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Bottom of the Sea. *5 land; and this difference is alfo eafily explained. The fubmarine land mull be expofed, for many ages, to the adlion of the ocean, and of rain, rivers and lakes, before its furface can agree, in all its features, with that of the dry land. When the ground at the bottom of the fea ap“ proaches near to the furface of the water, and is pretty level, it is denominated aJboal. It refern- bles the plains on the dry land ; it makes the tran- fition from the Dry Land to the Submarine, and will no doubt one day be changed into a plain. Deep fubmarine plains alfo often occur. Some times the bottom of the fea has a very uneven fur face, and is compofed of hills, either of fand and gravel, particularly near the coaft, (as is the cafe on the coaft of Holland), or of rocky hills, or of cliffs and other irregularities. The fummits of thefe fubmarine hills form iflands, and thefe fometimes appear as continuations of the high country on the dry land. We fometimes alfo meet with great hollows, which are unfathomable. The coral reefs that furround the iflands in the South Sea and Indian Ocean, are to be viewed as a variety of the flioal furface already mentioned. D ’ CHAP,