Foundations and by time and weather too by which not only the Earth is washed away or blown off from the Stones but the very Stones and Rocks themselves corroded and dissolved as might easily be proved by Instances could I spare time to do it To sum up all relating to the Division and Disposition of the Water and Earth in brief 1. I say the Water being the lighter Element doth naturally occupy the upper place and stand above the Earth and so at first it did But now we see it doth not so the Earth being contrary to its nature forcibly elevated above it being as the Psalmist phraseth it founded above the Seas and established above the Floods and this because it was best it should be so as I shall clearly prove and deduce in particulars in another Discourse 2. The dry Land is not elevated only upon one side of the Globe for then had it had high Mountains in the middle of it with such vast empty Cavities within as must be equal to the whole Bulk raised up the Center of Magnitude must needs have been considerably distant from the Center of Gravity which would have caused a very great and inconvenient inequality in the Motion of the parts of the Earth but the Continents and Islands are so equally disperst all the Globe over as to counterballance one another so that the Centers of Magnitude and Gravity concur in one 3. The Continents are not of exactly equal and level Superficies or Convexity For then the Parts subject to the Course of the Sun called the Torrid Zone would have been as the Ancients fancied them unhabitable for Heat and Drought But there are huge Ridges and extended Chains of lofty Mountains directed for the most part to run East and West by which means they give free admittance and passage to the Vapours brought in by the Winds from the Atlantick and Pacifick Oceans but stop and inhibit their Excursions to the North and South either condensing them upon their sides into water by a kind of external Destillation or by streightening and constipating of them compelling them to gather into Drops and descend down in Rain These are great things and worthy the Care Direction and Disposal of the Great and Wise Creator and Governour of all things And we see they are accordingly excellently ordered and provided by him CHAP. IV. Of the Creation of Animals some Questions resolved AS to the first Creation of Animals I have already proposed two Opinions both consonant or reconcileable to the Scriptures 1. That God Almighty did at first create the Seeds of all Animals that is the Animals themselves in little and disperst them over the superficial part of the Land and water giving power to those Elements to hatch and bring them forth which when they had done and all the Animals of these created Seeds were produced and perfected there remained no more ability in them to bring forth any more but all the succeeding owe their Original to Generation 2. Because some will not admit that God at first created any thing imperfect we did propose that he might by his Almighty Power out of the Water and Earth make the first set of Animals in their full state and perfection as it is generally believed he did Adam and give to each Species a power by generation to propagate their like For his commanding the Waters and Earth to produce such and such living Creatures signifies that he did himself efficaciously form them out of the Earth and Water as when he saith Let there be light c. the meaning is not that he did permit or command something else besides himself to produce light but that he did by his own Almighty power effectually create it Indeed the Scripture doth in this manner interpret it self For whereas it is said verses 20. and 24. Let the waters bring forth c. and Let the earth bring forth the living creature c. in the next verses it follows And God created great whales and every living creature that moveth c. And God made the beast of teh earth c. But now there may a further Question or two be moved concerning the Creation of Animals 1. Whether God created at first a great number of every kind of Animal all the Earth over in their proper Places and Climates or only two of each Species a Male and a Female from which all the rest proceeded by generation This latter opinion I find embraced by some modern Philosophers and it may be made probable by several Arguments First from the Analogy to Mankind There being at first only one Man and one Woman created it is very likely there were no more of any other Creatures two being sufficient in a short time to stock the World Secondly Because at the time of the General Deluge there were only two of each kind of unclean Beasts preserved in the Ark and if two might then suffice why not as well at the first Creation And if there were no need of creating more what likelyhood that there were more created But the first Opinion That there were many at first created seems more consonant to Scripture which in the mention of the Creation of Aquatic Creatures useth the word Abundantly Gen. 1. 20. And God said Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven And in the next verse it is said That the waters did bring them forth abundantly So that at least of Birds and Fishes there were many individuals at first created As for Plants certain it is that they were created dispersedly all the world over they having no locomotive power but being fixt to a place and the Seeds of many of them being ponderous and not portable by winds or any other means and yet those of the same Species to be found in far distant places and on the tops of high Mountains as remote from each other as the Helvetick and Austrian Alps. 2. Concerning the Creation of Animals there may yet a further Question be moved viz. Whether all Animals that already have been or hereafter shall be were at first actually created by God or whether hath he given to each kind of Animal such a power of generation as to prepare matter and produce new individuals in their own bodies Some are of opinion that God did himself at first actually create all the individual Animals that ever were or ever shall be and that there is no such thing as any production of new ones For say they what were that but a creation of such individuals And what did God at the first Creation more then if this be true we see every day done that is produce a new Animal out of matter which it self prepares All the difference is the doing that in an instant which the Creature must take time to do For as for the preparation of matter that must be made fit be the
Mankind whose right the Kingdom was 6. The sending out of a Dove to try whether the Waters were abated and the Flood gone off is we have seen by Plutarch attributed to Deucalion 7. Lucian in his Timon and in his Book De Dea Syria sets forth the Particulars of Deucalion's after the Example of Noah's Flood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Deucalion was the only Man that was left for a second Generation for his Prudence and Piety sake And he was saved in this manner He made a great Ark and got aboard it with his Wife and Children And to him came Swine and Horses and Lions and Serpents and all other living Creatures which the Earth maintains according to their kinds by pairs and he received them all and they hurt him not for there was by Divine Instinct a great friendship among them and they sailed together in the Ark so long as the Waters prevailed And in his Timon he saith That Noah laid up in the Ark plenty of all Provisions for their sustenance TAB I. pag 69 The two ancient Apamian Coyns taken out of Octav. Falconieri de Nummo Apamensi Deucalionaei Diluvij typum exhibente 8 â—â— Romae By the Greek inscriptions they were stamp under Philippus Marcus Aurelius Alexander and Septimius Severus Howbeit I do not deny that there was such a particular Flood in Thessaly as they call Deucalion's which happened Seven Hundred and Seventy Years or thereabouts after the general Deluge I acknowiedge also a more ancient Flood in Attica in the time of Ogyges about Two hundred and thirty years before Deucalion's by which the Countrey was so marred that it lay waste and uncultivated without Inhabitants for almost Two hundred years CHAP. II. Of the Causes of the Deluge WHat were the instrumental Causes or Means of the Flood Whether was it effected by natural or supernatural Means only Whether was God no further concerned in it than in so ordering second Causes at first as of themselves necessarily to bring it in at such a time First Those that hold this Deluge was altogether miraculous and that God Almighty created Waters on purpose to serve this occasion and when they had done their work destroyed them again dispatcht the Business and loose or cut the Knot in a few words And yet this Hypothesis is not so absurd and precarious as at first sight it may seem to be For the World being already full there needed not nor indeed could be any Creation of Water out of nothing but only a Transmutation of some other Body into Water Now if we grant all Natural Bodies even the Elements themselves to be mutually transmutable as few Men doubt and some think they can demonstrate why might not the Divine Power and Providence bring together at that time such natural Agents as might change the Air or Aether or both together into Water and so supply what was wanting in Rains and extraordinary Eruptions of Springs To them that argue the Improbability of such a change from the great quantity of Air requisite to the making of a little Water it may be answered That if Air and all Bodies commixt with it were together changed into Water they must needs make a bulk of Water of equal quantity with themselves unless we will grant a Peripatetical Condensation and Rarefaction and hold that the same Matter may have sometimes a greater sometimes a lesser quantity or extension This Cause the conversion of Air into Water the Learned Jesuite Athanasius Kircher in his Book De Arca Noae alledges as the undoubted instrumental Cause or Means of the Deluge in these words Dico totum illud aereum spatium usque ad supremam regionem aeris praepotentis Dei virtute in aquas per inexplicabilem nubium coacervatarum multitudinem quâ replebatur conversam esse cujus ubertas tanta fuit ut Aer supremus cum inferiori in Oceanum commutatus videri potuerit non naturae viribus sed illius cujus voluntati imperio cuncta subsunt That is I affirm That all that Aereal space that reaches up to the supreme Region of the Air was by the power of the Omnipolent God and instrumentality of an inexplicable multitude of Clouds amassed together wherewith it was filled changed into Water so that the upper and lower Air might seem to be 〈◊〉 into an Ocean not by the strength of Naâ—â—â—e but of him to whose Will and 〈◊〉 all things are subject And he is so confident that this Deluge in which the 〈…〉 raised fifteen Cubits above the highest by Mountains was not nor could be effected by natural Causes but by the right hand of the most High God only that he saith No Man can deny it but he who doth not penetrate how far the power of Nature can extend and where it is limited To conclude this Hypothesis hath the Suffrages of most Learned Men. But because the Scripture assigning the Causes or Means of the Inundation makes no mention of any conversion of Air into Water but only of the breaking up the Fountains of the Great Deep and the opening of the Windows of Heaven I suppose those Causes may be sufficient to work the Effect and that we need not have recourse to such an Assistance As for those that make the Deluge Topical and restrain it to a narrow compass of Land their Opinion is I think sufficiently confuted by a late ingenious Author to whom therefore I refer the Reader I shall not undertake the Defence or Confutation of those or any other Hypothesis only tell you which at present seems to me most probable and that is theirs who for a partial cause of the Deluge assign either a change of the Center of the Earth or a violent depression of the Surface of the Ocean and a forcing the Waters up from the subterraneous Abyss through the Channels of the Fountains that were then broken up and opened First then let us consider what Causes the Scripture assigns of the Flood and they are two 1. The breaking up the Fountains of the great Deep 2. The opening of the Windows of Heaven I shall first treat of this last By the opening of the Windows of Heaven is I suppose to be understood the causing of all the Water that was suspended in the Air to descend down in Rain upon the Earth the effect hereof here mentioned being a long continuing Rain of Forty days And that these Treasuries of the Air will afford no small quantity of Water may be made appear both by Scripture and Reason 1. By Scripture which opposes the Waters that are above the Heavens or Firmament to those that are under them which if they were not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in some measure equal it would never do Gen. 1. 6. God is said to make a Firmament in the midst of the Waters and to divide the Waters which were under the Firmament from the Waters which were above the Firmament And this was the work of a whole
day and consequently no inconsiderable thing By the Heavens or Firmament in this place is to be understood the inferiour Region of the Air wherein the Fowls fly who Gen. 1. 20. are said to fly above the Earth in the open Firmament of Heaven though elsewhere it be taken for the Celestial Regions wherein the Sun and Moon and Stars are placed 2. The same may be made appear by Reason grounded upon Experience I my self have observed a Thunder-Cloud in passage to have in less than two hours space powred down so much Water upon the Earth as besides what sunk into the parched and thirsty ground and filled all Ditches and Ponds caused a considerable Flood in the Rivers setting all the Meadows on flote And Dr. Wittie in his Scarborough Spaw tells us of great Spouts of Rain that ordinarily fall every year some time or other in Summer that set the whole Countrey in a Flood Now had this Cloud which might for ought I know have moved Forty miles forward stood still and emptied all its Water upon the same spot of Ground it first hung over what a sudden and incredible Deluge would it have made there and yet what depth or thickness of Vapours might remain uncondensed in the Air above this Cloud who knows Now it is to be considered that not only the Air upon the dry Land but also all that covers the whole Ocean is charged with Vapours which are nothing else but diffused Water all which was brought together by Winds or what others Means seem'd good to God and caused to destil down in Rain upon the Earth And you may easily guess that it was no small quantity of Water that was supplyed this way in that it sufficed for a Rain that lasted Forty natural days And that no ordinary Rain neither but Catarracts or Spouts of Water for so the Septuagint interprets the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the Catarracts or Spouts of Heaven were opened I return now to the first Cause or Means of the Deluge assigned by the Scripture and that is the breaking up of all the Fountains of the great Deep By the great Deep in this place I suppose is to be understood the Subterraneous Waters which do and must necessarily communicate with the Sea For we see that the Caspian and some other Seas receive into themselves many great Rivers and yet have no visible Outlets and therefore by Subterraneous Passages must needs discharge their Waters into the Abyss of Waters under the Earth and by its intervention into the Ocean again That the Mediterranean Sea doth not as I sometimes thought communicate with the Ocean by any subterraneous Passages nor thereby impart any Water to it or receive any from it may be demonstrated from that the Superficies of it is lower than the Superficies of the Ocean as appears from the Waters running in at the Streights of Gibraltar for if there were any such Communications the Water keeping its Level the Mediterranean being the lowest must by those Passages receive Waters from the Ocean and not the Ocean which is as we have proved the highest from the Mediterranean But that it doth not receive any by Subterraneous Passages is most likely because it receives so much above Ground Hence it necessarily follows that the Mediterranean spends more in Vapour than it receives from the Rivers which is Mr. Halley's Conclusion though in some of his Premises or Hypotheses he is I think mistaken as 1. In that he numbers the Tyber amongst his nine great Rivers each of which may yield ten times as much Water as the Thames whereas I question whether that yields once so much and whereas he passes by all the rest of the Rivers as smaller than it there are two that I have seen in Italy it self whereof the one viz. the Arnus on which Florence and Pisa stand seemed to me not inferiour in bigness to the Tiber and the other viz. the Athesis on which Verona stands I could not guess to be less than twice as big 2. In that he thinks himself too liberal in allowing these nine Rivers to carry down each of them ten times so much Water as the Thames doth Whereas one of those nine and that none of the biggest neither viz. the River Po if Ricciolus his Hypotheses and Calculations be good affords more Water in an hour than Mr. Halley supposes the Thames to do in a day the hourly Effusions of the Po being rated at eighteen millions of Cubical Paces by Ricciolus whereas the daily ones of the Thames are computed to be no more than twenty five millions three hundred forty four thousand Cubical yards of Water by Mr. Halley but a Geometrical Pace contains five Feet i. e. 1 â—â— of a Yard Now if the Po pours so much Water hourly into the Sea what then must the Danow and the Nile do each of which cannot I guess be less than troble of the Po. Tanais Borysthenes and Rhodanus may equal if not exceed it Howbeit I cannot approve Ricciolus his Hypotheses judging them to be too excessive but do believe that as to the whole Mr. Halley comes nearer the truth Sure enough it is that in the Mediterranean the Receipts from the Rivers fall short of the Expence in Vapour though in part of it that is the Euxine the Receipts exceed as appears from that there is a constant Current sets outward from thence through the Thracian Bosphorus and Hellespont But though the Mediterranean doth indeed evaporate more than it receives from the Rivers yet I believe the Case is not the same with the Caspian Sea the Superficies whereof seems to me not to bear any greater proportion to the Waters of the Rivers that run into it than that of the Euxine doth to its which we have observed not to spend the whole Receipt in Vapour You 'l say Why then do not great Floods raise the Seas I answer as to the Caspian if it communicates with the Ocean whether the Rivers bring down more or less it s all one if more then the Water keeping its Level the Caspian raiseth the Ocean if less then the Ocean communicates to the Caspian and raises that But as to the Mediterranean we may say that when it receives more on the one side it receives less on the other the Floods and Ebbs of the Nilus and the other Rivers counterbalancing one another Besides by reason of the Snows lying upon the Mountains all Winter the greatest Floods of those great Rivers in Europe do not happen when the Mediterranean evaporates leà st in the Winter time but in the Spring You 'l demand further if the Mediterranean evaporates so much what becomes of all this Vapour I answer It is cast off upon the Mountains and on their sides and tops is condensed into Water and so returned again by the Rivers unto the Sea If you proceed to ask what becomes of the Surplusage of the Water which the Mediterranean receives from the Ocean and spends in vapour
if not about the Center yet certainly in profound Caverns and even under the very bottoms of the Seas to which some and no mean Philosophers have attributed the Ebbing and flowing of its waters Let us then suppose that the Rivers do daily carry down to the Sea half an Ocean of water and that the Rain supplies all that as our Opinion is and see what we can infer from thence I think it will be granted that ordinarily communibus annis the Rain that falls in a whole year amounts not to above one quarters continual Rain Now if this suffices for a daily eâ—â—usion of half an Ocean 〈…〉 that if it should rain without any 〈◊〉 all the year round the Rivers would 〈◊〉 out two Oceans into the Sea 〈◊〉 And so in forty days continual Rain 〈◊〉 would distil down upon the Earth 〈…〉 of Water A prodigious quantity 〈◊〉 and â—â—arce credible which if the 〈…〉 as fast as it comes on 〈…〉 a quantity of water 〈…〉 twice in twenty four 〈…〉 then that so much water 〈…〉 upon the â—arth I argue thus 〈…〉 upon the Earth must have 〈…〉 down to the Sea and according â—o the small declivity of the 〈…〉 the Mountains pared off and 〈…〉 a considerable one too 〈…〉 it actually hath so that the Floods 〈…〉 some days after the 〈…〉 upon the higher grounds And 〈…〉 the general Deluge 〈…〉 down to the Sea as fast 〈…〉 the Earth would permit 〈…〉 the Fountains of the 〈…〉 Clouds 〈…〉 could than they run down 〈…〉 the Earth it deserves 〈…〉 whether by the end of 〈…〉 Mountains fifteen Cubits high And yet the Scripture doth not in plain terms say that ever the waters of the Flood arose fifteen Cubits above the tops of the highest Mountains as Mr. Warren well observes Besides we are further to consider that this forty days Rain at the time of the Deluge was no ordinary one such as those that usually distil down leisurely and gently in Winter time but like our Thunder-storms and violent Showers Catarracts and Spouts which pour forth more water in an hour then they do in four and twenty So that in forty natural days the Clouds would empty out upon the Earth not eighty Oceans of water but above twenty times that quantity If by the Windows of Heaven are meant Catarracts as the Septuagint interpret the word And so we need not be to seek for water for a Floud for the Rain alone falling at that rate we have mentioned would if the Opinion of those men who hold that the Rivers discharge into the Sea half an Ocean daily were true in the space of forty natural days afford water enough supposing it run off no faster than usually it doth to cover the Earth Mountains and all Neither yet did the Mountains help but rather hinder the descent of the waters down to the Sea straitning it into Channels obstructing its passage and forcing it to take Circuits till it got above the Ridges and Tops of them As to this Argumentation and Inference the case is the same if we hold that the Water circulates through the 〈◊〉 of the Earth For supposing the Rivers pour 〈◊〉 half an Ocean daily and granting that in times of Floods their streams are but double of their usual Currents though I verily believe they are more than quadruple and that the eâ—fusions of the Fountains be in like measure augmented it will follow that the daily discharge of the Rivers will amount to two Oceans Now at the time of the general Deluge both these Causes concurred For there being a constant Rain of forty days there must on that account be a continual Flood and the Fountains of the great Deep â—eing broken up they must in all likelyhood afford as much Water as the Rain which whether it would not suffice in forty natural days to produce a Flood as big as that of Noah notwitâ—standing the continual descent and going off of the Waters I propose to the consideration of the Ingenious Especially if we allow as is not unreasonable 〈◊〉 suppose that the Divine Providence 〈◊〉 at first cause a contrary Wind to stop 〈◊〉 â—nhibit the descent of the Waters as afterwards he raised an assisting one to carry them off I have but one thing more to add upon this Subject that is that I do not see how their Opinion can be true who hold that some Seas are lower than others as for Example the Red Sea than the Mediterranean For it being true that the Water keeps its level that is holds its Superficies every where equidistant from the Center of Gravity or if by accident one part be lower the rest by reason of their fluidity will speedily reduce the Superficies again to an equality The Waters of all Seas communicating either above or under ground or both ways one Sea cannot be higher or lower than another but supposing any accident should elevate or depress any by reason of this confluence or communication it would soon be reduced to a level again as might demonstratively be proved But I return to tell the Reader what I think the most probable of all the Causes I have heard assigned of the Deluge which is the Center of the Earth being at that time changed and set nearer to the Center or middle of our Continent whereupon the Atlantick and Pacifick Oceans must needs press upon the Subterraneous Abyss and so by mediation thereof force the Water upward and at last compel it to run out at those wide Mouths and Apertures made by the Divine Power breaking up the Fountains of the great Deep And we may suppose this to have been only a gentle and gradual Emotion no faster than that the Waters running out at the bottom of the Sea might accordingly lowre the Superficies thereof sufficiently so that none needed run over the Shores These Waters thus poured out from the Orifices of the Fountains upon the Earth the declivity being changed by the removal of the Center could not flow down to the Sea again but must needs stagnate upon the Earth and overflow it and afterwards the Earth returning to its old Center return also to their former Receptacles If any shall object against this Hypothesis because by it the Flood will be render'd Topical and restrained only to the Continent we live in though I might plead the Unnecessariness of drowning America it being in all probability unpeopled at that time yet because the Scripture useth general expressions concerning the extent of the Flood saying Gen. 1. 19. And all the high hills that were under the whole Heaven were covered and again verse 22. All in whose nostrils was the breath of lìfe of all that was in the dry land died And because the Americans also are said to have some ancient Memorial Tradition of a Deluge and the Ingenious Author of the Theory of the Earth hath by a moderate Computation demonstrated that there must be then more People upon the Earth than now I will propose another way of
