that the fea has, for a fuccef- fion of ages, occupied the place where dry land now appears; and that the ground has been fuddenly raifed at various periods. What a change would it make in the coun- try below, fhould the mountains at Niagara, by any accident, be cleft afunder, and a paffage fuddenly opened to drain off the waters of Erie and the upper lakes ! While ruminating on thefe fubjedls, I have often been hurried away by fancy, and led to imagine, that what is now the bay of Mex- ico, was once a champaign country ; and that from the point or cape of Florida, there was a continued range of mountains through Cuta, Hifpaniola, Porto Rico, Martinique, Guadaloupe, Barbadoes, and Trinidad, till it reached the coafl: of Ame- rica, and formed the fhores which bounded the ocean, and guarded the country behind; that by fome convulfion or Ihock of nature, the fea had broken through thefe mounds, and deluged that vaft plain, till it reached the foot of the Andes; that [ 38o ] being there heaped up by the trade winds, always blowing from one quarter, it had found its way back, as it continues to do, through the gulph between Florida and Cuba, carrying with it the loom and fand it may have fcooped from the country it had occupied, part of which it may have depofited on the fliores of North-America, and with part formed the banks of New- foundland. But thefe are only the vifions of fancy.
(3.) p. 72. There is a plant, or weed, called the James-town weed*, of a very fingular quahty. The late Dr. Bond in- formed me, that he had under his care a patient, a young girl, who had put the feeds of this plant into her eye, which di- lated the pupil to fuch a degree, that fhe could fee in the dark, but in the light was almoft blind. The effedi: that the leaves had when eaten by a fhip's crew that ar- rived at James-town, are well knownf- * Datura pericarpiis ereAis ovatis. Linn.
f An inftance of temporary imbecility produced by them is mentioned, Beverl. H. of Virg. b. 2. c. 4.