bien peu. Elles s'arretent au pied
des rochers dont elles sont successivement detachees; et la elles
s'entassent, s'elevant en forme de _talus_ contre ces rochers
eux-memes."

If the solid body of the Alps, the most consolidated masses of our land,
is thus reduced to the state of soil upon the surface of the earth
contrived for the use of plants, _a fortiori_, softer bodies, less
elevated and less consolidated masses, will be considered as easily
arriving at the purpose for which the surface of the earth has been
intended. We only wish now to see the ultimate effect that necessarily
follows from this progress of things; and how, in this course of nature,
the land must end, however long protracted shall be the duration of this
body, and however much economy may be perceived in this gradual waste of
land;--a waste which by no means is so slow as not to be perceived by
men reasoning in science; although scientific men, either reasoning for
the purpose of a system which they had devised, or, deceived by the
apparent state of things which truly change, may not acknowledge the
necessary consequence of what they had perceived.

Let us now suppose all the solid mass of land, contained in our
continent, to be transformed into soil and vegetable earth, it must be
evident that no covering of plants, or interlacing of vegetable fibres,
could protect this mass of loose or incoherent materials from the
ravages of floods, so long as rivers flowed, nor from being swallowed by
the ocean, so long as there were winds and tides. From the border of
the land upon the shore, to the middle of the ocean, there is either at
present an equable declivity at the bottom of the sea, or every thing
tends to form this declivity, in gradually moving bodies along this
bottom. But, however gradual the declivity of the bottom, or however
slow the progress of loose materials from the shore towards the deepest
bottom of the sea, so long as there are moving powers for those
materials, they must have a progress to that end; the law of
gravitation, always active, must prevail, and sooner or later the moving
sea must swallow up the land.

But, along the borders of our continent, and in the courses of our
rivers, there are rocks; these must be surmounted or destroyed, before
the parts which they protect can be delivered up to the influence of
those moving powers which tend to form a level; and we may be assured
that those bulwarks waste. The bare inspection of