that this is no idle and unnecessary Discourse but very momentous and important and this Subject as mean as it seems worthy the most serious consideration of Christian Philosophers and Divines concerning which though I have spent many thoughts yet can I not fully satisfie my self much less then am I likely to satisfie others But I promise my self and them more full satisfaction shortly from the Labours of those who are more conversant and better acquainted with these Bodies than I who have been more industrious in searching them out and happy in discovering them who have been more curious and diligent in considering and comparing them more critical and exact in observing and noting their nature texture figure parts places differences and other accidents than my self and particularly that learned and ingenious Person before remembred The following Tables containing some Species of the most different Genera of these Bodies viz. Shark's Teeth Wolf-fish's Teeth Cockles or Concha Periwinkles or Turbens Cornua Ammonis or Serpent stones Sea-urchins and their Prickles Vertebres and other Bones of Fishes entire Fishes Petrifi'd and of those some singly some represented as they lye in Beds and Quarries under Ground for the information of those who are less acquainted with such Bodie were thought fit to be added to this Edition TAB II. Pag. 162. FIG 1 2. Several Fragments and Lumps of petrify'd Shells as they lie in Quarries and Beds under ground on many of these Petrifactions there still remain some Laminae or Plates of the Original Shells which prove them not to be Stones primarily so figur'd Fig 3. The Cornu Ammonis lying in Rocks with other petrify'd Bodies TAB III. Pag. 162. FIG 1 2. Two petrify'd Fishes lying in Stone with their Seales and Bones Fig. 3. A Sea-Urchin petrify'd with its prickles broken off which are a sort of Lapis Iudaicus or Iew-Stones their Insertions on the Studs or Protuberances of the Shell are here shewn See their History and Manner of Lying in Stone and Beds in Agostino Scilla 4. Napoli TAB IV. Pag. 162. FIG 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14. Several petrify'd Teeth of Dog-Fishes Sharks and other Fishes Fig. 15 16. The same lying in a Tophaceous Bed and also in a Jaw-Bone Fig. 17. The petrify'd Teeth of a Wolf-Fish in a piece of the Jaw the Round Ones or Grinders are sold in Maltha for petrify'd Eyes of Serpents and by our Jewellers and Goldsmiths for Toad-stones commonly put in Rings Fig. 18 19 20. Other petrify'd Bones of Fishes especially Joynts or Vertebra's of Back-bones one with two stony Spines issuing out f. 20. See them more at large in the Draughts of that curious Sicilian Painter Agostino Scilla Place this before Tab. II. p. 162. The CONTENTS DISCOURSE I. Of the Primitive CHAOS and Creation of the WORLD CHAP. I. Testimonies of the Ancient Heathen Writers Hesiod Ovid Aristophanes Lucan Euripides concerning the Chaos and what they meant by it Chap. II. That the Creation of the World out of a Chaos is not repugnant to the Holy Scripture if soberly understood p 5 6 7 8. Chap. III. Of the separating the Land and Water and raising up the Mountains p. 9 c. By what means the Waters were gathered together into one place and the dry Land made to appear p. 10. That subterraneous Fires and Flatus's might be of power sufficient to produce such an effect proved from the force and effects of Gunpowder and the raising up of new Mountains p. 11 12 13. The shaking of the whole known World by an Earthquake p. 13 14. That the Mountains Islands and whole Continents were probably at first raised up by subterraneous Fires proved by the Authority of Lydiate and Strabo p. 15 16 17. Of subterraneous Caverns passing under the bottom of the Sea p. 19 20 21 c. A Discourse concerning the Equality of the Sea and Land both as to the extent of each and the height of one to the depth of the other taken from the Shores p. 25 26 27 31 32 33. That the motion of the Water levels the bottom of the Sea p. 28 29 30. A Discourse concerning the Use of the Mountains 35 36 37 c. The Sum of what hath been said of the Division and Disposition of the Water and Earth p. 44. Chap. IV. Of the Creation of Animals some Questions concerning them resolved p. 46. That God Almighty did at first create either the Seeds of all Animate Bodies and dispersed them all the Earth over or else the first Sett of Animals themselves in their full state and perfection giving each Species a power by Generation to propagate their like p. 46 47. Whether God at first created a great number of each Species or only two a Male and a Female p. 47 48. Whether all individual Animals which already have been and hereafter shall be were at first actually created by God or only the first Sett of each Species the rest proceeding from them by way of Generation and being a new produced p. 49 50 51 c. Objections against the first part answered 1. That it seems impossible that the Ovaries of the first Animals should actually include the innumerable Myriads of those that may proceed from them in so many Generations as have been and shall be to the end of the World This shewn not to be so incredible from the multitude of parts into which Matter may be and is divided in many Experiments p. 51 52 53 54. c. 2. If all the Members of Animals already formed do pre exist in the Egg how can the Imagination of the Mother change the shape and that so notoriously sometimes as to produce a Calve's-head or Dog's-face or the like monstrous Members Several Answers to thus Objection offered p. 57 58 59 DISCOURSE II. Of the General DELUGE in the Days of Noah its Causes and Effects p. 62. CHAP. I. Testimonies of Ancient Heathen Writers and some Ancient Coyns or Medals verifying the Scripture-History of the Deluge p. 63 64 65 66. That the Ancient Poets and Mythologists by Deucalion understood Noah and by Deucalion's Flood the General Deluge proved 66 67 68 69. Chap. II. Of the Causes of the General Deluge 70 1. A miraculous transmutation of Air into Water rejected 70 71 72. That Noah's Flood was not Topical 73. 2 3. The emotion of the Center of the Earth or a violent depression of the Surface of the Ocean the most probable partial Causes of the Deluge but the immediate Causes assigned by the Scripture are the breaking up of the Fountains of the Great Deep and the opening of the Windows of Heaven 73. That those Causes are sufficient to produce a Deluge granting a change of the Centre of the Earth to prevent the Waters running off 73 74 75. That all the Vapours suspended in the Air might contribute much towards a Flood ibid. Concerning the Expence of the Sea by Vapour 76 77 78 c. Of the Waters keeping its Level An
Objection concerning an Under-current at the Proponâ—is The Streights of Gibralter and the Baltick Sound proposed and replied to 81 82 83 84. Concerning the breaking up of the Fountains of the Great Deep and how the Waters might be made to 〈◊〉 84 15. The inferiour Circulation and perpetual Motion of the Water disapproved 86 c. That the Continents and Islands are so equally dispersed all the World over as to counterballance one another so that the Centers of Motion Gravity and Magnitude concur in one 87 88. An occasional Discourse concerning the Original of Fountains 89 90 c. to 116. That the Preponderancy of the Earth and the Waters lying on an heap in the opposite Hemisphere cannot be the cause of the Waters ascent in Springs proved 86 88 89. That Rains and Snow may suffice to feed the Springs and do feed the ordinary ones proved 89 90 91. That the Rain-water sinks down and makes its way into the Earth more than ten or twenty or forty or even an hundred Foot proved by many Arguments and Experiments 92. 93 94 c. Mr. Halley's Opinion That Springs and Rivers owe their Original to Vapours condensed on the sides of the Mountains and not unto Rain propounded and approved in great part as to hot Countries tho' Rains even there not wholly excluded p. 98 99 c. but disallowed as to the more temperate and cold ones yet even there the Vapours granted to have a good interest in their production 101 102 c. to 116. Observations communicated by Dr. Tancr Robinson concerning the Original of Fountains Dropping Trees c. in confirmation in part of Mr. Halley's Opinion 110 111. An Experiment of mine own in confirmation of the Histories of Dropping or Fountain-trees 113. Inferences upon the supposition of the Rivers pouring into the Sea half an Ocean of Water daily 117 118 c. The most probable Causes of the Deluge viz. the emotion of the Center of the Earth or an extraordinary deprâ—ssion of the Superficies of the Sea 121 122 123. Chap. III. Of the Effects of the Deluge in general p. 125. 126. Chap. IV. Of formed Stones Sea-shells and other Marine or Marine-like Bodies found at great distance from the Shores supposed to have been brought in by the Deluge p. 127. Wherein is treated at large concerning the Nature and Original of these Bodies and that great Question Whether they were originally the real Shells and Bones of Fishes or Stones cast in such Molds or Whether they be primitive Productions of Nature in imitation only of such Shells and Bones not owing their Figure to them largely discussed the Arguments on both sides produced and weighed 127 128 c. to 162. Chap. V. That there have been great Changes made in the superficial part of the Earth since the General Deluge and by what means 163 c. As for instance The Submersion of the great Island of Atlantis 163. The breaking off Sicily from Italy Ceylon from India Sumatra from Malacca 164 of Britain from France proved out of Verstegan 165 of Barbary from Spain of Asia from Thrace 166 167. The raising up of new Islands 167 168. The atteration of the skirts of the Sea instances whereof are 1. The Dutch Netherlands proved out of Verstegan by sufficient Arguments to have been anciently covered by the Sea 2. The great level of the Fens running through Holland in Lincolnshire the Isle of Ely in Cambridgeshire and Marshland in Norfolk 3. The Craux in Provence in France 4. The whole Land of Aegypt 5. Probably all China with many others briefly mentioned 168 169 c. to 174. The Submersion of the Land by the Irruptions and Inundations of the Sea Several instances thereof 175 176 177. Changes by the encroachments of the Sea undermining the Shores and washing them away and again letting the Earth so washed away to settle not far from the Shores and so raise up Islands 178 179. Changes by the depression and sinking of the Mountains the Earth being washed down by shots of Rain Rivers and subterraneous Waters These so great and considerable as to endanger in conclusion the submersion of the whole dry Land unless some stop be put p. 179 180 181. Changes made by Earth-quakes of which many instances out of Strabo Pliny and others are produced 181 182 c. A particular Narrative and Account of the late terrible Earthquake in Jamaica with Remarks and Observations Natural and Moral upon it 186 187 c. to 194. An occasional Discourse concerning the Nature Causes and Differences of Earthquakes 194 195 c. to 206. A particular Account of the late remarkable and far-extended Earthquake which happened here with us in England and in other parts of Europe upon Septemb. 8. 1692. 209 210 c. to 216. Of extraordinary Floods caused by long continuing Showers or violent Storms and Shots of Rain 221 222 c. Of boisterous and violent Winds and Hurricans what Interest they have in the Changes wrought in the Earth 225 226 227 228. That the Earth doth not proceed so fast towards â— general Inundation and Submersion by Water as the force and agency of all these Causes seem to require 229. DISCOURSE III. Of the Future Dissolution of the World and the General Conslagration THE Introduction being a Discourse concerning Prophesie 231 232 c. Chap. I. The Division of the Words 2 Peter 3. 1. and the Doctrine contained in them with the Heads of the following Discourse viz. I. Testimonies concerning the Dissolution 1. Of the Holy Scriptures 2. Of ancient Christian Writers 3. Of Heathen Philosophers and Sages II. Seven Questions concerning the Dissolution of the World proposed Chap. II. The Testimonies of Scripture concerning the Dissolution of the World And Dr. Hammond's Expositions referring the most of them to the Destruction of the City and Temple of Jerusalem and the Period of the Jewish State and Polity considered and pleaded for 240 241 c. to 258. Chap. III. Testimonies of the Ancient Fathers and Doctors of the Church concerning the Dissolution of the World 258 259 c. to 264. Chap. IV. The Testimonies of some Heathen Philosophers and other Writers concerning the Dissolution the Epicureans 264 the Stoicks 265 c. who held certain Periods of Inâ—â—olation and Conflagrations 267 268. That this Opinion of a 〈◊〉 Conflagration was of far greater Antiquity then that Sect proved 272. Chap. V. The first Question concerning the World's Dissolution Whether there be any thing in Nature that may probably cause or argue a Future Dissolution Four probable means propounded and discussed 277. Sect. 1. The first is the probability of the Waters naturally returning to overflow and cover the Earth 277. The old Argument from the World's Dissolution taken from us daily consenescency and decay rejected 278. The necessity of such a prevailing of the Waters daily upon the dry Land till at last it proceed to a total submersion of it in the course of Nature as things now stand unless
from more imperfect to more perfect Beings first beginning with the Earth that is the Terraqueous Globe which was made tohu vabohu without form and void the Waters covering the face of the Land which were afterwards separated from the Land and gathered together into one place Then he created out of the Land and Water first Plants and then Animals Fishes Birds Beasts in Order and last of all formed the Body of Man of the Dust of the Earth And whereas there is no particular mention made of the Creation of Metals Minerass and other Fossils they must be comprehended in the word Earth as the Water it self also is in the second Verse of this first Chapter It seems therefore to me consonant to the Scripture That God Almighty did at first create the Earth or Terraqueous Globe containing in its self the Principles of all simple inanimate Bodies or the minute and naturally indivisible Particles of which they were compounded of various but a determinate number of Figures and perchance of different magnitudes and these variously and confusedly commixed as though they had been carelesly shaken and shuffled together yet not so but that there was order observed by the most Wise Creator in the disposition of them And not only so but that the same Omnipotent Deity did create also the Seeds or Seminal Principles of all Animate Bodies both Vegetative and Sensitive and disperst them at least the Vegetative all over the superficial part of the Earth and Water And the Notion of such an Earth as this is the Primitive Patriarchs of the World delivered to their Posterity who by degrees annexing something of sabulous to it imposed upon it the name of Chaos The next work of the Divine Power and Wisdom was the separation of the Water from the dry Land and raising up of the Mountains of which I shall treat more particularly in the next Chapter To which follows the giving to both Elements a power of hatching as I may so say or quickening and bringing to perfection the Seeds they contained first the more imperfect as Herbs and Trees then the more perfect Fish Fowl Four-footed Beasts and creeping Things or Infects Which may be the meaning of those Commands of God which were operative and effectual communicating to the Earth and Water a power to produce what he commanded them Gen. 1. 11. Let the Earth bring forth Grass c. and v. 20. Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life and fowl that may fly above the Earth c. And v. 24. Let the Earth bring forth the living creature after his kind cattel and creeping thing and beast of the Earth after his kind So the Earth was at first cloathed with all sorts of Herbs and Trees and both Earth and Water furnished with Inhabitants And this the Ancients understood by their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But whether out of prae-existing Seeds as I suppose or not certain it is that God at that time did give an extraordinary and miraculous power to the Land and Water of producing Vegetables and Animals and after there were as many of every kind brought forth as there were Seeds created at first or as many as it seemed good to the Divine Creator to produce without Seed there remained no further ability in those Elements to bring forth any more but all the succeeding owe their original to Seed God having given to every Species a power to generate or propagate its like CHAP. III. Of the separating the Land and Water and raising up the Mountains SUpposing that God Almighty did at first create the Terrestrial Globe partly of solid and more ponderous partly of fluid and lighter parts the solid and ponderous must needs naturally subside the fluid and lighter get above Now that there were such different parts created is clear and therefore it is reasonable to think that the Waters at first should stand above and cover the Earth and that they did so seems evident to me from the testimony of the Scripture For in the History of the Creation in the first Chapter of Genesis verse 2. it is said That the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters intimating that the Waters were uppermost And God said verse 9. let the waters under the Heaven be gathered together into one place and let the dry land appear Whence I think it is manifest to any unprejudiced Reader That before that time the Land was covered with water Especially if we add the testimony of the holy Psalmist Psalm 104. vers 6. 9. which is as it were a comment upon this place of Genesis where speaking of the Earth at the Creation he saith Thou coveredst it with the deep as with a garment the waters stood above the Mountains ... and ver 9. That they turn not again to cover the Earth And that this gathering together of waters was not into any subterraneous Abyss seems likewise clear from the Text. For it is said That God called this Collection of waters Seas as if it been on purpose to prevent such a mistake Whether this separation of the Land and Water and gathering the waters together into one place were done by the immediate application and agency of God's Almighty Power or by the intervention and instrumentality of second Causes I cannot determine It might possibly be effected by the same Causes that Earthquakes are viz. subterraneous Fires and Flatuses We see what incredible effects the Accension of Gunpowder hath it rends Rocks and blows up the most ponderous and solid Walls Towers and Edifices so that its force is almost irresistible Why then might not such a proportionable quantity of such Materials set on fire together raise up the Mountains themselves how great and ponderous soever they be yea the whole Superficies of the dry Land for it must all be elevated above the Waters And truly to me the Psalmist seems to intimate this Cause Psalm 104. 7. For after he had said The waters stood above the mountains he adds At thy rebuke they fled at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away Now we know that an Earthquake is but a subterraneous Thunder and then immediately follows The mountains ascend the valleys descend c. If there might be a high Hill raised up near the City Troezen out of a plain Field by the force of a subterraneous Fire or Flatus as Ovid tells us Est prope Pitthaeam tumulus Troezena sine ullis Arduus arboribus quondam planissima campi Area nunc tumulus nam res horrenda relatu Vis fera ventorum caecis inclusa cavernis Expirare aliqua cupiens luctatáque frustra Liberiore frui coelo cum carcere rima Nulla fuit toto nec pervia flatibus esset Extentam tumefecit humum ceu spiritus oris Tendere vesicam solet aut derepta bicornis Terga capri tumor ille loci permansit alti Collis habet speciem longóque induruit aevo A Hill by Pitthaean Traezen
