tioned by Mofes are those of the deluge itself, and the first winds thofe that God caufed to blow to make the waters retire. In very limited feas there was neither fenfible flux nor reflux. The poles of the earth were perpendicular to the equator, nights and days were every where equal, and every climate of the earth was temperate. To operate the deftruction of that earth and of man, God changed the centre of gravity a little nearer to the southern pole; the axis of the earth became inclined, and, in confequence of this motion, all was overturned; the feas overwhelmed the lands; the fources of the abyfs or of the interior waters were opened by the rupture of its caverns, and those waters spouting from the bowels of the fractured globe covered its furface; the valleys were funk, and the mountains were elevated; as the pfalmift says: Aquæ fupra montes eminent, fed increpatione tua fugiunt, et tonitruituo abeunt; montes affurgunt,& valles fe deprimunt in locum fibi deftinatum : limites ipfis pofuifti quos tranfgredi illis non datum eft ut terram ulterius contegant. By this great change the atmosphere was difturbed and climates altered. Impetuous and variable winds, clouds, and rains, obfcured the face of heaven and defolated the earth. By fuch viciffitudes the vigour of plants and of all living creatures was weakened, and the age of man was shortened :—, circumstances which Mofes relates concurrently with the traditions of all ages. If before the deluge there were neither rains nor clouds, the rain-bow muft have appeared for the first time to Noah on leaving the ark. The retreat of the waters, very rapid in its commencement, during 225 days whilst Noah yet remained in the ark was fufficiently

:

great

great to lay dry the mountainous parts of interior Asia, where Noah and his children defcended. A more confiderable space was not yet neceffary for them. Mr. de Luc thinks that the most inferior caverns did not totally give way at firft to deepen the bed of the prefent fea, but fucceffively, and poffibly during fome years; and the caverns yet exifting in the bowels of the earth received gradually, perhaps during fome ages, the excess of waters not comprifed in our prefent feas. In proportion as thefe ruptures and finking of the land took place, the waters ran off into them, and the general level of the waters on the earth became much lower than before the deluge. The atmosphere neceffarily followed them, and the mountains in confequence became much more elevated into the airy regions than before; thence their temperature was changed, became cold, fterile, and covered with fnows. The branch of olive furnished to the pigeon from mount Ararat, where the cold now permits none to grow, has been objected to Mofes. But if the waters were yet retiring but not funk to their prefent level, which they only gained fucceffively and after the lapse of many years, because it was unneceffary to uncover the whole furface of the earth for the fubfiftence of eight perfons, and the very limited number of animals preferved with them, the atmosphere would only fink gradually with them, and the fummits of mount Ararat would fill enjoy for fome time a warm climate. Mr. Wallerius afferts, that the great eminences were yet only iflands, and remarks that the first great plain mentioned is the plain of Senaar, where men arrived not, according

to the most probable computation, until 400 years after the deluge. By the falls of earth and accumulated depofitions during the retreat of the waters, the outlets of many valleys would be stopped up, where many great interior lakes must have been formed; many of whose waters have fince run off either by undermining or bursting thofe oppofing mounds by their increasing weight, or by their accidental ruptures caufed by volcanos or earthquakes, more frequent in the then state of the earth. It was during the long continued retreat of the waters, and the various accidents thence enfuing, that many islands were torn from the continent, and that secondary mountains were formed in fucceffion of time and during feveral ages after the deluge.

But the great reciprocal changes of lands into feas, and of feas into lands, were primarily effected by the inclination of the axis of the globe. From hence the accumulation of fea fhells in the midft or on the fummits of our mountains, or deep buried in the bowels of the earth, is to be accounted for. The change of climates operated by this fame inclination of the axis, explains various fpecies of those belonging to hot countries now found in our northern climates. Kinds entirely foreign, found on the very fhores of feas in which none fuch now exift, prove, according to Mr. de Luc, that the pretended flow fucceffive change of lands and feas by the perpetual motion of the fea from east to weft is totally unfounded. The laft depofites of fuch flow retreat could only be of fish ftill

3

exifting

exifting in the bordering fea, and fhells entirely foreign to the climate could only be found at confiderable diftances from the actual coafts. The flow and gradual retreat here fuppofed could never form any other than gently-inclined plains; whereas the fea fhores in one part exhibit fteep rocks and mountains, and in another prefent even plains almoft on a level with its waters. Holland fhews that the level of the fea has been the fame for a great number of years and ages paft, and that the land only gains flowly by the depofites of rivers. According to him alfo, the fmall quantity of vegetable earth proves that the globe cannot be of very ancient date. The bones of elephants found in the north belong to the antediluvian world, all whofe climates were temperate. Mr. de Luc juftly observes, that their being yet found in a state of preservation is an evident proof that the date of their depofition is neither infinitely removed, nor fo diftant as to be reconcileable with those times when Siberia could have been a hot climate, reduced to its present state of extreme cold by the progreffive and flow gradual cooling of the earth from the diminution of central heat (a). In the idea of the former antediluvian ftate of the earth, and the great changes caufed in it by the inclination of its axis at the deluge, the learned Mr. Whitehurst perfectly agrees with the two above-named gentlemen. You will find my ideas, which I fhall further develop to you in my next letter, fo perfectly coinciding with those of Mr. Wallerius, that you will justly think them little better than a repetition. Immediately on our return from Switzerland, and before I

had

had had the advantage of perufing the work of Mr. Wallerius, I briefly had the pleasure of ftating to you the heads of my opinion. These are confirmed and greatly improved by the new lights which I have derived from him. If the principle on which we both found our systems be true, it must be one and the fame; and its development can only be varied by such additional proofs and details as may occur in its further investigation. Without any further preface, I shall therefore in my subsequent letters lay before you the whole fuite of my ideas on the fame fubjects.

NOTE