If the present land had been discovered by the subsiding of the waters,
there has not been a former land, from whence materials had been
procured for the construction of the present, when at the bottom of the
sea; for, there is no vestige remaining of that land, the whole land of
the present earth having been formed evidently at the bottom of the sea.
Neither could the natural productions of the sea have been accumulated,
in the shape in which we now find them, on the surface of this earth;
for, How should the Alps and Andes have been formed within the sea
from the natural productions of the water? Consequently, this is a
supposition inconsistent with every natural appearance.
The supposition, therefore, of the subsidence of the former ocean,
for the purpose of discovering the present land, is beset with more
difficulty than the simple erection of the bottom of the former ocean;
for, _first_, There is a place to provide for the retirement of the
waters of the ocean; and, _2dly_, There is required a work of equal
magnitude; this is, the swallowing up of that former continent, which
had procured the materials of the present land.
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