Buffon's Natural History, Volume I (of 10). Comte de Buffon Georges Louis Leclerc
sand, argol, marble, calcareous stone, chalk, and marles, are always deposited in parallel strata, horizontally or equally inclined; the original formation of these are easily discovered, for the strata are exactly horizontal and very thin, and are arranged above each other like the leaves of a book. Beds of sand, soft and hard clay, chalk, and shells, are also either horizontal or regularly inclined. Strata of every kind preserves the same thickness throughout its whole extent, which often occupies the space of many miles, and may be traced still farther by close and exact observations. In a word, the materials of the globe, as far as mankind have been enabled to penetrate, are arranged in an uniform position, and are exactly similar.
The strata of sand and gravel which have been washed down from mountains must in some measure be excepted; in vallies they are sometimes of a considerable extent, and are generally placed under the first strata of the earth; in plains, they are as even as the most ancient and interior strata, but near the bottom and upon the ridges of hills they are inclined, and follow the inclination of the ground upon which they have flowed. These being formed by rivers and rivulets, which are constantly in vallies changing their beds, and dragging these sands and gravel with them, they are of course very numerous. A small rivulet flowing from the neighbouring heights, in the course of time will be sufficient to cover a very spacious valley with a strata of sand and gravel, and I have often observed in hilly countries, whose base, as well as the upper stratum, was hard clay, that above the source of the rivulet the clay is found immediately under the vegetable soil, and below it there is the thickness of a foot of sand upon the clay, and which extends itself to a considerable distance. These strata formed by rivers are not very ancient, and are easily discovered by the inequality of their thickness, which is constantly varying, while the ancient strata preserves the same dimensions throughout; they are also to be known by the matter itself, which bears evident marks of having been smoothed and rounded by the motions of the water. The same may be said of the turf and perished vegetables which are found below the first stratum of earth in marshy grounds; they cannot be considered as ancient, but entirely produced by successive heaps of decayed trees and other plants. Nor are the strata of slime and mud, which are found in many countries, to be considered as ancient productions, having been formed by stagnated waters or inundations of rivers, and are neither so horizontal, nor equally inclined, as the strata anciently produced by the regular motions of the sea. In the strata formed by rivers we constantly meet with river, but scarcely ever sea shells, and the few that are found are broken and irregularly placed; whereas in the ancient strata there are no river shells; the sea shells are in great quantities, well preserved, and all placed in the same manner, having been transported at the same time and by the same cause. How are we to account for this astonishing regularity? Instead of regular strata, why do we not meet with the matters that compose the earth jumbled together, without any kind of order? Why are not rocks, marbles, clays, marles, &c. variously dispersed, or joined by irregular or vertical strata? Why are not the heaviest bodies uniformly found placed beneath the lightest? It is easy to perceive that this uniformity of nature, this organization of earth, this connection of different materials, by parallel strata, without respect to their weights, could only be produced by a cause as powerful and constant as the motion of the sea, whether occasioned by the regular winds or by that of the flux and reflux, &c.
These causes act with greater force under the equator than in other climates, for there the winds are more regular and the tides run higher; the most extensive chains of mountains are also near the equator. The mountains of Africa and Peru are the highest known, they frequently extend themselves through whole provinces, and stretch, to considerable distances under the ocean. The mountains of Europe and Asia, which extend from Spain to China, are not so high as those of South America and Africa. The mountains of the North, according to the relation of travellers, are only hills in comparison with those of the Southern countries. Besides, there are very few islands in the Northern Seas, whereas in the torrid zone they are almost innumerable, and as islands are only the summits of mountains, it is evident that the surface of the earth has many more inequalities towards the equator than in the northerly climes.
It is therefore evident that the prodigious chain of mountains which run from the West to the East in the old continent, and from the North to the South in the new, must have been produced by the general motion of the tides; but the origin of all the inferior mountains must be attributed to the particular motions of currents, occasioned by the winds and other irregular agitations of the sea: they may probably have been produced by a combination of all those motions, which must be capable of infinite variations, since the winds and different positions of islands and coasts change the regular course of the tides, and compel them to flow in every possible direction: it is, therefore, not in the least astonishing that we should see considerable eminences, whose courses have no determined direction. But it is sufficient for our present purpose to have demonstrated that mountains are not the produce of earthquakes, or other accidental causes, but that they are the effects resulting from the general order of nature, both as to their organization and the position of the materials of which they are composed.
But how has it happened that this earth which we and our ancestors have inhabited for ages, which, from time immemorial, has been an immense continent, dry and removed from the reach of the waters, should, if formerly the bottom of the ocean, be actually larger than all the waters, and raised to such a height as to be distinctly separated from them? Having remained so long on the earth, why have the waters now abandoned it? What accident, what cause could produce so great a change? Is it possible to conceive one possessed of sufficient power to produce such an amazing effect?
These questions are difficult to be resolved, but as the facts are certain and incontrovertible, the exact manner in which they happened may remain unknown, without prejudicing the conclusions that may be drawn from them; nevertheless, by a little reflection, we shall find at least plausible reasons for these changes. We daily observe the sea gaining ground on some coasts and losing it on others; we know that the ocean has a continued regular motion from East to West; that it makes loud and violent efforts against the low lands and rocks which confine it; that there are whole provinces which human industry can hardly secure from the rage of the sea; that there are instances of islands rising above, and others being sunk under the waters. History speaks of much greater deluges and inundations. Ought not this to incline us to believe that the surface of the earth has undergone great revolutions, and that the sea may have quitted the greatest part of the earth which it formerly covered? Let us but suppose that the old and new worlds were formerly but one continent, and that the Atlantis of Plato was sunk by a violent earthquake; the natural consequence would be, that the sea would necessarily have flowed in from all sides, and formed what is now called the Atlantic Ocean, leaving vast continents dry, and possibly those which we now inhabit. This revolution, therefore, might be made of a sudden by the opening of some vast cavern in the interior part of the globe, which an universal deluge must inevitably succeed; or possibly this change was not effected at once, but required a length of time, which I am rather inclined to think; however these conjectures may be, it is certain the revolution has occurred, and in my opinion very naturally; for to judge of the future, as well as the past, we must carefully attend to what daily happens before our eyes. It is a fact clearly established by repeated observations of travellers, that the ocean has a constant motion from the East to West; this motion, like the trade winds, is not only felt between the tropics, but also throughout the temperate climates, and as near the poles as navigators have gone; of course the Pacific Ocean makes a continual effort against the coasts of Tartary, China, and India; the Indian Ocean acts against the east coast of Africa; and the Atlantic in like manner against all the eastern coasts of America; therefore the sea must have always and still continues to gain land on the east and lose it on the west; and this alone is sufficient to prove the possibility of the change Of earth into sea, and sea into land. If, in fact, such are the effects of the sea's motion from east to west, may we not very reasonably suppose that Asia and the eastern continent is the oldest country in the world, and that Europe and part of Africa, especially the western coasts of these continents, as Great Britain, France, Spain, Muratania, &c. are of a more modern date? Both history and physics agree in confirming this conjecture.
There are, however, many other causes which concur with the continual motion of the sea from east to west, in producing these effects.
In many places there are lands lower than the level of the sea, and which are only defended from