ORIGIN



land, and the separation
great and extraordinary
histories of the Americai
as memorable as that of t)I
Tloltecas fix such earthc



but as w;e
can form
happened.
Isthm-us oi
as great a
ages after



OF THE



of the two continents, by those
earthquakes mentioned in the
Is, which formed an era almost
he deluge. The histories of the
:uakes in the year I Tecpatl;



know not to what century that belonged, we
no cot ijecture of the time that great calamity
  If a great earthquake should overwhelm the
f Suez, and there should be at the same time
scarcity of historians as there were in the first
the deluge, it would be doubted, in 300 or 400



years after, whether Asia
part to Africa; and mnany
  " Whether that great ev
nents, took place before or
ca, is as impossible as it is c
but we are indebted to Co
for settling a Iong dispute
wtis effected. Their obs
place the distance betweei
not exceed thirty miles.
the middle two islands wh
ernigration of the Asiatics
that it took place in canor
rent the two continents
added, that these straits ar
with ice: and in winter



mankind
way was
stock the



might find an
extremely ready
continent of Ar



after the population of,
f littleimornent for us to
oke and his successor
about the point from w
;ervations prove, that
i continent and continei



s



narrow strait has



Ameri-
know;
Clerke
hich it
in one
it does
also in



ic1 would greatly facilitate the
into the new world, supposing
es after the convulsion which
asunder. Besides, it may be
e, even inI summer often filled
often frozen. In either case
easy passage; in the last the
rfor quadrupeds to cross and
rnerica. 'Where, but from the



vast expanse of the north-eastern world, to fix on the
first tribes which contributed to people the new world,
now inhabited almost from enid to end, is a matter which
has drawn forth the most inaenious conjectures.
  "As mankind increased in numbers, they naturally
protruded one another forward. Wars might be another
cause of emiarations. There appears no reason why
the north Asiatics might not be an officina virorumn,



212



had ever been united by that
r would firmly deny it.
ent, the separation of the conti-



I