual accumulations, and as these accumulations were most probably equal or nearly so in every part, it follows that, broken as this coun

try is in hills and dales, it has assumed no new appearance by its emersion; but that the figure of the earth's surface is the same throughout, as well where it is now covered by the waters of the ocean, as where it has been already denudated. So that Mr. Boyle's mountains in the sea, cease to have any thing wonderful in them.

Connected with this, it is not an improbable conclusion, that new continents and islands are now forming on the bed of the ocean. Perhaps at some future day, lands may emerge in the neighborhood of the Antarctic circle, which by progressive accumulations and a consequent increase of weight, may keep a juster balance between the poles, and produce a material difference in our astronomical relations. The navigators of that day will be as successful in their discoveries in the southern seas, as Columbus was heretofore in the northern. For there can be little doubt that there has been a time when Columbus, if he had lived, would have found his reasonings, on the balance of the earth, fallacious; and would have sought these seas for a continent, as much in vain, as Drake, Anson, Cooke and others, encouraged perhaps by similar reasoning, have since sought the ocean of the south.

If Mr. Buffon's notion be correct, that the eas tern coast of one continent is perpetually feeding on the western coast of that which lies before it, the conclusion is inevitable, that the present materials of Europe and Africa, and Asia in succession, will, at some future day, compose the continents of North and South America, while