after the Rains are fallen the Ground sated and the Ditches full the Stream of this River during the whole Winter following is for the most part unless in Frosts double of what it was in Summer Which Excess can proceed from nothing but Rain and Mists at least it would be rashness to assign any other Cause when there is so obvious and manifest an one Moreover that Rain affords no small quantity of water is clear also from great Floods wherein it might be proved that in few days there descends more water than would supply the ordinary Stream for a good part of Summer Now to compare great things with small I have seen many of the biggest Rivers in Europe the Danow Rhine Rhosne and Po and when I consider the length of their Courses the multitude of considerable Rivers and Brooks they receive and all these from their first rise made up by degrees of little Rivulets and Gills like my neighbouring Brook the huge Mountains and vast extent of higher Grounds they drain To me it seems and I have seen all their Streams near their Out-lets except the Danows and it 's after four hundred Miles descent that they do not bear any greater proportion to the Rivers and Rivulets they receive and the immense Tracts of Land that â—eed them than my Brook doth to its small 's Rills and compass of Ground But in this I confess I do not descend to the niceness of Measuring and Calculation but satisfie my self with rude Conjectures taking my Measures as the Cestrians say by the Scale of the Eye It will here be objected That the Rain never sinks above ten Foot deep at most into the Earth and therefore cannot supply the Springs Answ. This indeed if it were true would much enervate nay quite overthrow our Opinion And therefore we must fortifie this Point and effectually demonstrate beyond all possibility of denial or contradiction That rain-Rain-water doth sink down and make its way into the Earth I do not say Ten or Twenty nor Forty but an Hundred nay Two or three hundred Foot or more First then in Pool-hole in the Peak of Darbyshire there are in some places constant droppings and destillations of water from the Roof under each of which to note that by the by rises up a Stone Pillar the water precipitating some of those stony Particles which it had washed off the Rocks in passing through their Chinks These droppings continue all the Summer long Now it seems clear to me that the Rain-water making its way through the Veins and Chinks of the Rocks above it and yet but slowly by reason of the thickness of the Mountain and straitness of the Passages supplies that dropping all the year round at least this is much more rational than any different Hypothesis If the water distills down faster in Winter time and wet Weather than it doth in Summer which I forgot to ask the Experiment would infallibly prove our Assertion In confirmation of this Argument Albertus Magnus as I find him quoted in Dr. Wittie's Scarborough Spaw tells us That at the bottom of a solid Rock one hundred and thirty Fathoms deep he saw drops of water distilling from it in a rainy season Secondly It is well known and attested to me by the People at Buxton when I was there that out of the mouth of the same Pool hole after great and long continuing Rains a great stream of water did usually issue forth And I am sure it must make its way through a good thickness of Earth or Rocks before it could come in there Thirdly What becomes of all the water that falls on Newmarket-Heath and Gogmagog Hills I presume also Salisbury-Plain and the like Spungy Grounds all Winter long where we see very little run off any way It must needs sink into the Ground more than Ten Foot deep Fourthly Many Wells whose Springs lye at least Twenty Foot deep we find by experience do often fail in great Droughts in Summer time Fifthly In Coal Delfs and other Mines in wet Weather the Miners are many times drown'd out as they phrase it though no water runs down into the Mouths of their Pits or Shaâ—ts Nay Dr. Wittie tells us in his Description of the Vertues of the Scarborow Spaw pag. 105. That after great Inundations of Rain the Miners find the water frequently distilling through the solid Earth upon their Heads whereas in Summer or dry Seasons they find no interruption from thence at all Further to confirm this Particular I wrote to my Honoured Friend Sir Thomas Willughby Baronet desiring him to examine his Colliers concerning it and send me word what report they make and from him received this account If there be Springs lye before you come at the Coal they carry the Water away but if there be none it falls into the Works in greater or less quantity according as the Rains fall Which Answer is so much the more considerable in that it gives me a further clear Proof that Springs are fed by Rain water and not by any communications from the Sea their original being above the Beds of Coal they receiving the Rain-water into their Veins and deriving it all along to their Fountains or Eruptions above the Coals I might add out of him Dr. Witty Fifthly pag. 85. That the Scarborow Spaw notwithstanding it breaks out of Ground within Three or four yards off the foot of the Cliff which is near Forty yards high and within a quarter of a mile there is another Hill that is more than as high again as the Cliff and a descent all the way to the Cliff so as the Rain-water cannot lye long upon the Ground yet it is observable that after a long Rain the water of the Spaw is altered in its taste and lessened in its operation whereas a rainy day or two will not sensibly hurt it And now I am transcribing out of this Author give me leave to add an Observation or two in confirmation of Rains being the Original of Springs The first is pag. 97 this In England in the years 1654 55. and 56. when our Climate was drier than ever it had been mentioned to be in any Stories so as we had very little Rain in Summer or Snow in Winter most of our Springs were dried up such as in the memory of the eldest Men living had never wanted water but were of those Springs we call Fontes perennes or at least were esteemed so He instances also a Parallel Story out of Heylin ' s Geography in the Description of Cyprus where the Author relates That in the days of Constantine the Great there was an exceeding long drought there so as in Thirty six years they had no Rain insomuch as all the Springs and Torrents or Rivers were dried up so that the Inhabitants were forced to forsake the Island and to seek for new Habitations for want of fresh water The second is p. 84. That in the Wolds or Downs of Yorkshire they have many Springs break
purpose but that hath been already done by others But this Opinion how general soever it was formerly was inconsiderately and without sufficient ground taken up at first and afterwards without due examination embraced and followed as appears by Dr. Hakewil's Apology wherein it is so fundamentally confuted that it hath since been rejected by all considerate Persons For that Author hath at large demonstrated that neither the pretended decay of the Heavenly Bodies in regard of Motion Light Heat or Influence or of any of the Elements neither the pretended decay of Animals and particularly and especially of Mankind in regard of Age and Duration of Strength and Stature of Arts and Wits of Manners and Conversation do necessarily infer any decay in the World or any tendency to a Dissolution For though there be at times great Changes of Weather as long continuing Droughts and no less lasting Rains excessive Floods and Inundations of the Sea prodigious Tempests and Storms of Thunder Lightning and Hail which seem to threaten the ruin of the World violent and raging Winds Spouts and Hurricanes which turn up the Sea to the very bottom and spread it over the Land formidable and destructive Earthquakes and furious Eruptions of Vulcano's or burning Mountains which waste the Country far and wide overwhelming or subverting great Cities and burying the Inhabitants in their ruins or as the Scripture speaks Making of a City a heap of a defenced City a ruin Though these and many other Changes do frequently happen at uncertain Seasons as to us yet are they so ordered by the wise Providence of the Almighty Creatour and Governour of the World as nearly to balance one another and to keep all things in an Aequilibrium so that as it is said of the Sea that what it gains in one place it loses in another it may be said proportionably of the other Elements and Meteors That for Example a long Drought in one Place is compensated probably at the same time by as long a Rain in another and at another time the Scene being changed by as durable a Drought in this as lasting a Rain in that The same may be said of violent and continuing Heats and Colds in several Places that they have the like Vicissitudes and Changes whereby in the whole they so balance and counterpoise one another that neither prevails over other but continue and carry on the World as surely and steddily as if there were no such Contrarieties and Fights no such Tumults and Commotions among them The only Objection against this Opinion is the Longaevity of the Antediluvian Patriarchs and of some also I mean the first of the Postdiluvian For immediately after the Flood the Age of Man did gradually decrease every Generation in great proportions so that had it continued so to do at that rate the Life of Man had soon came to nothing Why it should at last settle at Threescore and ten Years as a mean Term and there continue so many Ages without any further Change and Diminution is I confess a Mystery too hard for me to reveal However there must be a great and extraordinary Change at the time of the Flood either in the Temperature of the Air or Quality of the Food or in the Temper and Constitution of the Body of Man which induced this decrement of Age. That the Temper and Constitution of the Bodies of the Antediluvians was more firm and durable than that of their Posterity after the Flood and that this Change of Term of Life was not wholly to be attributed to Miracle may both be demonstrated from the gradual decrease of the Age of the Postdiluvians For had it been miraculous why should not the Age of the very first Generation after the Flood have been reduced to that Term And what account can we give of their holding out for some Generations against the Inconveniencies of the Air or deteriority of Diet but the strength and firmness of their Constitutions which yet was originally owing to the Temperature of the Air or Quality of their Diet or both seeing a Change in these for there was no other visible Cause did by degrees prevail against and impair it What influence the lying so long of the Water upon the Earth might have upon the Air and Earth in châ—nging them for the worse and rendring them more unfit for the maintenance and continuance of Humane Life I will not now dispute But whatever might be the Cause of the Longaevity of the Antediluvians and the contracting of the Age of the Postdiluvians it is manifest that the Age of these did at the last settle as I said at or about the Term of Threescore and ten and hath there continued for Three thousand years without any diminution I proceed now to the Accidents which might possibly in process of Time infer a Dissolution of the World 1. The possibility of the Water in process of Time again overflowing and covering of the Earth For first of all the Rains continually washing down and carrying away Earth from the Mountains it is necessary that as well the height as the bulk of them that are not wholly rocky should answerably decrease and that they do so is evident in Experience For as I have elsewhere noted I have been informed by a Gentleman of good Credit that whereas the Steeple of Craich in the Peak of Derbyshire in the memory of some old Men then living 1672. could not have been seen from a certain Hill lying between Hopton and Wirksworth now not only the Steeple but a great part of the Body of the Church may from thence be seen which comes to pass by the sinking of a Hill between the Church and the place of view a parallel example whereto the learned Dr. Plot gives us in a Hill between Sibbertoft and Hasleby in Northamptonshire Hist Nat. Stafford p. 113. And thus will they continue to do so long as there falls any Rains and as they retain any declivity that is till they be levelled with the Plains In confirmation of this Particular I have received from my ingenious Friend Mr. Edward Lloyd some notable Observations of his own making concerning the Mountains of Wales which do demonstrate that not only the looser and the lighter parts of the Mountains as Earth Sand Gravel and small Stones may be washed down by the Rains but the most solid and bulky Rocks themselves by the violent descent of the Waters down their Chinks and Precipices be in time undermined and subverted Take them in his own words Vpon the reading of your Discourse of the Rains continually washing away and carrying down Earth from the Mountains I was put in mind of something pertinent thereto which I have observed in the Mountains of Caernarvonshire viz 1. First That generally the higher the Hills are the more steep are their Precipices and Declivities I except the Sea-rocks thus Moelâ—y Wydhrha y Gâ—îb gôtch and twenty others that might be named reputed the highest Hills in Wales have
Architects it is manifest that the Mountains do by no means grow or encrease as some dream 5. Our Observation is proved from that Art which is now much practised of elevating and landing up depressed places by the Waters of Rivers and depressing the higher by running the Water over them The same things happen about the Sea for whereas the bottom of the Sea is more depressed than the Superficies of the Earth and all the great Rivers empty themselves into the Sea and bring in with them a great quantity of Earth and Sand there must needs be great Banks or Floors of Earth raised up about the Sea-shores near the mouths of Rivers whereby the Shores must necessarily be much promoted and carried forward into the Sea and so gain upon it and compel it to recede This may be proved first by the Authority of Aristotle lib. 1. Meteor cap. De permutatione terrae ac maris and that of the ancient Geographers and Historians To omit that Proof from Egypt Aristotle's second example of this landing up of the Sea is the Region of Ammonia whose Lower and Maritime place saith he it 's clear were by this landing up first made Pools and Fens and in process of time these Pools were dryed up and raised to be firm Land by Earth brought down A third example is that of the Maeotis palus whose skirts are so grown up by what the Rivers bring down that the Waters will not carry any thing so great Ships as they would have done sixty Years ago A fourth is the Thracian Bosphorus which for brevity's sake may be seen in him Add hereto in the fifth place the Testimony of Pliny who tells us that much new Land hath been added to the Earth not only brought in by the Rivers but deserted by the Sea So the Sea hath receded ten Miles from the Port of Ambracia and five from that of Athens and in several other places more or less What he adds out of Strabo concerning the River Pyramus is already entred 6. Neither are later and nearer Experiments wanting Of old time Ravenna stood upon the brâ—â—k of the Sea-shore which is now by reason of the landing up the Shallows â—ar distant from it The Sea washed the Walls of Padâ—â— which is now Twenty five Miles remote therefrom In fine our Rhene of Bolognâ— though it â—e but a small Torrent yet in a few Years since it hath been by an artificial Cut let into the Po it hath so filled it up and obstructed its Channel with Sand and Mud that it hath much endamaged the neighboaring Fields Seeing then by these various â—ggerations of Sand and Sâ—lt the Sea is daâ—â—y cut short and driven back and its Baâ—in or Râ—ceptable straitned and the bottom 〈…〉 it will necessarily come to pass 〈…〉 that it will begin to overflow as 〈…〉 in many places for example 〈…〉 and Holland Shoâ—es 〈…〉 â—orced to erect and 〈◊〉 loâ—g and high Banks and 〈…〉 of the Sea Therefore 〈…〉 manner that Earth which noâ— malces 〈…〉 Mountains being by the Water little by little brought down â—nto the 〈…〉 is the Cause why the Seu 〈…〉 â—â—erflows the 〈…〉 Globe of the Earth by the affusion of the Waters will be again rendred unhabitable as at first it was in the beginning of the World and the Earth and Water will return to their primitive state and figure in which they ought naturally to rest Hence we may deduce some Consectaries worthy to be known viz. That the World or at least the Earth was not endued with that Figure which we now see neither can the World endure for ever For if this mountainous Figure had been in it from Eternity all those protuberancies of the Mountains had been long since eaten away and wasted or consumed by the Waters Nor can this World be Eternal because as we have proved in process of time it will be reduceâ— to a perâ—ect rotundity and be overflown by the Sea whereupon it will become unâ—abitable and Mankind must necessarily perish Whereâ—ore unless that Deluge were prevented by the 〈◊〉 which the Holy Scriptures mention the World would 〈…〉 by Water Long after I had committed these 〈…〉 writing I met with Phiâ—o Iudâ—u◠〈◊〉 book De Mundeo wherein 〈◊〉 â—ouches this matter but obâ—cureâ— and in a very â—ew words Thus far Blancanus whose Sentiments and Observations concerning this matter thus punctually concurring and according with mine to my great wonder and satisfaction I could not but think that the Conclusion hath a high degree of probability Only he takes no notice that in compensation of what the Rivers gain from the Sea about their Outlets the Sea may gain from the Land by undermining and washing away the Shores that are not rocky as we see it doth in our own Country perhaps as much as it loses according to the Vulgar Proverb before remembred However all contributes towards the filling up of the Sea and bringing on an Inundation as I shall afterwards shew But it may be objected That if the Waters will thus naturally and necessarily in process of time again overflow and cover the Earth how can God's Promise and Covenant be made good Gen. 9. 11. That there should not any more be a Flood to destroy the Earth To which I answer 1. That though this would follow in a natural way yet the power of God may interpose to prevent it and so make good his Promise 2. Though it might come to pass in the Course of Nature yet would it be after so many Ages that it is not at all likely the World should last so long but the Conflagration or Destruction of it by Fire predicted by the Scriptures will certainly prevent it 3. Possibly there may be something in Nature which may obviate this Event though to us at present unknown which I am the more inclinable to believe because the Earth doth not hasten so fast towards it as some of the Ancients imagined and as the activity of such Causes might seem to require as I have already intimated Varenius in his Geography putting the Question Whether the Ocean may again come to cover all the Earth and make an Universal Deluge answers That we may conceive a way how this may naturally come to pass The manner thus Supposing that the Sea by its continual working doth undermine and wash away the Shores and Cliffs that are not rocky and carry the Earth thereof down towards the middle or deepest parts of its Channel and so by degrees fill it up By doing this perpetually it may in a long succession of Time carry all away and it self cover the whole Earth That it doth thus subvert and wash away the Shores in many places is in experience true About Dort in Holland and Dullart in Friesland and in Zealand many Villages some say Three hundred have been drown'd by the encroachments of the Sea as some of their Towers and Steeples still extant above the Waters do testifie On the Tuscan shore Kircher tells us
mounts uncrown'd With Sylvan Shades which once was level ground For furious Winds a story to admire Pent in blind Caverns strugling to expire And vainly seeking to enjoy th' Extent Of freer Air the Prison wanting vent Puffs up the hollow Earth extended so As when with swelling Breath we Bladders blow The tumour of the place remained still In time grown solid like a lofty Hill A parallel Instance hereto we have of later date of a Hill not far from Puzzuolo Puteoli beside the Gulph of Baiae which I my self have view'd and been upon It is by the Natives called Monte di cenere and was raised by an Earthquake Sept. 29. 1538. of about one hundred foot perpendicular altitude though some make it much higher according to Stephanus Pighius it is a Mile ascent to the top and four Miles round at the foot We indeed judged it not near so great The People say it bears nothing nothing of any use or profit I suppose they mean else I am sure there grows Heath Myrtle Mastick-tree and other Shrubs upon it It is a spungy kind of Earth and makes a great sound under a Man's feet that stamps upon it The same Earthquake threw up so much Earth Stones and Ashes as quite filled up the lacus Lucrinus so that there is nothing left of it now but a fenny Meadow If such Hills I say as these may be and have been elevated by subterraneous Wild-fire Flatus or Earthquakes Si parvis liceat componere magna if we may compare great things with small why might not the greatest and highest Mountains in the World be raised up in like manner by a subterraneous Flatus or Wild-fire of quantity and force sufficient to work such an effect that is that bears as great a proportion to the superincumbent weight and bulk to be elevated as those under these smaller Hills did to theirs But we cannot doubt this may be done when we are well assured that the like hath been done For the greatest and highest Ridge of Mountains in the World the Andes of Peru have been for some hundreds of Leagues in length violently shaken and many alterations made therein by an Earthquake that happened in the year 1646. mentioned by Kircher in his Arca Noae from the Letters of the Jesuits And Pliny tells us of his own knowledge that the Alps and Appennine have often been shaken with Earthquakes Exploratum est mihi Alpes Apenninumque saepius tremuisse lib. 2. cap 80. Nay more then all this we read that in the time of the Emperour Valentinian the first there was an Earthquake that shook all the known World Whilst this Innovator that is Procopius was yet alive saith Amm. Marcellinus lib. 26. cap. 14. Horrendi tremores per omnem orbis ambitum grassati sunt subitò quales nec fabulae nec veridicae nobis antiquitates exponunt Paulò enim post lucis exortum denfitate praevia fulgurum acriùs vibratorum tremefacta concutitur omnis terreni stabilitas ponderis maréque dispulsum retrò fluctibus evolutis abscessit ut retecta voragine profundodorum species natantium multiformes limo cernerentur haerentes valliúmque vastitates montium ut opinari dabatur suspicerent radios solis quos primigenia rerum sub immensis gurgitibus amandavit c. that is Horrid Earthquakes suddenly raged all the World over the like whereto neither Fables nor true Antiquities ever acquaint us with or make mention of For soon after break of day redoubled smart and violent flashes of Lightning preceding the stable and ponderous mass of the whole Earth was shaken and made to tremble and the Sea with revolved waves was driven backwards and forced so far to recede that the bottom of the great Deeps and Gulfs being discovered multiform Species of Fishes forsaken by the water were seen lying on the Mud and those vast Valleys and Mountains which the primigenial Nature had sunk deep and concealed under immense waters as we had reason to think saw the Sun beams Wherefore many Ships resting upon the dry ground the Mariners wandring carelesly up and down through the small reliques of the waters that they might gather up Fishes and other things with their hands The Sea-waves being as it were grieved with their repulse rise up again and making their way backward through the fervid Shallows violently dashing against the Islands and extended Shores of the Continents threw down and levelled numerable Edifices in Cities and where else they were found Where see more of the effects of it Of this Earthquake we find mention also in Zosimus and Orosius If this story be true as certainly it is we have no reason to doubt of the possibility of the Dry land being thus raised at first by subterraneous Fire And with us agrees the learned Thomas Lydyat in his Philosophical Disquisition concerning the origine of Fountains c. being of opinion not only that it might be so but that it was so I shall give you his own words Vbi aliud quoque summae admirationis plenum Terrae motûs atque Ignis subterranei effectum notandum venit montium sci generatio And then having mentioned the raising up Islands in the Sea by subterraneous Fires he proceeds thus Quomodo etiam omnes montes qui uspiam sunt unà cum ipsis terris Continentibus quae nihil aliud sunt quà m sparsi in Oceano majores montes sive insulae in mundi primordiis quando nimirum ignis quo de loquimur in terrae visceribus à potentissimo mundi Conditore accensus est extitisse maximè fit verisimile mari in cava loca recedente terrestribus Animalibus ejusdem Divini numinis sapientissimo consilio habitandi locum relinquente That is After which manner also all the Mountains in the World together with the Continents themselves which are nothing else but great Mountains or Islands scattered in the Ocean in the beginning of the World when the fire of which we speak was first kindled in the bowels of the Earth by the Almighty Creator were as it is most highly probable originally raised up the Sea receding into the cavities and depressed places and by the most wise counsel of the supreme Deity leaving room for terrestrial Animals to inhabit Then which nothing can be said more consonant to what we have written And I was highly pleased and satisfied to find such Philosophy in so learned and judicious a Writer And in confirmation of this Doctrine Strabo himself though he had not nor could have any knowledge at all of the prodigious effects of Gunpowder yet makes no difficulty to affirm the possibility of raising up as well the Continents and Mountains as the Islands by Earthquakes and subterraneous Fires toward the latter end of the first Book of his Geography discoursing thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And a little after 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is For Earthquakes and Eruptions of Flatus Blasts or sudden tumors of the submarine Earth or bottom
