Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	abate_v	able_a	strength_n	15	3	7.3808	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44322	Lectures de potentia restitutiva, or, Of spring explaining the power of springing bodies : to which are added some collections viz. a description of Dr. Pappins wind-fountain and force-pump, Mr. Young's observation concerning natural fountains, some other considerations concerning that subject, Captain Sturmy's remarks of a subterraneous cave and cistern, Mr. G.T. observations made on the Pike of Teneriff, 1674, some reflections and conjectures occasioned thereupon, a relation of a late eruption in the Isle of Palma / by Robert Hooke ...	Hooke, Robert, 1635-1703.; Papin, Denis, 1647-1714.; Young, James.; Sturmy, Samuel, 1633-1669.; G. T.	1678 (1678)	Wing H2619; ESTC R38967	35,527	58

stomachs the better against the cold so with their Bottle of Strong-water in their Pockets and Staves in their hands they began to mount the Pike the way being just such as they had passed the night before but much more steep and continued on till they came to the Mal pays or stony way which may be about half a mile from the place where they lay This stony way lieth upon a very steep ascent and is compounded of abundance of stones which lie hollow and loose some of them of a vast prodigious bigness and others of them smaller in such manner as if they had been thrown up there by some Earthquake as the Author conjectures with very great probability In the clambring up these stones they took great care in placing their steps on such of them as were more firm for fear of slipping or tumbling so as to break their Legs or Arms. With this difficulty they ascended till they came to the Cave which he conjectures to be about three quarters of a mile distant from the beginning of the stony way At this Cave they found several persons who were come thither to get out Ice to carry down into the Island some of which were below in the Cave digging Ice which was very thick others remained above They found the mouth of the Cave about three yards high and two yards broad and being all of them desirous to descend into it by a Rope fastned about their bodies under their armpits they were all one after another let down into it till they came to set their feet upon the Ice which is about sixteen or eighteen foot from the mouth The Cave is not very large but full of water and Ice which at the time when they were there lay about a foot under the Surface of the water though the men that usually go thither said that at other times they found the Ice above the water which makes many to suppose that it ebbs and flows by means of some secret entercourse that it may have with the Sea they averring that they have seen it emptying of it self But this Gentleman so soon as ever he came down fixt his eye upon a stone that lay just above the Superficies of the water and observed very diligently but could not in all the space that he staid there which was half an hour find it either increase or diminish which makes him believe that the fulness or emptiness of the water may rather proceed from those thick fogs and mists which are generally on the top and which hinder the Pike from being seen sometimes for twenty thirty nay forty days together except only just at the rising or setting of the Sun though at some other times it happens also that the Air is clearer and the Pike may be seen perhaps for a month together From these mists he conceives at some times much water may be collected at the upper parts of the Pike and soaking down may not only supply but increase the water in the Cave and consonant to this Hypothesis he observed whilst he was there that there was a continual gleeting and dropping of water in six or seven places from the sides of the Cave which droppings he supposes may be greater or less according as those fogs do more or less encompass it or stay about it a longer or shorter time He judges also that there may be some other more secret ways both for the conveying water into and out of the said Cave than those droppings but supposes them to proceed from the aforesaid fogs Hence he concludes when the Air is clear and none of those fogs condensed about the Hill the water in the Cave must necessarily decrease And that wich confirmed him the more in this opinion was that when he came to the very top of the Pike he found the earth under him so very moyst that it was like mud or morter and might be made into Paste as by experiment he found which he conjectures could no ways be caused by the wind or clear Air which is rather drying and consuming of moisture but must proceed from the fogs or mists which are above the very top of the Pike He further took notice in the Cave that upon the sides and top thereof there grew a snow-white furring like Saltpeter which had a kind of saltish taste some of which he gathered and brought back with him to England to have it examined After about half an hours stay in the Cave which they found warmer than without in the open Air they were all pulled up again and proceeded forward in their Journey by continuing to clamber up the stony way which lasted till they came to the foot of that part of the Mountain which is called the Sugar-loaf by reason that at a distance from the Island it appears of that shape as it doth also even when you are at it The distance of this place from the Cave they judged to be about half a mile but the way much more steep and ascending than the former part of the stony way and extreme troublesom to pass their feet sinking and slipping down again almost as much as they could stride upwards so that they concluded it the most painful of all however persisting in their endeavours after many times resting themselves they gained the top which they conceive might be about half a mile higher The very top they found not plain but very Rocky and uneven and in the middle thereof a deep hole the outside of this top this Gentleman conceived might be about a quarter of a mile round about on the outside This hole he conceived to be the mouth of a Vulcano which hath formerly been in that place for even at that time whilst they were there much smoak ascended out of several holes and chinks of the Rocks and the earth in divers parts was still so very hot as to be very offensive to their feet through their shooes and he observed Brimstone thrown up in several places of which he collected some and brought back with him to England From this place may be seen in a clear day all the six adjacent Islands but the weather being then somewhat thick and hazy they could discover none but the grand Canaries Palm and the Gomera which last though distant near eight Leagues from the bottom of the Pike seemed yet so near unto them as if it had been almost under them The rest of the Islands they could discover whereabout they lay by means of a kind of white cloud hanging on them but they could not discern the Islands through those clouds Here they tried their Cordial Waters which they carried in their Pockets but found them not to abate of their usual strength and become cold and insipid as fair water as several had positively averred to him that they had found it but he conceived them to be very much of the same nature and strength that they were of before they were carried up which he

