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According to a fourth, tides of seven or eight hundred fathoms depth have carried off, from time to time, the matter lying at the bottom of the sea, and have thrown it, in the form of mountains and hills, upon the original valleys or plains of the continent[28].

A fifth makes the various fragments of which the earth is composed, fall successively from heaven, in the manner of meteoric stones, bearing the impress of their foreign origin in the unknown beings whose remains they contain[29].

A sixth represents the globe as hollow, and places within it a loadstone nucleus, which is transported from one pole to the other, by the attraction of comets, carrying along with it the centre of gravity, and the mass of waters at the surface; thus alternately drowning the two hemispheres[30].

We might mention twenty other systems, as different from one another as those enumerated. And to prevent mistake, we may here state, that our intention is not captiously to criticize or find fault with their authors; on the contrary, we admit that these ideas have generally been conceived by men of intellect and knowledge, who were not ignorant of facts, several of whom had even travelled extensively for the purpose of examining them, and who, in this manner, made numerous and important additions to science.