of the Sea may swell and elevate the Sea so that not only small lumps or masses of matter but even Islands may be raised up in the midst of it Neither if small Islands can be raised may not great ones too neither may Islands be heaved up and not Continents as well And Sicily may as well be thought to have been thrown up out of the Deep by the force of the Aetnaean fire and sticking together to have continued above water as to have been a piece broken off from Italy And the like may be said of the Islands of Lipara and Pithecusae Of the possibity of doing it we need not doubt when we have sufficient proof of the thing done in lesser Islands thus heaved up in the midst of the Sea by submarine fires Strabo lib. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is Between Thera and Therasia flames issuing out of the Sea for four days so that the whole Sea boil'd and burned blew up by little and little as if it had been raised by Machines and composed of great lumps or masses an Island of twelve furlongs circumference And Pliny tells us that the Island Hiera near Italy in the time of the Social War together with the Sea it self did burn for several days His words are In medio Mari Hiera insula juxta Italiam cum ipso Mari arsit per aliquot dies And Strabo lib. 1. reports That about Methone in the Bay of Hermione there was Earth raised and as it were blown up to the height of seven Furlongs by a fiery breath or exhalation which by day time was unaccessible by reason of heat and sulphureous slench but smelling sweet by night and shining so as to be seen asar off likewise casting such a heat as to cause the Sea to boil for five Furlongs and to render it troubled for the space of twenty raising up therein a Baich or Bank of Stones as big as Towers These Instances I alledge principally because they seem to demonstrate a possibility of the accension of fire in the Earth when it was wholly covered with Water and had no entercourse or communion with the superiour or external Air which is the main and most material Objection against the elevation of the dry Land at the beginning by subterraneous fires You will say If the Mountains be thus heaved up by subterraneous fires the Earth must needs be hollow all underneath them and there must be vast Dens and Caverns disperst throughout them I answer 'T is true indeed so there are as may undeniably be proved by instances For the new Mountain we mentioned at Puteoli that was thus raised being of a Mile steep ascent and four Miles round at the foot a proportionable Cavity must be left in the Earth underneath And the Mountain Aetna at the last Eructation alone having disgorged out of its bowels so great a flood of melted Materials as if spread at the depth and breadth of three foot might reach four times round the whole Circuit of the Terraqueous Globe there must likewise an answerable Vault be left within You will demand How then comes it to pass that they stand so firm and do not founder and fall in after so many Ages I answer that they may stand appears by the foresaid new-raised Mountain For notwithstanding the Cavity in and under it it hath stood firm and staunch without the least sinking or subsidency for above an hundred and fifty years neither is there any great sinking or falling in at Aetna it self at least in no degree answerable to it s ejected matter This assertion is confirmed by the unanimous vote and testimony of all Writers Ancient and Modern who have handled this Subject But Alphonsus Borellus supposes them not to have duly considered the matter and calculated the quantity of the ejected materials and the bulk of the Mountain and compared them together but to have been carried away by the prejudices and perswasions of the People who looking upon the top of the Mountain at a distance think it but a small thing in comparison of the ejected Sand and Ashes that covered whole Countries and those vast Rivers of liquid stones and other ingredients that ran down so many miles whereas he by a moderate computation found out that the total of what the Mountain disgorged at the last eruption amounted not as I remember to the fourteen thousandth part of the Solidity of the whole Mountain The reason is the strength and firmness of their Vaulture and Pillars sufficient to support the superincumbent weight And yet in some places there are sinkings and fallings in which have afterwards become Valleys or Pools of Water But as for the Cavities that are lower than the Superficies of the Ocean the Water where it could insinuate and make its way hath filled them up to that height I say where it could make its way for that there are many empty Cavities even under the Sea it self appears by the shaking and heating too of the very Water of the Sea in some places in Earthquakes and raising up the borders or skirts of it so as to drive the Water a great way back and the raising up new Islands in the middle of the Sea as Delos and Rhodes and Anaphe and Nea and Alone and Hiera and Thera mentioned by Pliny Hist lib. 2. c. 87. and Thia in his own time and Therasia in the Aegean in Senaca's time which was heaved up in the sight of many Mariners then present and looking on I am not ignorant that the learned Man I lately quoted I mean Alph. Borellus in his Book De Incendiis Aetnae is of opinion that the middle part or as he calls it the kernel of that Mountain is firm and solid without any great caverns or vacuities and that all those vaults and cavities in which the fire rages are near the superficial or cortical part And derides those who fancy that Aetna the Aeolian Islands Lipara Strongyle c. and Vesuvius do communicate by subterraneous channels and passages running under the bottom of the Sea But saving the respect due to him for his learning and ingenuity there is good Authority on their side and our ratiocinations against the possibility of such a thing must give place to the clear proof of matter of fact Iulius Ethnicus an ancient Writer quoted by Ludovicus Vives in his Annotations upon S. Augustine De Civitate Dei gives us this Relation Marco Aemilio Lucio Aurelio Consulibus Aetna mons terrae motu ignes super verticem latè diffudit ad Insulam Liparam mare efferbuit quibusdam adustis navibus vapore plerósque navaleis exanimavit Piscium vim magnam exanimem dispersit quos Liparenses avidiùs epulis adpetenteis contaminatione ventris consumpti sunt ita ut novâ pestilentià vast arentur insulae That is Marcus Aemilius and Lucius Aurelius being Consuls Mount Aetna being shaken by an Earthquake cast forth and scattered fire from its top far and wide At which time
the Sea at the Island of Lipara was boyling hot and some Ships being burnt most of the Seamen were stifled with the vapour besides it dispersed abroad a power of dead fish which the Liparensians greedily gaâ—â—ering up and eating were consumed with a contagious disease in their bellies so that the Islands were wasted with a new sort of pestiiâ—â—ce And Father Kircher the Jesuite in the Preface to his Mundus Subterraneus giving a Relation of an Earthquake which shook a great part of Calabria and made notable devastations there which himself saw and was in Anno 1638. clearly demonstrates that Aetna Stromboli and the Mountains of Calabria do communicate by vaults and caverns passing under the bottom of the Sea I shall insert but one passage out of him referring the Reader to the fore-quoted Preface for the rest Hisce calamitatibus saith he dum jactamur ego curiosiùs intuitus Strongylum 60 ferè milliarium intercapedine dissitum illum insolito modo furere notavi c. i.e. While we were tost with these calamities I beholding curiously the Island Stromboli about 60 miles distant observed it to rage after an unusual manner for it appeared all filled with fire in such plenty that it seemed to cast forth mountains of flame a spectacle horrid to behold and formidable to the most undaunted Spirit In the mean time there was a certain sound perceived as it were of Thunder but by reason of the great distance from whence it came somewhat obscure which by degrees proceeding forward in the subterraneous conduits grew greater and greater till it came to the place just underneath us they were at Lopez by the Sea where it shook the Earth with such a roaring or murmure and fury that being not able to stand any longer upon our Legs we were forced to support our selves to catch hold upon any shrub or twig that was near us lest our limbs should be put out of joynt by too much shaking and concussion At which time happened a thing worthy of immortal and eternal memory viz. the subversion of the famous Town of S. Eusemia which he goes about to relate As for Vesuvius if that be not hollow down to the very roots and foundations of it how comes it to pass that at the times of its deflagrations it should vomit out such stoods of boiling Waters as if we had not read of them in Histories and been told so by our Guide when we ascended that Mountain we must needs have perceived our selves by the mighty guls and channels in the sides thereof it being of it self near the top so spungy and dry that it is more likely to imbibe then to cast off much rain in the Winter time And again what causes the Sea to recede at those times and that to so great a distance that the Galleys have been laid dry in the very Haven of Naples Howbeit I cannot positively assert the Mountains thus to have been raised But yet whether without means or by whatsoever means it were a Receptacle for the Waters was prepared and the dry Land and Mountains elevated so as to cast off the Waters on the third day and which is wonderful the Cavities made to receive the Waters and the whole terra firma or dry Land with its Mountains were so proportioned one to the other as that the one was as much depressed below the Shores as the other was elevated above them And as if the one had been taken out of the other the Sea with all its Creeks and Bays and Inlets and other Appendants was made and is very near equal to the whole dry Land with its Promontories and Mountains if not in Superficies yet in bulk or dimensions though some think in both Which equality is still constantly maintained notwithstanding all Inundations of Land and Atterations of Sea because one of these doth always nearly ballance the other according to the vulgar Proverb we have before mention'd What the Sea loses in one place it gains in another If any shall demand How the Sea comes to be gradually depressed and deepest about the middle part whereas the bottom of it was in all likelihood equal while the Waters covered the whole Earth I answer the same Cause that raised up the Earth whether a subterraneous fire or status raised up also the skirts of the Sea the ascent gradually decreasing to the middle part where by reason of the solidity of the Earth or gravity of the incumbent Water the bottom was not elevated at all For the enclosed fire in those parts where its first accension or greatest strength was raised up the Earth first and cast off the Waters and thence spreading by degrees still elevated the Land and drove the Waters further and further till at length the weight of them was too great to be raised and then the fire brake forth at the tops of the Mountains where it found least resistance and disperst it self in the open Air. The Waters also where they found the bottom sandy or yielding made their way into all those Cavities the fire had made and left filling them up as high as the level of the Ocean Neither let any man imagine that the Earth under the Water was too soft and muddy to be in this manner raised by subterraneous fire for I have shewn before that the bottom of the Sea is so saddened and hardened by the weight of the incumbent Water that the High-ways beaten continually by Horses and Carriages are not more firm and solid But omitting this which is only a conjecture I shall discourse a little more concerning the Equality of Sea and Land It hath been observed by some That where there are high Cliffs or Downs along the Shore there the Sea adjoyning is deep and where there are low and level Grounds it is shallow the depth of the Sea answering to the Elevation of the Earth above it and as the Earth from the Shores is gradually higher and higher to the middle and parts most remote from the Sea as is evident by the descents of the Rivers they requiring a constant declivity to carry them down so the Sea likewise is proportionably deeper and deeper from the Shores to the middle So that the rising of the Earth from the Shores to the Mid-land is answerable to the descent or declivity of the bottom of the Sea from the same shores to the Mid-Sea This rising of the Earth from the Shores gradually to the Mid-land is so considerable that it is very likely the Altitude of the Earth in those Mid-land parts above the Superficies of the Sea is greater than that of the Mountains above the leve of the adjacent Lands To the height of the Hills above the common Superficies of the Earth do answer in Brerewood's Opinion the extraordinary Dephts or Whirl-pools that are found in the Sea descending beneath the ordinary bottom of the Sea as the Hills ascend above the ordinary face of the Land But this is but a conjecture of
his and to me it seems not very probable because it is not likely there should be in the Sea extraordinary Depths of that vast length and extension as those huge Ridges of Mountains that run almost quite through the Continents And because I have observed the Waters of Rivers that slow gently but especially of the Sea to level the bottoms of their Channels and Receptacles as may be seen in those parts of the Sea whose bottoms are uncovered at Low-water and in dry Lands that have been deserted by the Sea as the Fens in the Isle of Ely and the Craux in Provence in France c. which appear to be a perfect Level as far as one can ken Though possibly the motion of the Sea may not descend down so low as those Depths and so may not level the bottoms of them But against what I have said concerning the levelling of the bottom of the Sea it may be objected That Mariners and Divers find no such thing but the quite contrary viz. That the bottom of the Sea is as unequal as the Land sometimes ten or twelve Fathoms on one side of the Ship and One hundred on the other as Mr. Boyl tells us in his Relations about the bottom of the Sea consonant whereto are the Accounts of Divers And I have saith my worthy Friend Dr. Taâ—c Robinson in one of his Letters to me read in Voyages of vast Rocks of Salt observ'd in some places under the Sea To which I answer That I should indeed have excepted such places as are rocky which bear a very little proportion to the Latitude and Extent of the Sea and are for the most part not far off the Land I my self have seen so much of the bottom of the Sea round about the Coasts of England and a good part of the Low-Countreys of Italy and Sicily that I think I may boldly pronounce in general That where the bottom of the Sea is not rocky but Earth Owze or Sand and that is incomparably the greatest part of it it is by the motion of the Waters so far as the reciprocation of the Sea extends to the bottom brought to a level and if it should be now unequal would in time be levelled again By level I do not mean so as to have no declivity for the reciprocation preserves that the floud hindring in good measure the constant carrying down of the bottom but only to have an equal uniform and easie descent from the Shores to the Deeps Now all those Reports of Divers and Navigators refer for the most part to rocky places For Mariners seldom sound but in such places and in shallows and Urinators have no reason to dive where the bottom is level and sandy And that the motion of the Waters descends to a good depth I prove from those Plants that grow deepest in the Sea because they all generally grow flat in manner of a Fan and not with Branches on all sides like Trees which is so contrived by the Providence of Nature because the edges of them do in that posture with most ease cut the Water flowing to and fro And should the flat side be objected to the Stream it would be turned edgewise by the force of it because in that site it doth least resist the motion of the Water whereas did the Branches of those Plants grow round as in Trees they would be thrown down backward and forward every Tide Nay not only the herbaceous and woody submarine Plants but even the Lithophyta themselves affect this manner of growing if they be any thing ramose and rise to a considerable height as I have observed in various kinds of Corals and Pori Hence I suspect those Relations of Trees growing at the bottom of the Sea and bringing forth Fruit there As for the Maldiva Nut till better information I adhere to Garcias his Opinion That the Trees that bare those Nuts were of old time together with the Land on which they grew overwhelmed by the inundations of the Sea and there hardned in the Earth and afterwards cast up by the working of the Sea again Which thing is very probable for to this day some of those Maldiva Islands are now and then drowned and swallowed up by the Sea Further I do believe that in the great depths of the Sea there grow no Plants at all the bottom being too remote from the external Air which though it may pierce the Water so low yet I doubt whether in quantity sufficient for the vegetation of Plants Nay we are told that in those deep and bottomless Seas there are no Fish neither yet not because there are no Plants or Insects to feed them for that they can live upon Water alone Rondeletius his Experiment about keeping them in a Glass doth undeniably prove but because their Spawn would be lost in those Seas the bottom being too cold for it to quicken there This Answer and Discourse though it be inserted into another Treatise yet properly belongs to this place to which I have therefore restored it begging the Readers excuse for this repetition I now proceed That it is consonant to the best Observations of the height of the Earth and its Mountains above the Superficies of the Sea and of the depth of the Sea that the one is answerable to the other Varenius in his Geogr. witnesseth p. 152. Caeterùm ex observata hactenus in plerisque locis profunditate Oceani manifestum est eam fere aequalem altitudini sive elevationi montium locorum Mediterraneorum supra littora nimirum quantum hoec elevantur extant supra littorum horizontem tantum alvei maris infra eum deprimuntur sive quantum assurgit terra à littoribus versùs mediterranea loca tuntundem paulatim magis magìsque deprimitur usque ad medii Oceani loca ubi plerumque maxima est profunditas That is From the depth of the Ocean as far as hath been hitherto observed in most places it is manifest that that profundity is near equal to the altitude or elevation of the Mediterraneous places above the Shores that is to say as much as these are elevated and stand up above the Horizon of the Shores so much are the Channels of the Seas depressed below it or as much as the Earth riseth from the Shores towards the Mediterraneous places so much is it by little and little more and more depressed to the middle parts of the Ocean where the greatest depth for the most part is And Brerewood in his Enquiries pertinently to our purpose supposeth the depth of the Sea to be a great deal more than the height of the Hills above the common surface of the Earth For that in making estimation of the depth of the Sea we are not to reckon and consider only the height of the Hills above the common Superficies of the Earth but the advantage or height of all the dry Land above the Superficies of the Sea Because the whole mass of the Earth that