supposes to be by reason of their arriving at the top so late After they had stayed on the top about an hour and satisfied themselves in observing such things as they were able they descended again with very much facility and came to the Stancia about eleven of the clock where they dined and thence about one in the Afternoon set forwards for the Villa where they arrived that afternoon about five that Evening After their return they found their faces by reason of the heat of the Sun and the parching subtil wind to cast their skins He did not measure the Perpendicular height of the Hill himself but says that he hath been informed by divers skilful Seamen who by their best observation have taken the height of it that it is between three and four miles perpendicularly above the Sea IN this Relation it is very remarkable First that this prodigious high Hill is the Product of an Earthquake and seems heretofore to have been a Vulcano or burning Mountain like those of Aetna Vesuvius Hecla c. though at present it hath only fire enough left to send forth some few sulphureous fumes and to make the earth of the Caldera or hollow pit at the very top thereof in some places almost hot enough to burn their shooes that pass over it And possibly in succeeding Ages even this little fire may be quite extinct and then no other sign thereof may be left but a prodigiously high Rock or spiring Mountain which in tract of time may by degrees waste and be diminished into a Hill of a more moderate height Now as this Hill seems very evidently to be the effect of an Earthquake so I am apt to believe that most if not all other Hills of the world whatever may have been the same way generated Nay not only all the Hills but also the Land which appears above the face of the waters And for this I could produce very many Histories and Arguments that would make it seem very probable but that I reserve them in the Lectures which I read of this subject in Gresham Colledge in the years 1664 and 1665. which when I can have time to peruse I may publish Therein I made it probable that most Islands have been thrown up by some subterraneous Eruptions Such is the Island of Ascension the Moluccas c. Secondly that most part of the Surface of the Earth hath been since the Creation changed in its position and height in respect of the Sea to wit many parts which are now dry Land and lie above the Sea have been in former Ages covered with it and that many parts which are now covered with the Sea were in former times dry Land Mountains have been sunk into Plains and Plains have been raised into Mountains Of these by observations I have given instances and shewed that divers parts of England have in former times been covered with the Sea there being found at this day in the most Inland parts thereof sufficient evidences to prove it to wit Shells of divers sorts of Fishes many of which yet remain of the animal substance though others be found petrified and converted into stone Some of these are found raised to the tops of the highest Mountains others sunk into the bottoms of the deepest Mines and Wells nay in the very bowels of the Mountains and Quarries of Stone I have added also divers other instances to prove the same thing of other parts of Europe and have manifested not only that the lower and plainer parts thereof have been under the Sea but that even the highest Alpine and Pyrenean Mountains have run the same fate Many Instances of the like nature I have also met with in Relations and observations made in the East as well as in the West Indies Of all which strange occurrences I can conceive no cause more probable than Earthquakes and subterraneous Eruptions which Histories do sufficiently assure us have changed Sea into Land and Land into Sea Vales into Mountains sometimes into Lakes and Abysses at other times and the contrary unless we may be allowed to suppose that the water or fluid part of the earth which covered the whole at first and afterward the greatest part thereof might in many Ages and long process of time be wasted by being first raised into the Atmosphere in vapours and thence by the diurnal but principally by the annual motion thereof be lost into the aether or medium through which it passes somewhat like that wasting which I have observed to be in Comets and have noted it in my Cometa Or unless we may be allowed to suppose that this fluid part is wasted by the petrifaction and fixation of such parts of it as have fallen on the Land and Hills and never returned to fill up the measure of the Sea out of which it was exhaled for which very much may be said to make it probable that the water of the earth is this way daily diminished Or unless since we are ascertained by observations that the direction of the Axis of the earth is changed and grown nearer the Polar Star than formerly that the Magnetism or Magnetical Poles are varied and do daily move from the places where they lately were and that there are other great and noted changes effected in the earth we may be allowed to conceive that the Central point of the attractive or gravitating power of the earth hath in long process of time been changed and removed also farther from us towards our Antipodes whence would follow a recess of the waters from these parts of the world to those and an appearance of many parts above the surface of the water in the form of Islands and of other places formerly above the Sea now in the form of Mountains so to continue till by the libration or otherways returning motion thereof it repossess its former seat and place and overwhelms again all those places which in the interim had been dry and uncovered with the return of the same water since nothing in nature is found exempt from the state of change and corruption Further it is probable that Earthquakes may have been much more frequent in former Ages than they have been in these latter the consideration of which will possibly make this Assertion not so Paradoxical as at first hearing it may seem to be though even these latter Ages have not been wholly barren of Instances of the being and effects of them to convince you of which I have hereunto subjoyned a Relation and account of one very newly which hapned in the Isle of Palma among the Canaries Next the clearness of the Air is very remarkable which made an Island which lay eight Leagues off to look as if it were close by To this purpose I have often taken notice of the great difference there is between the Air very near the lower Surface of the Earth and that which is at a good distance from it That which is very near the earth being