The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci Complete


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the waves. And if you were to say that the waves had carried them to  
such high spots, we have proved that the waves in a great depth move  
in a contrary direction at the bottom to the motion at the top, and  
this is shown by the turbidity of the sea from the earth washed down  
near its shores. Anything which is lighter than the water moves with  
the waves, and is left on the highest level of the highest margin of  
the waves. Anything which is heavier than the water moves, suspended  
in it, between the surface and the bottom; and from these two  
conclusions, which will be amply proved in their place, we infer  
that the waves of the surface cannot convey shells, since they are  
heavier than water.  
If the deluge had to carry shells three hundred and four hundred  
miles from the sea, it would have carried them mixed with various  
other natural objects heaped together; and we see at such distances  
oysters all together, and sea-snails, and cuttlefish, and all the  
other shells which congregate together, all to be found together and  
dead; and the solitary shells are found wide apart from each other,  
as we may see them on sea-shores every day. And if we find oysters  
of very large shells joined together and among them very many which  
still have the covering attached, indicating that they were left  
here by the sea, and still living when the strait of Gibraltar was  
cut through; there are to be seen, in the mountains of Parma and  
Piacenza, a multitude of shells and corals, full of holes, and still  
sticking to the rocks there. When I was making the great horse for  
Milan, a large sack full was brought to me in my workshop by certain  
812  


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810 811 812 813 814

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