now appeareth above the Waters being taken as it were out of the place which the Waters now possess must be equal to the place out of which it was taken and consequently it seemeth that the height or elevation of the one should answer to the depth or descending of the other And therefore as I said in estimating the deepness of the Sea we are not to consider only the erection of the Hills above the ordinary Land but the advantage of all the dry Land above the Sea Which latter I mean the height of the ordinary Main Land is in my opinion more in large Continents above the Sea than that of the Hills is above the Land For that the plain and common face of the dry Land is not level or equally distant from the Center but hath great declivity and descent towards the Sea and acclivity or rising toward the Mid-land part although it appear not so to the common view of the Eye is to reason notwithstanding manifest Because as it is found in that part of the Earth which the Sea covereth that it descendeth lower and lower toward the midst of the Sea for the Sea which touching the upper face of it is known to be level by nature and evenly distant from the Center is withal observed to wax deeper and deeper the further one saileth from the Shore towards the Main Even so in that part which is uncovered the coursings and streamings of Rivers on all sides from the Mid-land parts towards the Sea whose property we know is to slide from the higher to the lower evidently declare so much This Author with Damascen supposes that the unevenness and irregularity which is now seen in the Superficies of the Earth was caused either by taking some parts out of the upper face of the Earth in sundry places to make it more hollow and laying them in other places to make it more convex or else which in effect is equivalent to that by raising up some and depressing others to make room and receipt for the Sea that Mutation being wrought by the Power of that Word Let the waters be gathered into one place that the dry land may appear This proportioning of the Cavities appointed to receive the Seas to the protuberancy of the dry Land above the common Superficies of the Ocean is to me a sufficient Argument to prove that the gathering together of the Waters into one place was a work of counsel and design and if not effected by the immediate Finger of God yet at least governed and directed by him So the Scripture affirms the place to receive the Sea to have been prepared by God Psalm 104. 8. Now in things of this nature to the giving an account whereof whatever Hypothesis we can possibly invent can be but meerly conjectural those are to be most approved that come nearest to the Letter of Scripture and those that 〈◊〉 with it to be rejected how trim or consistent soever with themselves they may seem to be this being as much as when God tells us how he did make the World for as to tell him how he should have made it But here it may be objected That the present Earth looks like a heap of Rubbish and Ruines And that there are no greater examples of confusion in Nature than Mountains singly or jointly considered and that there appear not the least footsteps of any Art or Counsel either in the Figure and Shape or Order and Disposition of Mountains and Rocks Wherefore it is not likely they came so out of God's hands who by the Ancient Philosophers is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to make all things in number weight and measure To which I answer That the present face of the Earth with all its Mountains and Hills its Promontories and Rocks as rude and deformed as they appear seems to me a very beautiful and pleasant object and with all that variety of Hills and Valleys and Inequalities far more grateful to behold than a perfectly level Country without any rising or protuberancy to terminate the sight As any one that hath on the one hand seen the Isle of Ely or any the like Countrey exactly level and extending on all sides further then one can ken or that hath been far out at Sea where nothing is to be seen but Sky and Water and on the other from the Downs of Sussex enjoyed that spatious and ravishing prospect of the Countrey on one hand and the Sea on the other comparing both objects must necessarily confess 2. They are useful to Mankind in affording them convenient places for habitation and situations of Houses and Villages serving as Skreens to keep off the cold and nipping blasts of the Northern and Easterly Winds and reflecting the benign and cherishing Sun-beams and so rendring their habitations both more comfortable and chearly in Winter and promoting the growth of Herbs and Fruit-trees and the maturation of their Fruits in Summer Bâ—sides casting off the Waters they lay the Gardens Yards and Avenues to the Houses dry and clean and so as well more salutary as more elegant Whereas Houses built in Plains unless shaded with Trees stand bleak and exposed to wind and weather and all Winter are apt to be grievously annoyed with mire and dirt 3. A Land so distinguished into Mountains Valleys and Plains is also most convenient for the entertainment of the various sorts of Animals which God hath created some whereof delight in cold some in hot some moist and watery some in dry and upland places and some of them could neither find nor gather their proper food in different Regions Some Beasts and Birds we find live upon the highest tops of the Alps and that all the Winter too while they are constantly covered with Snow as the Ibex and Rupicapra or Chamois among Quadrupeds and Lagopus among Birds 4. The Mountains are most proper for the putting forth of Plants yielding the greatest variety and the most luxuriant sorts of Vegetables for the maintenance of the Animals proper to those places and for Medicinal Uses partly also for the exercise and delight of such ingenious persons as are addicted to search out and collect those Rarities to contemplate and consider their Forms and Natures and to admire and celebrate the Wisdom of their Creator 5. All manner of Metals Minerals and Fossils if they could be generated in a level Earth of which there is some question yet should they be dug or mined for the Delfs must necessarily be so flown with Water which to derive and rid away no Adits or Soughs could be made and I much doubt whether Gins would suffice that it would be extremely difficult and chargeable if possible to work them at all 6. Neither are the very tops of the highest Mountains barren of Grass for the feeding and fattening of Beasts For on the Ridges of the high Mountains of Iura and Saleve near Geneva and thoâ—e of Rhoetia or the Grisons Countrey which are the highest of all
the Alps excepting the Vallesian and Sabaudian there are multitudes of Kine fed in Summer time as I my self can witness having in my Simpling Voyages on those of Iura and Saleve observed Herds of Cattel there and many Dairy-houses built where I have been more than once refreshed by their Milk and Milk-Meats Nay there are but very few and those of the highest Summits of the Alps that keep Snow all Summer and I was told by the Inhabitants that one time or other in seven or eight years space for the most part there came a Summer that melted all the Snow that lay on them too 7. Another great use and necessity of the Mountains and Hills is for the Generation and Maintenance of Rivers and Fountains which in our Hypothesis that all proceed from Rain-water could not be without them or but rarely So we should have only Torrents which would fail in Summer time or any dry Season and nothing to trust to but stagnating Water reserved in Pools and Cisterns Which how great an Inconvenience it would be I need not take pains to shew I say that Fountains and Rivers would be but rare were there no Mountains For upon serious consideration I find that I was too hasty in conclnding because I had observed no Fountains springing up in Plains therefore there were or could be absolutely none and do now grant that there is reason to believe the Relations made of such For the whole dry Land being but one continued Mountain and ascending all along from the Sea to the Mid-land as is undeniably proved by the Descent of Rivers even in plain Countries the Water sinking into the Earth may run under ground and according as the Vein leads it break out in the side of this Mountain though the place as to outward appearance be a Plain I shall now add That though it be possible that without Mountains there may be Springs if there should be Rains which it is somewhat questionable were there no Mountains whether there could be or no at least in hot Countreys yet is it probable that most of those Springs we find in Plains or depressed places distant from Mountains may come along in subterraneous Channels from the next Mountains and there break out Monsieur Blundel related to the Parisian Academy what device the inhabitants of the lower Austria which is encompassed with the Mountains of Stiria are wont to use to fill their Wells with Water They dig in the Earth to the depth of twenty or five and twenty feet till they come to an argilla clammy earth then they bore a hole in the midst of a stone about five or six inches broad and through it boâ—e the argilla so deep till the Waters breaks forcibly out which Water it 's probable comes from the neighbouring Mounâ—ains in subterraneous Channels And Cassinus observed That in many places of the Territory of Modena and Bologna in Italy they make themselves Wells of springing Water by the like artifice They dig in the Earth till they come to the Water which stagnates in common Wells which they draw quite out Then within this new digged Well they make two cylindrical Walls concentrical one to another the space or interstice between them they fill and ramm close with well wrought Argilla or Clay to keep out the ambient Water which done they sink the Well deeper into the ground and continue the inner Wall so low till the Earth underneath seems to swell by the force of the Water rising up And lastly they bore this Earth or Soil with a long Wimble whereupon the Water breaks forth through the hole with a great force so that it doth not only fill the Well but overflows and waters the neighbouring fields with a constant stream By this means the same Seigneur Cassini made a Fountain at the Castle of Vrbin that cast up the water five foot high above the level of the ground It is very probable that these waters descend by subterraneous passages from the Appennine Mountains which are about ten miles distant If such things may be done by Art why may they not also by Nature Nay that the like are done we find by experience in the Lacus Lugeus or Zirchnitzer-Sea in Carniola which after it is empty of water running out at holes or pits in the bottom which it doth yearly in the Summer time in the Months of May Iune or Iuly in the Autumn when it rains moderately the water spouts out of some of the forementioned pits two or three fathoms perpendicularly but when it rains very hard and long together especially with Thunder then the water breaks forth with great force not only from the foresaid pits but likewise at a thousand other Caves and Holes spirting several fathoms high from some perpendicularly from others obliquely so that there is not a pleasanter sight then this and in a short time fills the lake A full description and an account of all the Phoenomena of this admirable Lake see in Philosoph Transact Numb 191. p. 411. c. So we see water may be brought down from the Mountains and raised up naturally in strait Channels with that force and to that height as to exceed all the artificial jets in the World if not in the altitude of the spout yet in the bigness of the stream abundantly This end and use of Mountains I find assigned by Mr. Halley in his Discourse concerning the original of Springs and Rivers in these words This if we may allow final causes and why may we not what needs this hesitancy and dubitation in a thing that is clear seems to be the design of the Hills that their ridges being placed through the midst of the Continents might serve as it were Alembicks to distil fresh water for the use of Man and Beast and their heights to give a descent to those streams to run gently like so many veins of the Macrocosm to be the more beneficial to the Creation But some may say Granting there be some use and benefit of moderate Hills and Risings what necessity is there of such extended Ridges of vast and towring Mountains hiding their Heads among the Clouds and seeming for Altitude to contend with the Skies I answer there is very great use of them for repelling the Vapours exhaled by the Sun-beams in the hot Regions and hindring their Evagations Northward as we have already shewn and shall not repeat I might add hereto 8. Those long Series and Chains of Mountains are of great use for Boundaries and Limits to the Territories of Princes or Commonwealths to secure them on those parts from sudden Incursions of Enemies As for the rudeness and confusion of Mountains their cragged and broken Rocks and Cliffs and whatever other Disorder there may be among them it may be accounted for from the manner of their first Generation and those other mutations they have been since obnoxious to by Earthquakes Eruptions of Vulcano's foundering and falling in of their Props and
I answer It seems to me that it must be cast further off over the tops of the Mountains and supply in part Rain to these Northern Countries for we know that the South-wind brings Rain with us and and all Europe over As to the great Ocean I do not believe that it evaporates so much as the Mediterranean both 1. Because the whole Mediterranean excepting the Euxine lies in a hot Climate and a great part of it as it were in a Valley Ridges of high Mountains Atlas on one side and the Alps and Apennine c. on the other running along it And 2. Because the Surface of the whole Ocean bears a greater proportion to the Waters it receives from the Rivers of at least this Continent than that of the Mediterranean doth to its And therefore I think also that Mr. Halley exceeds in his Estimate of the Heat of the Superficies of the Sea-water I cannot perswade my self that were it all commixt I mean the hotter part with the cooler all the Surface over to such a thickness it would equal the heat of our Air in the hottest time of Summer But I leave that to further Trial and Enquiry Here give me leave to suggest that we are not to think that all the Vapours that supply our Rains and Dews proceed from the Sea no a great part of them viz. all that when condensed waters the Earth and serves for the Nutrition of Plants and Animals if not the same individual Water at least so much was exhaled out of the Earth before and returned again in Showers and Dews upon it So that we receive no more from the Sea than what the Rivers carry back and pour into it again But supposing Mr. Halley's Hypotheses to be good and that the Ocean doth evaporate and cast off to the dry Land 1 12 of an Inch thickness daily and this suffices for the Supply of all the Rivers how intolerably extravagant must their Hypotheses be who suppose the Rivers of all the World together to yield half an Ocean of water daily Though I must confess my self to be at a loss as to those vast Rivers of America of ninety Miles broad for if they should run with any thing a swift Current it is indeed inestimable what a quantity of water they may pour forth All therefore that I have to say of them is That we want a true History and Account of their Phoenomena from their Fountains to their Out lets But in contradiction to what I have said concerning the water keeping its level and flowing in only at the Straits mouth I understand that it is the concurrent and unanimous Vote and Suffrage of Mariners Voyagers and Philosophers that there is an under-current at the Straits of Gibraltar the Thracian Bosphorus and the Baltick Sound Particularly M. Marsilly affirms That the lower water in the Channel of the Thracian Bosphorus is driven Northward into the Euxine Sea whilst the upper flows constantly from the Euxine Southward And that that which flows from the South is salter and heavier which he found by letting down of a Vessel close shut up fitted with a Valve to open at pleasure and let in the lower water which being brought up and weighed was observed to be ten Grains heavier than the upper That the upper and lower flow contrary ways he found by the Fishermens Nets which being let down deep from Vessels that were fixed were always by the observation of the Fishermen by the force of the Current driven towards the Black Sea and by the letting down of a Plummet for if it were stop't and detained at about five or six foot depth it did always decline towards the Marmora or Propontis but if it descended lower it was driven to the contrary part that is the Euxine But I think these Experiments are not sufficient to establish and demonstrate such an under-current because possibly there might be some mistake in them and Mr. Smith mentions no such thing as any under-current there But yet the same Mr. Smith endeavours to prove an under-current by two Experiments The first is the running Tide and Half-tide in the Offing between the North-Foreland and South-Foreland Now where it flows Tide and Half-tide though the Tide of Flood runs aloft yet the Tide of Ebb runs under-foot that is close by the Ground See Philosophical Transactions Numb 158. p. 564. The second is an Experiment made in the Baltick Sound In one of the King's Fregats they went with their Pinnace into the middle Stream and were carried violently by the Current soon after they sunk a Bucket with a large Cannon Bullet to a certain depth of water which gave check to the Boats motion and sinking it still lower and lower the Boat was driven a head to Windward against the upper Current the Current aloft being not above four or five Fathom deep and the lower the Bucket was let fall they found the under-current the stronger To all this I reply That I do not understand how waters can run backward and forward in the same Channel at the same time For there being but one declivity this is as much to affirm as that a heavy Body should ascend It is a crossing of Proverbs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 making Rivers ascend to their Fountains affirming that to be done which all the World hitherto hath look't upon as absurd and impossible And therefore the Matter of Fact had need be well attested which when to me it shall be I must then manus dare yield up the Bucklers and study some means to solve the Phaenomenon Suppose we that the Mediterranean empties it self into the Ocean by an under-current there must be a declivity to carry it down and consequently the upper-Superficies of this under-current must have its declivity too and likewise the contiguous Superficies of the upper-current and so the upper current must needs ascend in its course inwards If you say it 's forc'd in by the motion of the Ocean that seems unlikely because it runs in constantly as well Ebb as Flood And therefore there seems to be no better account of it than the Superficies of the Ocean being higher than that of the Mediterranean By the breaking up of the Fountains of the Great Deep is I conceive meant the making great Issues and Apertures for these Subterraneous waters to rush out You will say how could that be sith the water keeps its level and cannot ascend to a greater height above the common Center than the Superficies of the Sea is much less force its way remove Obstacles and break open Passages I answer According to them that hold that all Rivers come from the Sea by Subterraneous Passages it is no more than daily happens For they must needs grant that the water in the Subterraneous Channels is raised as far above the level of the Ocean as are the Heads and Fountains of great Rivers Which considering the height of their first springs up the Mountains the length of their
Courses and the swiftness of their Streams for a great part of the way is very considerable a constant declivity being necessary to their descent And therefore I can by no means assent to the Learned Doctor Plot if I understand him aright That the Valleys are as much below the Surface of the Sea as Mountains are above it For how then could Rivers descend down to the Sea through those Valleys the Sea would rather run into them and make Sinuses or else if they were enclosed the water would stagnate there and make Pools If this be done by way of Filtration which seems to be the most likely Means of raising the water I do not see but these Filters may suck up the whole Ocean and if Apertures and Outlets large enough were made pour it out upon the Earth in no long time But I cannot be fully reconciled to this Opinion though it hath great Advocates especially the fore-mentioned very Learned and Ingenious Person Dr. Robert Plot. I acknowledge Subterraneous waters I grant a Confluence and Communication of Seas by under-ground Channels and Passages I believe that wherever one shall dig as deep as the level of the Sea he shall seldom fail of water the water making its way through Sand and Gravel and Stones In like manner as it is observed of the River Seine that in Floud-times all the neighbouring Wells and Cellars are filled with water and when the River decreases and sinks again those waters also of the Wells and Cellars diminish and by degrees fall back into the River so that there are scarce any Wells or Fountains in the Plains near the River but their waters keep the level of the Rivers rising and falling with it But this inferiour constant Circulation and perpetual motion of water seems to me not yet sufficiently proved and made out I think that the Patrons and Abbettors of this Opinion have not satisfactorily demonstrated how it is or can be performed To what is offered concerning the Center of Gravity being nearer to our Continent by reason of the Preponderancy of the Earth and the Waters lying as it were on an heap in the other Hemisphere I answer 1. That in the present terraqueous Globe the New World which lyes between the two great Seas and almost opposite to our Continent doth in â—ome measure counterpoise the Old and take off a great part of the advantage which by reason of its Preponderancy it might otherwise have Moreover I am of Mr. Brierwood's Opinion that there may be and is a vast Continent toward the Southern Pole opposite to Europe and Asia to counterpoise them on that side nay I do verily believe that the Continents and Islands are so proportionably scattered and disposed all the World over as if not perfectly and exactly yet very nearly to counter-ballance one another so that the Globe cannot walter or reel towards any side and that the Center of the convex Superficies of the Sea is the true Center of the whole Terrestrial Sphere both of Motion and of Gravity I add also of Magnitude which is exceedingly convenient as well for the facility as the equability of the Earths diurnal Motion This Hypothesis of the Continents being disperst equally on all sides of the Globe makes these Centers concur in one point whatever cause we assign of the raising up the dry Land at first Whereas if we should suppose the dry Land to have been raised up by Earth-quakes only on one side of the Globe and to have cast off the water to the other and also that the water could find no way into the Caverns that were left within then the watery side must needs Preponderate the Land-side and bring the Center of Gravity nearer to its own Superficies and so raise the Land still a great deal higher and make a considerable distance between the Centers of Magnitude and of Gravity In our Hypothesis of the equal dispersion of the Continents and Islands no such thing would happen but each Continent taking it with all its internal Caverns whether lighter or heavier than its bulk in water that is whether the water did make its way into the Caverns thereof or did not for in the first case it would be heavier in the second lighter would have its counterpoise on the opposite side so that the Centers would still concur The case would be the same if the dry Land were discovered and the Mountains raised by the immediate application of the Divine Power 2. The Sea being no where above a German Mile deep for which we have good Authority in most places not half so much taking then as a middle term half a Mile Suppose it every where half a Mile deep the Earth below the Sea we have no reason to suppose of different Gravity what proportion hath this half Miles thickness of water to the whole Terraqueous Globe whose Semidiameter is by the account of Mathematicians Three thousand four hundred and forty Italian Miles What little advantage then can it have of the Earth opposite to it in point of Preponderancy 3. Granting the Center of Gravity should be nearer our Continent The Center being the lowest place and the Water a fluid Body unless stopped which it might indeed be if it were encompassed round with high Shores as high as the Mountains without any Breaks or Outlets in them where it found declivity it would descend as near as it could to it without any regard of the Earths Preponderancy And though we should grant that the driness of the Shores might stop it and cause it to lye on a heap yet would it run up the Channels of Rivers till it came as near as possible to the Center of Gravity Indeed the Rivers themselves could not descend but must run towards the middle of the Continent All this I think will follow from this Hypothesis by as good consequence as the waters being forced through the Subterraneous Channels out at the Springs Again I do not peremptorily affirm that all Fountains do proceed from Rain only I contend that Rain may suffice to feed them and that probably it doth feed ordinary Springs This the Ingenious French Author doth well demonstrate in the River Seine and I believe it is demonstrable in most other Rivers The little Brook that runs near my Dweling and hath its Head or Source not above four or five Miles off where there is no extraordinary eruption of water all along its Course receives small Rivulets on both sides which though they make a considerable Stream at five miles distance from the Fountain-head yet singly are so small that they may very well be conceived to drain down from the higher Grounds that lye about them And taking the whole together it is a very considerable length and breadth of Land that contributes to the maintenance of this little River So that it may easily be believed that all its water owes its original to Rain Especially if it be considered further that in Winter-time
