In the eighteenth century there was considerable debate about the origins of fossil stones. Among the questions asked was how did these ocean animals get buried so far from the sea? Some credited the Biblical flood while others thought the Christian crusaders had brought them back from the Mediterranean in the Middle Ages. Still others just thought them accidents of nature. The debate raged not only between scientists but also amongst the public. In 1774 popular novelist Oliver Goldsmith published An History of the Earth in which he popularized the notion that the earth had at one time indeed been covered by great expanses of water.

Excerpt from Oliver Goldsmith, An History of the Earth, London, 1774 as read by David Gordon.