Near the eastern foot of the North mountain are immense bodies of Schist, containing impressions of shells in a variety of forms. I have received petrified shells of very different kinds from the first sources of Kentucky, which bear no resemblance to any I have ever seen on the tide-waters. It is said that shells are found in the Andes, in South-America, fifteen thousand feet above the level of the ocean. This is considered by many, both of the learned and unlearned, as a proof of an universal deluge.

cesse d'etre de l'ardoise pour devener du marbre. Une pierre également distribuée par feuilles qu'on nomme schite, est aussi sujette à cette transformation. Quelquefois ce ne sont pas simplement des feuilles qui se soudent entr'elles un quartier de cette pierre se joint comme au hazard avec au autre. Si le tout est ensuite expose à l'action du gravier & des cailloux roulés par un eau courante, et qu'il reçoive, une sorte d'arrondissement qui le rende à peu près sylindrique, il prend toutes les apparences d'un tronc d'arbre; et il est meme quelquefois très difficile de ne s'y pas tromper. Je fus très faché de ne pouvoir porter avec moi une de ces-especes de tronc que je trouvai dans une ravine entre Guanacas et la Plata, au pied d'une colline nommé la Subida del Frayle. C'etoit un morceau de marbre qui avoit 20 pouces de longueur sur 17 ou 18 de diametre; on distinguoit comme, les fibres du bois, la surface presente des noeuds de diverses formes; le conteur meme du tronc etoit également propre à en imposer. Il y avoit un enfoncement d'un coté qui formoit un angle rentrant, et une saillie du coté opposé. Je ne sçavois qu'en penser, de meme que les personnes qui m'accompagnoient. Je ne reussis enfin a me decider, qu'en jettant les yeux sur d'autres quartiers de schite que etoient auprés, qui commençoient á prendre les memes apparences, mais qui n'etoient pas encore dans un etat à pouvoir jetter dans l'erreur, et au contraire m'eclairerent sur la nature du morceau de marbre. On pretend qu'entre les differens bois c'est le gayac qui se petrifie le plus aisement. On m'assuroit que je verrois audessou de Mompox une croix dont tout le haut de l'arbre etoit encore de ce bois pendent que le bas etoit reellement de la pierre à fusil. Plusieurs personnes m'affirmerent en avoit tiré du feu. Lorsque je passai dans cet endroit on me confirma la meme chose; mais on m'ajouta qu'une crue extraordinaire avoit fait tomber la croix dans la riviere, il y avoit 6 à 7 ans. Page xciii."

In the edition of 1853 is a footnote, as below:

"On whose authority, it has been said? Bouguer, the best witness respecting the Andes, speaking of Peru, says: On n'y distingue aucun vestige des grandes inondations qui ont laissé tant de marques dans toutes les autres regions. J'ai fait tout mon possible pour y decouvrir quelque coquille, mais toujours inutilement apparamment que les montagne du Perou sont trop hautes.' Bouguer, xv. See 4 Clavigera, Div. 3, § 1. See 2 Epoques, 268. 1 Epoques, 415."

To the many considerations opposing this opinion, the following may be added. The atmosphere, and all its contents, whether of water, air, or other matters, gravitate to the earth; that is to say, they have weight. Experience tells us, that the weight of all these together never exceeds that of a column of mercury of 31 inches height, which is equal to one of rain water of 35 feet high. If the whole contents of the atmosphere, then, were water, [51] instead of what they are, it would cover the globe but 35 feet deep; but as these waters, as they fell, would run into the seas, the superficial measure of which is to that of the dry parts of the globe, as two to one, the seas would be raised only 524 feet above their present level, and of course would overflow the lands to that height only.' In Virginia this would be a very small proportion even of the champaign country, the banks of our tidewaters being frequently, if not generally, of a greater height. Deluges beyond this extent, then, as for instance to the North mountain or to Kentuckey, seem out of the laws of nature. But within it they may have taken place to a greater or less degree, in proportion to the combination of natural causes which may be supposed to have produced them. History renders probably some instances of a partial deluge in the country lying round the Mediterranean sea. It has been often supposed, and it is not unlikely, that that sea was [52] once a lake. While such, let us admit an extraordinary collection of the waters of the atmosphere from the other parts of the globe to have been discharged over that and the countries whose waters run into it. That lake may thus have been so raised as to overflow the low lands adjacent to it, as those of Egypt and Armenia, which, according to a tradition of the Egyptians and Hebrews, were overflowed about 2300 years before the Christian æra; those of Attica, said to have been overflowed in the time of Ogyges, about 500 years later; and those of Thessaly, in the time

2

4

In the edition of 1853 is a footnote reference to "2 Epoques, 378."

2. Buffon Epoques, 96.-T. J.

In the edition of 1787 is here added:

'Or without supposing it a lake, admit such an extraordinary collection of the waters of the atmosphere, and an influx from the Atlantic ocean, forced by long-continued Western winds."

4 In the edition of 1853 this passage reads, "That lake or that sea."

of Deucalion, still 300 years posterior.' But such deluges as these will not account for the shells found in the higher lands. Besides the usual process for generating shells by the elaboration of earth and water in animal vessels, may not nature have provided an equivalent operation, by passing the same materials through the pores of calcareous earths and stones? As we see calcareous dropstones generating every day by the percolation of water through lime-stone, and new marble forming in the quarries from which the old has been taken out, which is said to be the case in the quarries [53] of Italy. Is it more difficult for nature to shoot the calcareous juice into the form of a shell, than other juices into the forms of Chrystals, plants, animals, according to the construction of the vessels through which they pass? There is a wonder somewhere. Is it greatest on this branch of a dilemma, or on that which supposes the creation of such a body of water, and its sub

In the edition of 1853 a footnote adds:

"Five deluges are enumerated by Xenophon, the author of the tract de Equivocis in these words: Inundationes plures fuere. Prima novimestris inundatio terrarum sub prisco Ogyge. Secunda niliaca menstrua, sub Ægyptiis Hercule et Prometheo. Bimestris autem, sub Ogyge Attico in Achaia. Trimetris Thessalica, sub Deucalione. Par Pharonica, sub Proteo Aegyptio in raptu Helena.''

