he central ridges of older rocks to the "long narrow slips
of similar earth, stones, and minerals," which are parallel to these
ridges. In his generalizations, derived in great part from his own
observations on the geological structure of Yorkshire, he anticipated
many of the views more fully developed by later naturalists.

_Catcott_, 1761.--Michell's papers were entirely free from all
physico-theological disquisitions, but some of his contemporaries were
still earnestly engaged in defending or impugning the Woodwardian
hypothesis. We find many of these writings referred to by Catcott, a
Hutchinsonian, who published a "Treatise on the Deluge" in 1761. He
labored particularly to refute an explanation offered by his
contemporary, Bishop Clayton, of the Mosaic writings. That prelate had
declared that the deluge "could not be literally true, save in respect
to that part where Noah lived before the flood." Catcott insisted on the
universality of the deluge, and referred to traditions of inundations
mentioned by ancient writers, or by travellers, in the East Indies,
China, South America, and other countries. This part of his book is
valuable, although it is not easy to see what bearing the traditions
have, if admitted to be authentic, on the Bishop's argument, since no
evidence is adduced to prove that the catastrophes were contemporaneous
events, while some of them are expressly represented by ancient authors
to have occurred in succession.

_Fortis--Odoardi_, 1761.--The doctrines of Arduino, above adverted to,
were afterwards confirmed by Fortis and Desmarest, in their travels in
the same country; and they, as well as Baldassari, labored to complete
the history of the Subapennine strata. In the work of Odoardi,[87] there
was also a clear argument in favor of the distinct ages of the older
Apennine strata, and the Subapennine formations of more recent origin.
He pointed out that the strata of these two groups were _unconformable_,
and must have been the deposits of different seas at distant periods of
time.

_Raspe_, 1763.--A history of the new islands, by Raspe, a Hanoverian,
appeared in 1763, in Latin.[88] In this work, all the authentic accounts
of earthquakes which had produced permanent changes on the solid parts
of the earth were collected together and examined with judicious
criticism. The best systems which had been proposed concerning the
ancient history of the globe, both by ancient and modern writers, are
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