out after great Rains which they call Gypsies which jet and spout up a great height Neither is this Eruption of Springs after long Rains proper and peculiar only to the Wolds of Yorkshire but common to other Countreys also as Dr. Childrey witnesseth in these words Sometimes there breaks out water in the manner of a sudden Land-flood out of certain Stones that are like Rocks standing aloft in open Fields near the rising of the River Kynet in Kent which is reputed by the Common People a fore-runner of Dearth That the sudden eruption of Springs in places where they use not always to run should be a sign of Dearth is no wonder For these unusual Eruptions which in Kent we call Nailbourns are caused by extream gluts of Rain or lasting wet Weather and never happen but in wet years witness the year 1648. when there were many of them and to our purpose very remarkable it was that in the year 1654. several Springs and Rivulets were quite dried up by reason of the precedent Drought which raged most in 1651 1652 and 1653. As the Head of the Stour that rises near Elham in Kent and runs through Canterbury was dry for some Miles space and the like happened to the Stream that crosseth the Road-way between Sittingburn and Canterbury at Ospring near Feversham which at other times ran with a plentiful Current but then wholly failed So we see that it is not infrequent for new Springs to break out in wet years and for old ones to fail in great Droughts And Strabo in his first Book out of Xanthus the Lydian tells us That in the time of Artaxerxes there was so great a Drought that Rivers and Lakes and Wells of water failed and were dried up I cannot here also forbear to add the probable account he Dr. Witty gives of the Supply of the Spring-well on the Castle-hill at Scarborough at which I confess I was somewhat puzzled This Well saith he though it be upon the top of the Rock not many yards deep and also upon the edge of the Cliff is doubtless supplied by secret Channels within the Ground that convey the Rain and Showers into it being placed on a dependent part of the Rock near unto which there are also Cellars under an old ruinated Chappel which after a great Rain are full of Water but are dried up in a long Drought As for what is said concerning the River Volgas pouring out so much water into the Caspian Sea as in a years time would make up a mass of water equal to the Globe of the Earth and of the hourly effusions of the River Po in Italy which Ricciolus hath computed to amount to 18000000 cubical Paces of water Whence a late learned Writer hath probably inferred that all the Rivers in the World together do daily discharge half an Ocean of waters into the Sea I must confess my self to be unsatisfied therewith I will not question their Calculations but I suspect they are out in their Hypotheses The Opinion of Mr. Edmund Halley that Springs and Rivers owe their Original to Vapours condensed on the sides of Mountains rather than unto Rains I acknowledge to be very ingenious grounded upon good Observations and worthy of its Author and I will not deny it to be in part true in those hot Countreys in the Torrid Zone and near it where by reason of the great Heats the Vapours are more copiously exhaled out of the Earth and its likely carried up high in the â—â—rm of Vapours The inferiour Aâ—r at least is so charged with them and by that means so very moist that in some places their Knives rust even in their Pockets and in the Night so very fresh and cold partly also by reason of the length of the Nights that exposing the Body to it causes Colds and Catarrhs and is very dangerous Whence also their Dews are so great as in good measure to recompence the want of Rain and serve for the nourishment of Plants as they do even in Spain it self I shall first of all propose this Opinion in the Words of the Author and then discourse a little upon it After he had enumerated many of the high Ridges and Tracts of Mountains in the four Quarters of the World he thus proceeds Each of which far surpass the usual height to which the Aqueous Vapours of themselves ascend and on the tops of which the Air is so cold and rarified as to retain but a small part of those Vapours that shall be brought thither by the Winds Those Vapours therefore that are raised copiously in the Sea and by the Winds are carried over the low Lands to those Ridges of Mountains are there compelled by the stream of the Air to mount up with it to the tops of the Mountains where the water presently precipitates gleeting down by the Crannies of the Stone and part of the Vapour entring into the Cavities of the Hills the water thereof gathers as in an Alembick into the Basons of Stone it finds which being once filled all the overpâ—us of water that comes thither runs over by the lowest place and breaking out by the sides of the Hills forms single Springs Many of these running down by the Valleys or Guts between the Ridges of the Hills and coming to unite form little Rivulets or Brooks Many of these again meeting in one common Valley and gaining the plain ground being grown less rapid become a River and many of these being united in one common Channel make such Streams as the Rhine the Rhosne and the Danube which latter one would hardly think the Collection of Water condensed out of Vapour unless we consider how vast a Tract of Ground that River drains and that it is the sum of all those Springs which break out on the South side of the Carpathian Mountains and on the North side of the immense Ridge of the Alps which is one continued Chain of Mountains from Switzerland to the Black Sea And it may almost pass for a Rule that the magnitude of a River or the quantity of water it evacuates is proportionable to the length and height of the Ridges from whence its Fountains arise Now this Theory of Springs is not a bare Hypothesis but founded on Experience which it was my luck to gain in my abode at St. Helena where in the night time on the tops of the Hills about Eight hundred yards above the Sea there was so strange a condensation or rather precipitation of the Vapours that it was a great impediment to my Celestial Observations for in the clear Sky the Dew would â—all â—o â—ait as to cover each half quarter of an hour my Glasses with little drops so that I was necessitated to wipe them off so often and my Paper on which I wrote my Observations would immediately be so wet with the Dew that it would not bear Ink by which it may be supposed how fast the water gathers in those mighty high Ridges I but
and therefore I presume that all the rest do so too as the Inabitants affirmed But in the Summer time after the Snow hath been some time melted their Streams decay again notwithstanding any Vapours condensed upon them proportionable to the Droughts neither are there any Floods but upon falls of Rain 3. That the Snow dissolved and soaking into the Earth is the Original of the Alpine Springs a probable Argument may be taken from the colour of the Water of those Rivers which descend from the Alps at least on this Northern side which I observed to be of a Sea-green even to a great distance from their Heads which whence can it proceed unless from the Nitrous Particles of the Snow water of which they consist Another also from the Bronchocele or gutturine tumour an Endemial Disease of the Natives of those parts which Physicians and Naturalists attribute to the water they drink not without good reason because say they it consists of melted Snow which gives it that malignant quality Scaliger speaking of this Disease Saith Id ab aqua fit è nivibus liquefactis quae multum terrestris crudi continet But because Iulius Palmarius may possibly be in the right who imputes this Disease to the steams of the Minerals especially Mercurial wherewith these Mountains abound which insect the waters and render them noxious to the nervous parts I shall not insist upon this particular In confirmation of what I have said concerning the Original of the Alpine Springs I shall add the Opinion of the Learned Alphonsus Borellus concerning the Fountains springing up or issuing out of the sides of Mount Aetna in Sicily They are probably saith he either generated or at least encreased from the melting of the Snow which doth perpetually occupy the top of the Mountain And this is manifest in that they are not dimished nor decrease in Summer as alsewhere it happens but often flow more plentifully Lib. De incendiis Aetnae What Mr. Halley saith of Springs that they are perpetual and without diminution even when no Rain falls for a long space of time If he understands it generally of all Springs I add that are accounted quick ones too I deny his assertion that some there may be of that nature I grant a reason whereof may be given viz. that the Out-let is too small to empty the water of all the Veins and Earth that lye above it in a long time In our Native Country of England there are living and lasting Springs rising at the feet of our small Hills and Hillocks to which I am sure the Vapours contribute very little which is so obvious to every man that I think I need not spend time to prove it Yet must I not dissemble or deny that in the Summer time the Vapours do ascend or are carried up in that form by the sides of the Mountains to their highest tops and above them for there falls no Snow there in the heat of Summer and that which lies there is for the most part dissolved But that Rain falls plentifully there I my self can witness having been on the two highest Tops of the Mount Iura which keeps the Snow all Winter on the one called Thuiri in a Thunder shower and on the other called la Dolaz in a smart and continuing Rain So that I will not deny but in Summer time the Vapours may contribute somewhat to the Springs as I have elsewhere intimated Clouds almost continually hanging upon the tops of the Mountains and the Sun having there but little power And now that I am discoursing of these things give me leave to set down an Observation I made in the last great Frost the sharpest that was ever known in the memory of Man which I had before met with in Books but did not give firm credit to that is that notwithstanding the violence of the Frost all the Springs about us brake out and ran more plentifully than usually they did at any other time which I knew not what to impute to unless perchance the close stopping the Pores of the Earth and keeping in that part which at other times was wont to vapour away which Account I neither then could nor can yet fully acquiesce in To this I will here add an Abstract of a Letter written by my honoured Friend Dr. Tancred Robinson YOV may peradventure meet with some opposition against your Hypothesis of Fountains though indeed I am more and more confirm'd in your Opinion of them and the use of the Mountains Father Tachart in his second Voyage to Siam says when he went up to the top of the Table Mountain at the Cape of Good Hope the Rocks and Shrubs were perpetually dropping and feeding the Springs and Rills below there being generally Clouds hanging on the sides near the top This constant distillation of Vapours from the Ocean on the many high Ridges of that great Promontory may peradventure be one cause of the wonderful fertility and luxury of the Soil which produces more rare Plants and Animals then any known Spot of Ground in the World the Discovery whereof is owing to the Curiosity and Wisdom of the Dutch The same observation hath been frequently made by our English Merchants in the Madera and Canary Islands the first of which is near in the same Latitude on the North of the Aequator that the afore-mentioned Cape is in on the South especially in their Iourneys up to the Pike of Tenerist in which at such and such heights they were always wet to the skin by the droppings of the great Stones yet no Rain over head the same I have felt in passing over some of the Alps. The Trees which in the Islands of Ferro St. Thomas and in Guiny are said to furnish the Inhabitants with most of their water stand on the sides of vast Mountains Vossius in his Notes on Pomponius Mela affirms them to be Arborescent Ferula's though indeed according to Paludanus his dry'd Sample sent to the Duke of Wirtenberg they seem rather to be of the Laurel kind perhaps there are many different sorts of them I believe there is something in the many Relations of Travellers and Voyagers concerning these Trees but then I fancy they are all mistaken when they say the water issues out of the Trees The Vapors stop't by the Mountains condense and distil down by the Boughs There being no Mountains in Egypt may be one reason why there is little or no Rain in that Country and consequently no fresh Springs therefore in their Caravans they carry all their water with them in great Borracio's and they owe the Inundation of their River Nile to the stationary or periodical Rains on the high parts of Aethiopia This may be the cause that the vast Ridge and Chain of Mountains in Peru are continually water'd when the great Plains in that Countrey are all dry'd up and parch't This Hypothesis concerning the Original of Springs from Vapours may hold better in those hot Regions within
and near the Tropicks where the Exhalations from the Sea are most plentiful most rarify'd and Rain scarce than in the Temperate and Frigid ones where it rains and snows generally on the Vertices of the Mountains yet even in our European Climates I have often observ'd the Firs Pines and other Vegetables near the Summits of the Alps and Appennines to drop and run with water when it did not rain above some Trees more than others according to the density and smoothness of their Leaves and Superficies whereby the stop and condense the Vapours more or less The Beams of the Sun having little force on the high parts of Mountains the interrupted Vapours must continually moisten them and as in the head of an Alembick condense and trickle down so that we owe part of our Rain Springs Rivers and Conveniencies of Life to the operation of Distillation and Circulation by the Sun the Sea and the Hills without even the last of which the Earth would scarce be habitable This present year in Kent they have had no Rain since March last therefore most of their Springs are dry at this very day as I am assur'd from good Hands The high spouting of water even to three Fathoms perpendicular out of innumerable holes on the Lake Zirknitz in Carniola after Rains on the adjacent Hills exceeds the spirting Gips or natural Jet d' Eaus we have in England Nouemb. 12. 1691. Tancred Robinson Since the receipt of this Letter an Experiment give me leave so to call it occurred to me which much confirmed me in the belief and perswasion of the Truth of those Histories and Relations which Writers and Travellers have delivered to us concerning dropping Trees in Ferro S. Thome Guiny c. of which before I was somewhat diffident and likewise in the approbation of the Hypothesis of my Learned Friend Dr. Tancred Robinson for the solving of that Phaenomenon The same also induces me to believe that Vapours may have a greater interest in the production of Springs even in temperate and cold Regions than I had before thought The Experiment or Observation is this About the beginning of December 1691. there happened to be a Mist and that no very thick one which continued all day the Vapour whereof notwithstanding the Trees were wholly devested of Leaves condensed so fast upon their naked Branches and Twigs that they dropped all day at such a rate that I believe the water distilling from a large Tree in twenty four hours had it been all received and reserved in a Vessel might have amounted to a Hogshead What then may we rationally conjecture would have dropped from such a Tree had it been covered with Leaves of a dense Texture and smooth Superficies apt to collect the Particles of the Vapour and unite them into Drops It is clear by this effect that Trees do distil water apace when Clouds or Mists hang about them which they are reported by Benzo constantly to do about the Fountain Tree in Ferro except when the Sun shines hot upon it And others tell us that that Tree grows upon a Mountain too So that it is no wonder that it should drop abundance of water What do I speak of that Tree all the Trees of that kind grow on the sides of vast Mountains as Dr. Robinson hath noted yet he thinks that now and then many Trees may run and distil in Plains and Valleys when the Weather has been fair but then this Phaenomenon happens very rarely whereas in the other 't is regular and constant Besides that in hot Regions Trees may in the Night time distil water though the Air be clear and there be no Mist about them seems necessarily to follow from Mr. Halley's Experiment Now if there be in Mists thus much Vapour condensed upon Trees doubtless also there is in proportion as much upon the Surface of the Earth and the Grass And consequently upon the Tops and Ridges of high Mountains which are frequently covered with Clouds or Mists much more so much as must needs have a great interest in the production and supply of Springs even in temperate Countries But that invisible Vapours when the Sky is clear do at any time condense so fast upon the Trees as to make them drop I never observed in England or elsewhere no not in the Night season though I do not deny but upon the Appennine and Southern side of the Alps and elsewhere in the hotter parts of Europe in Summer Nights they may However considering the Penetrancy of such Vapours that in moist Weather they will insinuate themselves deeply into the Pores of dry Wood so that Doors will then hardly shut and Chinks and Crannies in Boards and Floors be closed up I know not but that they may likewise strike deep into the Ground and together with Mists contribute to the seeding and maintenance of Springs in Winter-time when the Sun exhales but little it being an Observation of the Learned Fromondus Quod hyeme nec nivah nec imbrifera fontes tamen aquam largiùs quà m aejlate nisi valdè pluvia sit vomant That in Winters neither snowy nor rainy yet fountains pour forth more water than in Summer unless it happen to be a very wet season Yet are their Contributions inconsiderable if compared with the supplies that are aâ—â—orded by Rains And one reason why in Winter Fountains flow more plentifully may be because then the Sun defrauds them not nor exhales any thing out of the Earth as in Summer time he doth Therefore whenever in this Work I have assigned Rain to be a sufficient or only cause of Springs and Rivers I would not be understood to exclude but to comprehend therein Mists and Vapours which I grant to have some interest in the production of them even in temperate and cold Regions and a very considerable one in Hot. Though I cannot be perswaded that even there they are the sole Cause of Springs for that there fall such plentiful and long continuing Rains both in the East and West-Indies in the Summer Months which must needs contribute something to their Original But to return from whence we digressed that is to the consideration of that Hypothesis or Opinion That all the Rivers of the Earth discharge into the Sea half an Ocean of waters daily I have read of some Philosophers who imagined the Earth to be a great Animal and that the Ebbing and Flowing of the Sea was the respiration of it And now methinks if this Doctrine be true we have a further Argument to confirm their Opinion For this perpetual Motion of the water answers very well to the Circulation of the Blood the water moving faster in proportion to its bulk through the Veins of this round Animal then the Blood doth through those of other living Creatures To which we may add further that to maintain this constant Circulation there is also probably about the Center of the Earth a perpetual Fire answering to the Biolychnium in the heart but
deny these Bodies to have been the Shells and Bones of Fishes have given us no satisfactory account of the manner of their Production For that they do not shoot into that form after the manner of Salts may be proved by many Arguments First All Salts that shoot their Crystals or Concretions are of one uniform substance and their Figures are more simple and may be owing to the Figure of the Principles whereof they are compounded In other Bodies that shoot as the Pyrites and Belemnites one may observe streight Radii or Fibres proceeding from one Center Secondly Did those Bodies shoot into these Figures after the manner of Salts it seems strange to me that two shells should be so adapted together at the heel as to shoot out to the same extension round and the upper and nether Valve be of different Figure as in natural shells Thirdly Were these Bodies produced in the manner of saline Concretions it 's strange there should be such varieties of them and their shapes so regular and exactly circumscribed so great a diversity of Figures arguing a greater variety of Salts or of their modifications and mixtures than are likely to be found in Nature and the Concretions of Salts never that I have yet seen appearing in that regularity of Figure and due Circumscription as in these Bodies This Argument Steno in his Discourse concerning these Bodies improves and urges thus Who can deny that the hexaedrical Figure of Crystal the Cubes of Marcasites and the Crystals of Salts in Chymical Operations and infinite other Bodies coagulating and crystallizing in a fluid have Figures much more ordinate than are those of Scallops Cockles and other Bivalves and also Periwinckles and Turbens yet we see in these simple Bodies sometimes the top of a solid Angle cut off sometimes many of them without any order sticking one to another sometimes their Planes differing among themselves in magnitude and situation and many other ways receding from their usual Figure Which being so how much greater and more notable defects must there needs have been in Bodies that have a far more compound Figure such as are those which unitate the forms of Animals if they were in like manner generated Seeing therefore in these Bodies which are very much compounded these defects do seldom occur which in those other most simple Bodies are very frequent seeing there are no defects observed in these compound Bodies the like whereto are not in like manner seen in the Bodies of Animals And seeing that wheresoever they are found they are exceeding like both among themselves and to the parts of Animals it is very unlikely they should shoot into those Figures after the mannor of Salts but on the contrary highly probable that they were originally the parts of Animals the similitude of conformation in their Pores Striae Hinges Teeth Prominences Threds c. almost necessarily inferring a similitude of Original which is an Argument of the Government of some Principle superiour to Matter figured and moved in their Formations Fourthly Were these Bodies nothing but Concretions of Salts or saline mixtures it seems no less strange that so many Liquors impregnated with all sorts of Salts and Mineral Juices in all proportions having been at one time or other industriously or accidentally exposed to crystallize and let stand long in Vessels there should never have been found in them any such Concretions For if any had happened we should doubtless have heard of them and the Observers would have improved such an Experiment to the Production of the like Bodies at their pleasure So I have finished what I have to alledge in defence of the latter part That these formed Stones were sometimes the real Shells or Bones of Fishes I mean the figured part of them I proceed now to set down what may be objected against this Opinion or offered in assertion of the contrary viz. That these Bodies are primitive Productions of Nature in imitation of the Shells and Bones of Fishes Against the former Opinion we have been pleading for it may be objected That there follow such strange and seemingly absurd Consequences from it as are hardly reconcileable to Scripture or indeed to sober Reason as First That the Waters must have covered the whole Earth even the highest Mountains and that for a long time there being found of these Shells not only in the most mountainous parts of our Country but in the highest Mountains in Europe the Appennine and Alps themselves and that not only scattered but amassed in great lumps and lying thick in Beds of Sand as we have before shewn Now this could hardly be the effect of a short Deluge which if it had carried any Shell-fish so high would in all likelyhood have scattered them very thin These Beds and Lumps of them necessarily inferring that they must have bred there which is a work of time Now the general Deluge lasted in the whole but ten Months and it 's not likely the Tops of the Mountains were covered half that time Neither is it less repugnant to Reason than Scripture for if the Waters stood so high above the Earth for so long a time they must by reason of their Confluence be raised as high above the Sea too But what is now become of this huge Mass of Waters equal to six or seven Oceans May not the Stoicks here set in and help us out at a dead lift The Sun and Moon say they might possibly sup it all up Yea but we cannot allow time enough for that for according to the moderate Draughts they take now a-days one Ocean would suffice to water them many Ages unless perchance when they were young and hot they might need more drink But to be serious I have no way to answer this Objection but by denying that there are any Beds or great Lumps and Masses of these formed Stones to be found near the Tops of the Alps or other high Mountains but yet there might be some particular Shells scattered there by the general Deluge Unless we should say that those Mountains where such Shells are found were anciently depressed places and afterward raised up by Earthquakes Another thing there is as difficult to give an account of as of the Shells getting up to the Tops of Mountains that is of those several Beds or Floors of Earth and Sand c. one above another which are observed in broken Mountains For one cannot easily imagine whence these Floor or Beds in the manner of strata super strata as the Chymists speak should come but from the Sediments of great Floods which how or whence they could bring so great a quantity of Earth down when there was but little Land above the Sea I cannot see And one would likewise be apt to think that such a Bed of Sands with plenty of Cockle-shells intermixt as we mentioned before in the Mountain near Bononia in Italy must have been sometimes the bottom of the Sea But before one can give a right judgment