The text from this point to the end of the paragraph Jefferson cancelled in 1786, printing two new leaves which he substituted by insertion in place of the pages 51-4 of the original, in some copies (cf. note, p. 81). This change was embodied in the edition of 1787. The new text was as follows:

A second opinion has been entertained; which is that, in times anterior to the records either of history or tradition, the bed of the ocean, the principal residence of the shelled tribe, has, by some great convulsion of nature, been heaved to the heights at which we now find shells & other remains of marine animals. The favourers of this opinion do well to suppose the great events on which it rests to have taken place beyond all the æras of history; for within these certainly, none such are to be found; & we may venture to say further that no fact has taken place, either in our own days, or in the thousands of years recorded in history, which proves the existence of any natural agents, within or without the bowels of the earth, of force sufficient to heave, to the height of 15,000 feet, such masses as the Andes. The difference between the power necessary to produce such an effect, & that which shuffled together the different parts of Calabria in our days, is so immense, that, from the existence of the latter we are not authorized to infer that of the former.

"M. de Voltaire, has suggested a third solution of this difficulty. (Quest.

sequent annihilation? Have not Naturalists already brought themselves to believe much stranger things? Thus, they seriously concur in the opinion that those immense hills and plains of marble to be found in every quarter of the globe, nay the very foundation of the earth itself, which is of limestone in large tracts of this country, and probably of others, and has been found here to continue solid to the depth of 200 feet, farther than which we have not penetrated, that these, I say, and all other calcareous bodies, are animal remains. Monsieur de Voltaire, who seems. first to have suspected that shells might grow unconnected with animal bodies, specifies an instance in a particular place in France, which has never yet, as far as I have heard, been disproved or denied. [54]

There is great abundance (more especially when you approach the mountains) of stone, white, blue, brown, &c., fit for the chisel,

encycl. Coquilles) he cites an instance in Touraine, where, in the space of 80 years, a particular spot of earth had been twice metamorphosed in to soft stone, which had become hard when employed in building: in this stone, shells of various kinds were produced, discoverable at first only with the microscope, but afterwards growing with the stone. From this fact, I suppose, he would have us infer that besides the usual process for generating shells by the elaboration of earth and water in animal vessels, nature may have provided an equivalent operation, by passing the same materials through the pores of calcareous earths and stones: as we see calcareous drop stones generating every day by percolation of water through limestone, and new marble forming in the quarries from which the old has been taken out; and it might be asked whether it is more difficult for nature to shoot the calcareous juice into the form of a shell, than other juices into the forms of chrystals, plants, animals, according to the construction of the vessels through which they pass? There is a wonder somewhere. Is it greatest on this branch of the dilemma; on that which supposes the existence of a power of which we have no evidence in any other case; or on the first which requires us to believe the creation of a body of water, and it's subsequent annihilation? The establishment of the instance, cited by M. de Voltaire, of the growth of shells unattached to animal bodies, would have been that of his theory. But he has not established it. He has not even left it on ground so respectable as to have rendered it an object of enquiry to the literati of his own country. Abandoning this fact therefore, the three hypotheses are equally unsatisfactory; & we must be contented to acknowledge that this great phenomenon is as yet unsolved. Ignorance is preferable to error: & he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong."

We

good milstone, such also as stands the fire, and slatestone. are told of flints, fit for gunflints, on the Meherrin in Brunswic, on the Missisipi between the mouth of the Ohio and Kaskaskia, and on others of the western waters. Isinglass or mica is in several places; loadstone also; and an Asbestos of a ligneous texture, is sometimes to be met with.

Marle abounds generally: A clay, of which, like the Sturbridge in England, bricks are made, which will resist long the violent action of fire, has been found on Tuckahoe creek of James river, and no doubt will be found in other places. Chalk is said to be in Botetourt and Bedford. In the latter county is some earth believed to be Gypseous. Ochres are found in various parts.

In the limestone country are many caves, the earthy floors of which are impregnated with nitre. On Rich creek, a branch of the Great Kanhaway about 60 miles below the lead mines, is a very large one, about 20 yards wide, and entering a hill a quarter or half a mile. The vault is of rock, from 9 to [55] 15 or 20 feet above the floor. A Mr. Lynch, who gives me this account, undertook to extract the nitre. Besides a coat of the salt which had formed on the vault and floor, he found the earth highly impregnated to the depth of seven feet in some places, and generally of three, every bushel yielding on an average three pounds of nitre. Mr. Lynch having made about 1000 pounds of the salt from it, consigned it to some others, who have since made 10,000 lb. They have done this by pursuing the cave into the hill, never trying a second time the earth they have once exhausted, to see how far or soon it receives another impregnation. At least fifty of these caves are worked on the Greenbriar. There are many of them known on Cumberland

river.

The country westward of the Alleghaney abounds with springs of common salt. The most remarkable we have heard of are at Bullet's lick, the Big bones, the Blue licks, and on the North fork of Holston. The area of Bullet's lick is of many acres. Digging the earth to the depth of three feet the water begins to boil up, and the deeper you go, and the drier the weather, the stronger is the brine. A thousand gallons of water [56] yield