OCR Text |
Show DTSSF.RT. w. ~ H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. to have happened in the old than in the new continent, beca.uf6 all the ·takes of Am{;rica, including even thofe of Canada, which are the largeft, are not comparable to the Black, White, Balti'c, and C-tfpian feas, which though vulgarly called feas, are, however, according to Buffon himfdf, tme lakes, formed by i'ivers which pour into them. If to thofc we add the lakes of Lemano, Onega, Pleikow, and many others, extremely large, ofRuffia, Tartary, and other countries (p), we will foon difcover how much they, who have fo exaggerated the lakes of America, had forgotten the nature of their own continent. The lake of Chapalla, which, in the geographi~al maps, is honoured with the magnif1cent name of Mare Chapallicum, or fea of Chapall:l, which we have alfo feen at1d coafied round three times, is hardly a hundred miles in circumference. But if the rivers Don, Wolga, Boryll:henes, Danube, Oder, and others 0f the ancient continent, though lefs by :fitr than the Maragnon, the river of Plata, that of Maddalena, St. Lawrence, Oroonoko, Mi(llffippi, and others of the new world, are neverthtlefs extremely fufficient, . according to what Buffon fuys, to form thofe lakes which are fo great, that they have always been efi:eemed [eas, what wonder is it that the monftrous rivers of America. make fmaller lakes and marfhes? Mr. de Paw fays, that thofe lakes appear receptacles of water, which have not yet been able to ifiue from thofe places formerly overflowed by a violent agitation given to all the terraqueous globe. The numerous volcanos of the Andes, or American Alps, and of the hills of Mexico, and the earthquakes which are in~ cefiantly felt in one part or other o( thofe Alps, let us fee that that l~nd is not yet at repofe even in our <lay. But if that violent agitation was general over the terraqueous globe, how came the lands of Peru and Mexico to be inundated, . which are fo highly elevated above the level of •the fea, ns Buffon and de Paw both confefs, and not the lllnds of Europe, which are fo very much lower~ -, Whoever has obferved the fl:upendous .elevation of the inland countries of America, will not eafily perfuade himfelf that the water could rife fo as to cover them without inundating Eur.ope. Befides, we may alfo f<1y, (q) Bomare enumerates thirty. ei~ht lakes in Jhe cantons of ~witzerl:mJ, and rays, that Into that of Harlem vefi"eh of great h1.e enter, 'fhe lake of Aral in Tartary hns, accorJing to the (ame author, a hundred knguca of le~ngth and fifty of .breadth. · , ~ha-t • I H I S T 0 R Y 0 F M E X I C 0. 'that Vefuvius, Etna, Hecla, and ~e numerous volcanos of the Moluccas, the Philippine iflands, and Japan, and the frequent earthquakes of thofe iflands, and of China, Perfia, Syria, Turkey, &c. let us alfo fee that even the old world is not yet at repofe in our day (r). The veins of metals, adds de Paw, which are found in fome places on the ~urface of the earth, appear to indicate, that the foil was once overRowed, and that the torrents carried away part of it. But would it not be better to fay, that fome violent eruptions of fubterraneous fires, ~hich appear manifeft. in the many volcanos of the Cordilleras, delhoymg the furface oi forne foils, left the veins of metals almoft naked? The finding of marine bodies heaped together in fome inland places of America, if it fhould prove the pretended inundation would prove fl:ill more ftrongly a greater inundation of the old continent; for whereas there are f€w places in America in which thefe maifes of fealhells, and other petrified marine . bodies, are found; Europe, on the contrary, is almoil: full of petrifications of fuch bodies, which demon.fl: rates with certainty that it was formerly overflowed by the fc;a (s) •. Every perfon knows the wonders and the calculations which feveral· French natural philofophers have made uf that immen.le quantity of !hells which are feen in Tourain, and nobody is ignorant either that. fuch kind of petrified marine bodies are found alfo in the Alps. Why then ought we to conclude, from fome marine bodies having been found in fome places of America, that that country fuffered an inundation,.. and n.ot fiill more confidently conclude, thatEurope has fuffered an inun .. dation from fuch bodies having been found in !till greater abundance in many places of it? If the tranfportation of thofe bodies to inland. places of Europe io to be afcribed to the waters of the univerfal deluge, (r) M. de Paw himfelf, 11fter having made mention of Vcfuviu s, Etna, Hecla, and the : volcanos of Liparis, fpcaks thus : " A rnongfr the g reat vol canos arc reckoned the Pnran11cm1 , in the ifland of Java; the Ca11apiJ, in the ifiand of Banda; the BalaluatJ, in the ifland of" Sumatra. The ifland of Ternate has a flam ing mountai111 the irruptions of which are not, inferior to thofe of Etna. Of all tlle iflands, fmall ant! large, which compofe the empire of· J apan, there is not one which has not a volcano thnt is not more or lcfs confidcrablc; • and·: nlfo the Philippine iflcs, the Azores, the Cape de Vcrd iflands, &c." L etter IU. S11r lcs Yicijfittules du 11btrc Globe. (J)• Burguct, in his 'ltcatifi on P cirt}icntions, and Tor.ribia, in his lntrotlullinn In t!Je Nat11r11/ .' 1-Iijlory of Spniu, giv es \18 a very long account of the places of E~1rop~ and Alin, where pctri~fled marine bodies aro found, VoL. II. K k why 249 DISSERT. III. ~ - |