considerable and remarkable mutations that have been made in the Earth have been on the Sea-coasts either by carrying on the Land into the Lea and atterrating the bottom of the Sea or by drowning the Lands near the Sea by Irruptions and Inundations thereof or undermining or washing away the shores Of the first sort of Change by Atterration or making the Sea dry Land we have an eminent Instance in the Dutch Netherlands which I easily consent with Verstegan so far as they are even and plain without any Hills have undoutedly heretofore in time long past been Sea as appears 1. From the lowness of their situation some of the more Maritime Parts of them as Zealand and Holland and part of Flanders being so low that by breach or cutting of the Sand Banks or Downs which the Sea by little and little hath cast up and the labour of Man here and there supplied might easily be drowned and converted into Sea again and of the great harms that these Parts have heretofore by the Irruption of the Sea sustained But now not only those low Places that adjoyn upon the Sea as Holland and Zealand but the greater part of Flanders and Brabant though they lye not so low as they but of such height as no Inundation of the Sea can any whit annoy them though the Sand-Banks and Downs on the Sea-side were never so much broken or cut through yet are they as even and level as even Holland and Zealand themselves which is a sufficient demonstration that they were once covered with Water For that Water will thus level Ground it often runs over is clear from Meadows and from the bottom of the Sea discovered at Low-water and we have Experience of no other Cause that doth or can effect it And therefore Lewis Guicciardine erroneously argues Hubert Thomas Secretary to Count Frederick Palatine of the Rhine of a Mistake for saying in his Description of the Country of Liege that the Sea hath come up even to Tongres Walls now well nigh an hundred English Miles from the Sea among other good Reasons alledging for the proof thereof that the great Iron-rings are there yet remaining unto which the Ships that there sometimes arrived were fastned I say erroneously seeing all the Countreys between that and the Sea are level and of an equal Superficies without any Hills or Risings 2. This appears not only from the great plainness and evenness of the Ground but in that the Soil generally both in Flanders and Brabant is sandy whence it seems naturally to follow that those Countreys were anciently the Flats Sands or shores of the Sea 3. In that digging about two Fathom more or less deep in the Earth innumerable shells of Sea-fish are found and that commonly in all places both of Field and Town and in many places the great Bones of Fishes Further saith Verstegan it is to be noted that albeit digging deep in the Earth in Brabant and Flanders great abundance of shels and bones of Fishes are to be found yet digging in the Earth in Holland and Zealand none at all are perceived howbeit on the Sands on the Sea-shore there are very many The reason whereof may be because those parts have been in time long past part of the depth of the Sea and the parts aforesaid of Brabant and Flanders the flats or shore and on the flats and not in the depths such kind of Shell-fish are naturally nourished This is a very plausible account But yet it hath been by experience found that if you dig deep enough even in Holland it self after many floors of several sorts of Earth you will at last come to Beds of shells For Varenius tells us that sinking a Well in Amsterdam after many beds or layers of Earth Sand Turf c. at an hundred foot depth they came to a bed of Sea-sand mixt with Cockle-shells of four foot thickness which doubtless was of old time the bottom of the Sea and all the other beds above it were brought down partly by Floods subsiding and settling there partly by the working of the Sea spreading beds of Sand upon the layers of the Earth and so interchangeably But from this Experiment it doth appear that however deep the Sea were thereabouts yet it was not too deep to breed or harbour shell-fish Another great instance of Change made in the Superficies of the Earth by atterration is in our own Country the great level of the Fens running through Holland in Lincolnshire the Isle of Ely in Cambridgeshire and Marshland in Norfolk Which that it was sometime part of the Sea and atterrated by Land brought down by Floods from the upper Grounds seems to me evident in that it is near the Sea and in that there is thereabout a concurrence of many great Rivers which in Flood-times by the abundance of mud and silt they bring down there subsiding have by degrees raised it up and thirdly in that the whole Country is exactly level like the bottom of the Sea it being as I have already said the nature of the Water flowing over the Earth in time to level and bring to a plain all places that are soft and yielding and not rocky as is seen in Meadows and in the bottom of the Sea discovered at low-Low-water A third Instance is the Craux in Provence in France anciently called Campus Lapideus of which Pliny saith it was Herculis praeliorum memoria and Strabo out of Aeschylus gives us a Poetical Fable that the stones were rained down by Iupiter in favour of Hercules when he wanted Darts that he might cast them at the Ligurian Army and thereby break and scatter it Posidonius thinks it was once a Lake which by fluctuation dried up and so the stones came to be equally dispersed over the bottom of it That it was a very ancient thing is clear having its original in the fabulous times before any Memoirs of true History it continues to this day such a kind of place as it was in Strabo's time It appears so evidently to any one who hath viewed and considered it to have been once part of the Sea from its being exactly level and strowed all over with stones as I have observed the bottom of the Sea in many places to be that there is not the least reason to doubt of it The River Arnus in Tuscany now falleth into the Sea six Miles below Pisa whereby it appeareth saith Dr. Hakewil that the Land hath gained much upon the Sea in that Coast for that Strabo in his time reporteth it was but twenty Furlongs that is but two Miles and an half distant from the Sea I might to these add many other Instances of Atterrations out of Strabo in his first Book as about the Outlets of Ister the places called Stethe and the Deserts of Scythia about those of Phasis the Sea-coast of Colchis which is sandy and low and soft About Thermodon and Iris all Themiscyra the plain of the Amazons and the most part of Sidene
To omit the whole Land of Egypt which probably was covered originally with the Sea and raised up by the mud and silt brought down by the Nile in its Annual Floods subsiding there as I shall have occasion to shew afterwards Moreover Varenius rationally conjectures that all China or a great part of it was originally thus raised up and atterrated having been anciently covered with the Sea for that that great and impetuous River called the Yellow or Saffron River coming out of Tartary and very often though not at anniversary seasons overflowing the Countrey of China is said to contain in it so much Earth and Sand as make up a third part of its Waters The evenness and level Superficies of this whole Country of China render this Conjecture the more probable In fine the like Atterrations appear to have been made about the Mouths of Indus and Ganges in the East-Indies and the River de la Plata in America and the Rhodanus in France and doubtless most other great Rivers throughout the whole World To all which if we add the spatious Plains that are on each side most great Rivers from their Mouths many Miles up their Channels as may be observed in the Thames and Trent in England which probably were at first Sinuses of the Sea landed up by Earth brought down from the Mountains and upper Grounds in times of Floods it will appear that in this respect there hath been a very great Change made in the Terraqueous Globe the dry Land much enlarged and the Sea straitned and cut short But you will say Hath there been no compensation made for all this Hath not the Sea other-where gained as much as it hath lost about the Mouths of the Rivers If not then the Sea will in time be so far landed up or straitned till it be compelled to return again and overflow the whole Earth To which I answer That where the shores are Earthy or Argillaceous or Gravelly or made of any crumbling and friable matter the Sea doth undermine and subvert them and gain upon the Land which I could prove by many Instances some of which I shall afterward touch But whether the Sea doth in these places gain proportionably to what it loses in the fore-mentioned according to the Vulgar Proverb is to me some what questionable To proceed now to discourse a little concerning the Changes that have been made by the Irruptions and Inundations of the Sea or by its undermining and washing away the shores That there have been of old great Floods and much Land laid under Water by Inundations of the Sea is clear many such being recorded in History The most ancient of all next to the general Deluge in the days of Noah viz. that of Ogyges King of Boetia or rather Attica seems to have been of this nature So doth that of a great part of Achaia in Peloponnesus wherein the Cities of Bura and Helice were overwhelmed and laid under Water Cambden out of Gyraldus reports That anciently a great part of Pembrokeshire ran out in the form of a Promontory towards Ireland as appears by that Speech of King William Rufus That he could easily with his Ships make a Bridge over the Sea so that he might pass on foot from thence to Ireland This Tract of Ground being all buried in deep Sands during the Reign of King Henry the Second was by the violence of a mighty storm so far uncovered that many stumps of great Trees appeared fastned in the Earth Ictúsque securium tanquam hesterni saith Giraldus and the strokes of the Axes in them as if they had been cut but yesterday ut non littus jam sed lucus esse videretur mirandis rerum mutationibus so that now it made shew of a Wood rather than of a Strand such is the wonderful Change of all things In the time of King Henry the First of England there happened a mighty Inundation in Flanders whereby a great part of the Country was irrecoverably lost and many of the poor distressed People being bereft of their Habitation came into England where the King in compassion of their Condition and also considering that they might be beneficial to his Subjects by instructing them in the Art of Clothing first placed them about Carlisle in the North and after removed them into South-Wales where their Posterity hath ever since remained In the Year 1446. there perished 10000 People by the breaking in of the Sea at Dordrecht in Holland and thereabouts and about Dullart in Friesland and in Zealand above 100000 were lost and two or three hundred Villages drowned some of their Steeples and Towers when the Tide is out still appearing above water Mr. Carew of Antony in his Survey of Cornwal affirmeth That the Sea hath ravened from that Shire the whole County of Lioness And that such a County there was he very sufficiently proves by many strong Reasons Camden in his Britannia reports out of ancient Records That upon the Kentish Coast not far from Thanet is a sandy dangerous place which the Inhabitants call Goodwyns Sands where an Island being the Patrimony of Earl Goodwyn was swallowed up in the Year 1097. But the greatest Change of this kind that ever was made if it be true was the submersion of the vast Island o◠Atlantis whereof we have already spoken As for the Changes that have been made by undermining and washing away the shores they have been partly the diminishing of the Land and partly the raising up of several Islands not far from the shores So the Baltick Sea hath invaded the shores of Pomerania and destroyed a famous Mart-town called Vineta So the ancient Borough of Donewich in Suffolk is almost quite eaten away and ruined by the Encroachments of the Sea And it is said that the Ocean hath cut off twenty Miles from the North part of the Island of Ceylan in India so that it is much less at this day than formerly it was And many the like Examples there are And for the raising up of Islands near the shore very likely it is that the Sea continually preying upon the shore and washing away abundance of Earth from thence cannot carry it far to any great distance from the shores but lets it fall by little and little in their Neighbourhood which subsiding or settling continually for some Ages at last the heaps ascend up to the very Superficies of the Water and become Islands Hence in the middle of the Ocean there are no Islands or but a very few because those parts are too remote from the shores for any Earth washed from thence to be carried thither and if it were yet the Sea thereabout is too deep to have any heap raised in it so high besides the motions of the Water in those depths were there Earth enough would overthrow any heap before it could be advanced any thing near the top But all Islands in general a very few excepted are about the shores or not far from the shores
of the great Continents Which thing is especially to be remarked in all the great heaps or swarms of numerous Islands they being all near to the Continents those of the Aegean Sea to Europe and Asia the Hesperides to Africa and the Maldivae which are thought to amount to eleven thousand to India only the Flandricae or Azores seem to be situate in the middle of the Ocean between the Old and New World Besides these Changes about the Sea-coasts by the prevailing of the Land upon the Sea in some places and the Sea upon the Land in others the whole Continents seem to suffer a considerable mutation by the diminution and depression or sinking of the Mountains as I shall have occasion to shew afterward in the third Discourse Aelian in his eighth Book cap. 11. telleth us that not only the Mountain Aetna but Parnassus and Olympus did appear to be less and less to such as sailed at Sea the height thereof sinking Of this lowring and diminution of the Mountains I shall not say much in this place but taking it for granted at present only in brief intimate the Causes of it assigned by that learned Mathematician Iosephus Blaâ—canus which are partly Rain-water and partly Rivers which by continual fretting by little and little wash away and â—at out both the tops and sides and feet of Mountains and fill up the lower places of the Valleys making the one to encrease and the other to decrease whereby it appears saith Dr. Hakewil that what the Mountain loseth the Valley gains and consequently that in the whole Globe of the Earth nothing is lost but only removed from one place to another so that in process of time the highest Mountains may be humbled into Valleys and again which yet I will not allow him the lowest Valleys exaâ—â—ed into Mountains He proceeds Anaxagoras as Diogenes Laertius reports in his Life being demanded what he thought Whether the Mountains called Lapsaceni would in time be covered with Sea answered Yes unless time it self fail which answer of his seems to confirm the opinion of Blancanus De Mundi fabrica cap. 4. where he maintains That if the World should last long enough by reason of this continual decrease of the Mountains and the levelling of the Valleys the Earth would again be overslown with Waters as at first it was Beside these more eminent and remarkable Changes which in process of time after a long succession of many Ages threaten some great effect indeed no less then a reduction of the World to its primitive state before the separation of the Land and Water There have been many other lesser mutations made either by Earthquakes and Eructations of burning Mountains or by great Floods and Shots of Rain or by violent or tempestuous Winds and Hurricans some whereof are mentioned by Naturalists and Historians Strabo Pliny Seneca Ovid and others For Earthquakes Posidonius quoted by Strabo in his first Book writes That there was a City in Phoenicia situate above Sidon swallowed up by an Earthquake and that almost two thirds of Sidon it self fell therein though not suddenly and all at once so that there was no great destructioÌ„ or slaughter of men happened The same extended almost over all Syria though not violently and reached as far as some of the Cyclades Islands and Euboea where the Fountains of Arethusa in Chalcis were stopped up by it and after many days broke forth again at another source neither did it cease to shake the Island by parts till the Earth opening in the Field Lelantus vomited out of a River of fiery Clay The same Strabo tells us That Democles mentions huge Earthquakes of old in Lydia and Ionia extending as far as Troas by which many Villages were swallowed up and Sipylus overthrown when Tantalus reigned and great Lakes made of Fens And that Duris saith That the Rhagades Islands by Media were so called from the Lands about the Caspiae Portae being torn and broken by Earthquakes so that many Cities and Villages were overthrown and several Rivers received alterations And Demetrius Calatianus relating the Earthquakes that happened throughout Greece writes That a great part of the Lichades Islands and Cenaeus had been drowned thereby and that the hot Baths at Aedepsus and in Thermophylae having been stopt for three days slowed again and those of Aedepsus from new Sources That the Wall of Oreus on the Sea-side and seven hundred Houses were thrown down and a great part of Echinus and Heraclea Trachinia but the whole building of Phalarnus was overturned from the very Soil or Plain of it the like happened to the Larians and Larissâ—aus and that Scarphia was utterly demolished and subverted from the very foundations and not fewer then 1700 Persons over-whelmed and buried and more then half that number of the Thronii Pliny in his first Book chap. 84. tell us that in the Reign of Tiberius Caesar there happened an Earthquake the greatest that ever was in the memory of Man wherein twelve Cities of Asia were prostrated in one night But what is that to what St. Augustine writes Lib. 2. De Miraculis SS cap. 3. if that Book he his In famoso quodam terroe motu centum Libyae Vrbes corruisse That in a famous Earthquake an hundred Cities of Libya were demolished The City of Antioch where the Disciples of Christ were first called Christians with a great part of Asia bordering upon it was almost wholly subverted and swallowed up by an Earthquake in Trajan's time as Dion Cassius writes Trajan himself then wintering there The same City of Antioch in the time of Iustinian in the Year of our Lord 528. was again shaken with a terrible Earthquake wherein were overwhelmed and buried in the ruins of the Houses above 40000 of the â—itizens And lastly in the 61 Year after the last mentioned Earthquake being again shaken by a new one it lost 60000 of its Inhabitants Gregory the then Bishop being by the Divine Favour and in a manner miraculously preserved the House wherein he abode falling down presently after his going out of it Eusebius and Spartianus make mention of an Earthquake in the Emperour Adrian's time wherein Nicomedia and Nicaea of Bithynia and Nicopolis and Caesarea Cities of Palaestina were thrown down and ruined In the Year 1182. when Saladin set himself to overthrow the Kingdom of Ierusalem there happened an Earthquake in which Antiochia Laodicea Alapia Caesarea Emissa Tripolis and other famous Cities were almost wholly thrown down and destroyed To omit many that are recorded in ancient Histories and to come near to our times Aeneas Sylvius afterwards Pope by the Name of â—ius the Second in a Letter of his to the Emperour Frederick thus pitifully describes an Earthquake that fell out in his time Audies ex latore praesentium quà m mirabilia incredibilia damna fecerit Terraemotus in Reguo Apuliae nam multa oppida funditus corruerunt alia magna ex parte collapsa sunt Neapoli omnes fere
Ecclesiae maxima Palatia ceciderunt plusquam triginta millia corpora oppressa ruinis traduntur populus omnis habitat in tentoriis i. e. You shall understand by the Bearer of these Presents what wonderful and incredible losses an Earthquake hath wrought in the Kingdom of Apulia for many Towns are utterly ruined others for the greatest part fall'n In Naples almost all their Churches and sair Palaces are overthrown more then 30000 Persons are said to have been slain all the Inhabitants dwell in Tents This Kingdom of Naples especially Apulia and Calabria hath I think been oftner shaken and suffered more by Earthquakes than any other part of Europe For Cluverius tells us That in the Year 1629. there were dreadful Earthquakes in Apulia by which 17000 Men are said to have perished And Athanasius Kircher the Jesuite in the Preface to his Mundus Subterraneus gives us a sad Narrative of a dismal Earthquake in Calabria in the Year 1638. wherein himself was and out of which he hardly escaped with his Life Nothing to be â—â—en in the whole Country he passed by for two hundred Miles in length but the Carcasses of Cities and the horrible ruins of Villages the Inhabitants wandring about in the open Fields being half dead with fear and expectation of what might follow But most remarkable was the subversion of the noted Town of S. Eufemia which was quite lost out of their sight and absorpt and instead thereof nothing left but a stinking Lake But for a full account thereof I refer the Reader to the said Preface Not many years ago the famous City of Ragusa was almost wholly subverted and destroyed by a terrible Earthquake and Smyrna has lately been demolished by one From the West-Indies we hear frequently of great Damages done in our Plantations by Earthquakes The printed Transactions and Journals are full of these great Concussions and Subversions This present Year 1692. on the Seventh day of Iune there happened a dreadful Earthquake in the Island of Iamaica which made great Ruins and Devastations throughout the whole Country but especially in the Capital Town of Port Royal which was almost swallow'd up and overflow'd by the sinking of the Earth and irruption of the Sea a full Account whereof contained in two Letters sent from the Minister of the Place the one dated Iune the 22d the other the 28th of the same Month 1692. from aboard the Granada in Port-Royal Harbour to a Friend of his England and published by Authority I shall give the Reader with some Remarks 1. He tells us in general That this Earthquake threw down almost all the Houses Churches Sugar-works Mills and Bridges throughout the whole Island That it tore the Rocks and Mountains others tell us that it levelled some Mountains and reduced them to Plains that it destroyed some whole Plantations and threw them into the Sea but that Port-Royal had much the greatest share in this terrible Judgment 2. Then he acquaints us what for to save the Reputation of the People and to avoid the laying a perpetual blot upon them I should rather suppress and conceal but for the vindication of the Divine Providence and Justice and to deter others from the like Enormities I think necessary to publish That the Inhabitants of that Place were a most ungodly and debauched People and so desperately wicked that he was even afraid to continue among them for that very day this terrible Earthquake was as soon as night came on a company of lewd Rogues whom they call Privateers fell to breaking open Warehouses and Houses deserted to rob and riâ—â—e their Neighbours whilst the Earth trembled under them and some of the Houses â—ell upon them in the Act. The like Robbers and Plunderers we were told wandered up and down the Country even in the very smoke during the last great â—urning and eruption of Aetna in Sicily And those audacious Whores that remained still upon the Place were as impudent and drunken as ever and that since the Earthquake when he was on shore to pray with the bruiâ—ed and dying People and to Christen Children he met with too many drunk and swearing And in his second Letter he saith positively That there was not a more â—â—godly People on the Face of the Earth â— The Account he gives of the Motions and 〈◊〉 of the Earthquake is as follow◠〈…〉 when this Calamity beâ—el the 〈…〉 very clear affording 〈…〉 evil This 〈…〉 Earthquakes and 〈…〉 in England the 〈…〉 being clear and calm But 〈…〉 about half in 〈…〉 Morning 〈…〉 Town in all the English 〈…〉 might he call it so 〈…〉 place of his Letter 〈…〉 the Wharf were 〈…〉 those in 〈…〉 and Mart or 〈…〉 in Riches and abounding in all good things was shaken and shattered to pieces and covered for the greatest part by the Sea The Wharf was entirely â—wallowed by the Sea and two whole Streets beyond it Himself with the President of the Council being in a House near where the Merchants meet hearing the Church and Tower fall ran to save themselves He having lost the President made toward Morgan's Fort because being a wide open place he thought to be there â—ecurest from the falling Houses but as he was going he saw the Earth open and swallow up a multitude of People and the Sea mounting in upon them over the Fortifications Moreover he tells us That their large and famous Burying place called the Pallisado's was destroyed by the Earthquake and that the Sea washed away the Carcasses of those that were buried out of their Graves their Tombs being dashed to pieces by the motion and concussion That the whole Harbour one of the fairest and goodliest that ever he saw was covered with the dead Bodies of People of all Conditions floating up and down without burial That in the opening of the Earth the Houses and Inhabitants sinking down together some of these were driven up again by the Sea which arose in those Breaches and wonderfully escaped Some were swallowed up to the neck and then the Earth shut upon them and squeezed them to death and in that manner several were left buried with their Heads above ground only some Heads the Dogs have eaten others are covered with Dust and Earth by the People which yet remain in the place to avoid the stench So that they conjecture that by the falling of the Houses the opening of the Earth and the inundation of the Waters there are lost Fifteen hundred persons and many of good note as Attorney General Musgrove Provost Marshal Reeves Lord Secretary Reeves c. Further he tells us That after he was escaped into a Ship he could not sleep all night for the returns of the Earthquake almost every hour which made all the Guns in the Ship to jar and rattle And he supposes that the whole Town of Port-Royal will in a short time be wholly swallowed by the Sea for few of those Houses that yet stand are left whole and that they heard them fall every day
and catch bold of the flame lengthning it to two or three handfuls By these Descriptions this Damp should seem to be but Gunpowder in a vapour and to partake the Sulphur Nitre and Bitumen as the Learned Dr. Plot well proves in his Natural History of Staffordshire C. 3. § 47. to which I refer the Reader But for the accension of it whether it ever takes fire of it self I am in some doubt Mr. Iessop deâ—ies it of those of Hasleberg and Wingersworth and how far those Relators that affirm it are to be credited I know not If in this particular I were satisfied I should readily accord with the Doctor That our Earthquakes in England and any others that have but one single Pulse owe their Original to the kindling and explosion of Fire-damps You will say That fire is the cause of Thunder we readily grant because we see it plentifully discharged out of the Clouds but what reason have we to think so of this sort of Earthquakes where we see no lightning or eruption of fire at all What becomes of the inclosed flame In answer hereto I demand what becomes of it in the open Air It diffuses it self through the Caverns of the Earth till the deflagration be made and is there dissipated and dissolved into Fume and Ashes It breaks not forth I conceive because by reason of the depth of the Caverns wherein it is lodged it is not able to overcome the resistance of the incumbent Earth but is forced Quà data porta ruere to make its way where it finds easiest passage through the strait Cuniculi of the Earth as in a Gun the inflamed Powder though if it were at liberty and found equal resistance on every side it would spread equally every way yet by reason of the strength and firmness of the Mettal it cannot tear the Barrel in pieces and so break out but is compelled to fly out at the muzzel where it finds an open though strait passage For the force of flame though very great is not infinite It may be further objected We hear not of any eruption of fire at Port-Royal or elsewhere in this Island and yet the Earth open'd and the roofs of the Caverns fell in therefore fire could not be the cause of this Earthquake for if it had at those apertures and rifts of the ground it must needs have issued forth and appeared abroad To which I answer That the Vaults and Cavities wherein the inflamed Matter was imprisoned and the explosion made lay deep in the Earth and were covered with a thick and impenetrable Coat of hard stone or other solid matter which the fire could not tear but that above this coat there were other superficial hollows in a more loose and crumbling Earth which being not able to sustain the shock and hold out against the impetuous agitations of the Earthquake the roofs might yield open and subside as we hear they did and give way to the Sea to rush in and surmount them You will reply This may be a tolerable account of our English Earthquakes which are finished at one explosion but what shall we say to those of Iamaica which like a Tempest of Thunder and Lightning in the Clouds have as we learn by this Relation several Paroxysms or Explosions and yet no discharging of fire To which I answer That I conceive the Caverns of the Earth wherein the inflamed Damps are contained are much larger there then ours in England and the force of the fire joyned with the elatery of the Air being exceeding great may of a sudden heave up the Earth yet not so far as to rend it in â—under and make its way out but is forced to seek passage where it finds least resistance through the lateral Cuniculi So the main Cavern being in a great measure emptied and the exteriour parts of the extended matter within cooling and shrinking the Earth may subside again and reduce the Cavern to its former dimensions Yet possibly there may not be a perfect defiagration and extinction of the fire and so new Damps ascending out of the Earth and by degrees filling the Cavern there may succeed a second inflamation and explosion and so a third and fourth till the steams be quite burnt up and consumed But in this I confess I do not satisfie my self They who have a more comprehensive knowledge of all the Phoenomena may give a better account But as for those Earthquakes that are occasioned by the burnings of Vulcano's they are I conceive of a different nature For in them the fire burns continually and is never totally extinct only after the great eruptions in which besides smoke and fire there is an ejection of abundance of Ashes Sand Earth Stones and in some floods of melted Materials the raging is for a time qualified but the fire still continuing and by degrees increasing in the combustible matter it finds in the hollows of the Mountains at last swells to that excess that it melts down Metals and Minerals where it meets with them causing them to boil with great fury and extending it self beyond the dimensions of the Cavities wherein it is contained causes great succussions and tremblings of the Earth and huge eruptions of smoke and casts out such quantities of Ashes Sand and Stones as we just now mentioned and after much thunder and roaring by the allision and repercussion of the flame against and from the sides of the Caverns and the ebullition and volutation of the melted Materials it forces out that boiling matter either at the old mouths or at new ones which it opens where the incumbent Earth is more thin and yielding And if any water enters those Caverns it mightily encreaseth the raging of the Mountain For the fire suddenly dissolving the water into vapour expands it to a vast dimension and by the help thereof throws up Earth Sand Stâ—nes and whatever it meets with How great the force of water converted into vapour is I have sometimes experimented by inadvertently casting a Bullet in a wet mold the melted Lead being no sooner poured in but it was cast out again with violence by the particles of water adhering to the mold suddenly converted into vapour by the heat of the Metal Secondly The People of this Plantation being generally so ungodly and debauched in their lives this Earthquake may well be esteemed by this Gentleman the Minister of Port-Royal a Judgment of God upon them For though it may be a servile complaint and popular mistake that the former imes were better than these and that the World doth daily degenerate and grow worse and worse Aet as parentum pejor avis tulit hos nequiores mox daturos Progeniem vitiosiorem For had this been true Vice would long before this time have come to the height and greatest possible excess and this Complaint hath been made as well in the best as worst of times Though I say this be partly an errour yet I do verily believe that there
Town who retired thither perished there with many other persons there remaining only one Abby and about fifty Houses and those so shattered that they fell one after another There were about six hundred of the Inhabitants drown'd the rest being abroad in the Field gathering their silk fled to the Mountains where they suffered very much for want of Provisions The Goods Trees Stone Sand and other Rubbish which the Waters carried away were in so great abundance that they made a bank above the Water two Miles in length near the mouth of the River where before the Sea was very deep This Town is situate in that part of Sicily called the Valley of Demona on the side of the River Tortorica about five and Twenty Miles from the Tuscan Sea The Towns of Randazzo and Francaville and several others have likewise been destroyed by this great Flood It is added that Mount Aetna casts out such abundance of Water that all the neighbouring Country is drowned Which if it be true as I see no reason to doubt it this is a further proof against Borellius that the Caverns of Aetna are more then superficial and reach down to the very Roots and Foundations of that Mountain communicating with the Subterraneous Abyss and the Sea its self from whence in all likelyhood these Waters were derived as is evident in those poured out by Vesuvius Many other Floods we read of in Histories whether caused by Rains or Inundations of the Sea is uncertain and therefore I shall not spend time in setting them down The effect of all which relating to the Earth in general is the wasting and washing away of Mountains and high Grounds the raising of the Valleys and Bottoms and consequently levelling of the Earth and landing up of the Sea Thirdly The last thing I shall mention which hath effected considerable Changes in the Earth is boisterous and outragious Winds and Hurricanes of which I need not give Instances they every year almost happening These I conceive have a great Interest in the Inundations of the Sea we have before mentioned These raise up those great Hills or Downs of Sand we see all along the Coasts of the Low-Countreys and the Western-shores of England and the like places These sometimes blow up so much Sand and drive it so far as to cover the adjacent Countreys and to mar whole Fields yea to bury Towns and Villages They are also a concurrent cause of those huge Banks and Shelves of Sand that are so dangerous to Mariners and bar up Havens and ruin Port-Towns of which many Instances might be given I find in Dr. Hakewil's Apology a story or two shewing the great force and strength of Winds the one taken out of Bellarmine's Book De ascensu mentis in Deum per scal creat grad 2. Vidi ego saith the Cardinal quod nisi vidissem non crederem à vehementissimo vento effossam ingentem terrae molem eámque delatam super pagum quendam ut fovea altissima conspiceretur unde terra eruta fuerat pagus totus coopertus quasi sepultus manserit ad quem terra illa devenerat i. e. I my self have seen which if I had not seen I should not have believed a very great quantity of Earth digged out and taken up by the force of a strong Wind and carried up a Village thereby so that there remained to be seen a great empty hollowness in the place from whence it was lifted and the Village upon which it lighted was in a manner all covered over and buried in it The other out of Stow who reports That in the Year 1095. during the Reign of King William Rufus there happened in London an outragious Wind which bore down in that City alone six hundred Houses and blew off the Roof of Bow-Church with which the Beams were born into the Air a great height six whereof being 27 foot long with their fall were driven 23 foot deep into the ground the streets of the City lying then unpaved Now then to sum up what we have said The Changes and Alterations that have been made in the Superficial Part of the Terraqueous Globe have been effected chiefly by Water Fire and Wind. Those by Water have been either by the Motions of the Sea or by Rains and both either ordinary or extraordinary The ordinary Tides and Spring-tides of the Sea do wash away the shores and change Sand-banks and the like The extraordinary and tempestuous motions of the Sea raised by raging and impetuous Winds subterraneous Fires or some other hidden causes overwhelm Islands open Fretum's throw up huge beds and banks of Sand nay vast baiches of Stone extending some Miles and drown whole Countreys The ordinary Rains contribute something to the daily diminution of the Mountains filling up of the Valleys and atterrating the skirts of the Seas The extraordinary Rains causing great Floods and Deluges have more visible and remarkable influences upon such mutations doing that in a few days which the ordinary Weather could not effect it may be in an hundred years In all these Changes the Winds have a great interest the motion of the Clouds being wholly owing to them and in a great measure also the overflowings and inundations of the Sea Whatever Changes have been wrought by Earthquakes Thunders and Eruptions of Vulcano's are the effects of Fire All these Causes co-operate toward the lowring of the Mountains levelling of the Earth straitning and landing up of the Sea and in fine compelling the Waters to return upon the dry Land and cover the whole Surface of it as at the first How to obviate this in a natural way I know not unless by a transmutation of the two Elements of Water and Earth one into another which I can by no means grant 'T is true indeed the rocky parts of the Mountains may be so hard and impenetrable as to resist and hold out against all the Assaults of the Water and utmost rage of the Sea but then all the Earth and Sand being washed from them nothing but as it were their Skeletons will remain extant above the Waters and the Earth be in effect drowned But though I cannot imagine or think upon any natural means to prevent and put a stop to this effect yet do I not deny that there may be some and I am the rather inclinable so to think because the World doth not in any degree proceed so fast towards this Period as the force and agency of all these Causes together seem to require For as I said before the Oracle predicting the carrying on the shore of Cilicia as far as Cyprus by the Earth and Mud that the turbid River Pyramus should bring down and let fall in the interjacent strait is so far from being filled up that there hath not any considerable progress been made towards it so far as I have heard or read in these 2000 years And we find by experience that the longer the World lasts the fewer Concussions and
But to the Waves give way the Moon her Course shall bend Cross to her Brothers and disdaining still to drive Her Chariot wheel athwart the heavenly Oâ—b shall strive To rule the day this Frame to discord bent The Worlds Peace shall disturb and all in sunder rent This Dissolution of the World they held should be by Water and by Fire alternately at certain periods but especially by Fire which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Stoicks say that the cause of the destruction of the World is the irresistible force of Fire that is in things which in long periods of time consumes and dissolves all things into it self Euseb. Praep. l. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The most ancient of that Sect held That at certain vast Periods of time all things were rarified into Air being resolved into an Ethereal Fire This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Stoicks we find mentioned by many both Christian and Heathen Writers as besides the fore-quoted Minutius Felix Iustin Martyr Clemens Alexandrinus in 5. Strom. Plutarch Seneca and others The time of this Conflagration Seneca determines not but saith only it shall be when God pleases 3 Quaest. nat cap. 20. 8. Cùm Deo visum vetera finire ordiri meliora When it shall seem good to God to put an end to old things and to begin better Some there be who tell us of the Annus Platonicus or magnus by which they understand such a period of time as in which all the heavenly Bodies shall be restored to the same site and distance they were once in in respect of one another As supposing that all the Seven Planets were at the moment of Creation in the first degree of Aries till they come all to â—e in the same degree again all that space of 〈◊〉 is called the Great Year Annus magnus In this Year they tell us that the height of Summer is the Conflagration and the depth of Winter the Inundation and some Astrologers have been so 〈◊〉 as to assign the time both of the Inundation and Conflagration Seneca 3 Quest. Nat. cap. 20. Berosus qui Belum interpretaius est dicit cursu ista syderum fieri adeo quidem assirmat ut conflagrationi atque diluvio tempus asâ—ignet Arsura â—nim terrena contendit quando omnia sydera in Cancro convenerint inundationem futuram quando eadem syderum turba in Capricorno convenerit Berosus who interpreted Belus saith That those things come to pass according to the course of the Stars and he so confidently affirms it that he assigns the time both for the Conflagration and Inundation For that all earthly Bodies will be burnt up when all the Stars shall meet in Cancer and the Inundation will fall out when the same shall be in conjunction in Capricorn Concerning the manner of this Conflagration they held it should be sudden Senec. Natura subitò ad ruinam toto impeturuit licet ad originem parcè utatur viribus dispensetque se incrementis fallacibus Momento fit cinis diu sylva c. Nature doth suddenly and with all its force rush on to ruin though to the rise and formation of things it useth its strength sparingly dispensing its influence and causing them to grow by insensible degrees a Wood is long in growing up but reduced to Ashes almost in a moment And some of them were so absurd as to think that the Stars should justle and be dashed one against another Senec. lib. de consolatione ad Marciam Cùm tempus advenerit quo se mundus revoâ—aturus extinguat viribus ista se suis caedent sydeâ—â—â—yderilus incurrent omni flagrante materia uno igne quicquid nunc ex disposito lucet ardebit When the time shall come that the World again to restore and renew it self shall perish these things shall batter and mall themselves by their own strength the Stars shall run or fall foul upon one another and all the matter flaming whatsoever now according to its settled order and disposition shines shall then burn in one fire Here by the way we may with Dr. More Souls Immortality lib. 3. cap. 18. take notice how coursly not to say ridiculously the Stoicks Philosophize when they are turned out of their Road-way of Moral Sentences and pretend to give an account of the Nature of Things For what Errours can be more gross than they entertain of God of the Soul and of the Stars they making the two former Corporeal Substances and feeding the latter with the vapours of the Earth affirming that the Sun sups the Water of the great Ocean to quench his Thirst but that the Moon drinks off the lesser Rivers and Brooks which is as true as that the Ass drank up the Moon Such conceits are more sit for Anacreon in a drunken Fit to stumble upon who to invite his Companions to Tiple composed that Catch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Sea drinks up the Vapours And the Sun the Sea then to be either found out or owned by a serious Philosopher And yet Seneca mightily triumphs in this Notion of foddering the Stars with the thick Fogs of the Earth and declares his Opinion with no mean Strains of Eloquence c. As for the extent of this Conflagration they held that not only the Heavens should be burnt but that the Gods themselves should not escape Scot-free So Seneca Resoluto mundo Diis in unum confusis When the World shall be dissolved and the Gods confounded and blended together into one And again Atque omnes pariter Deos Perdet nox aliqua Chaos And in like manner a certain Night and Chaos shall destroy all the Gods Is not this wise Philosophy If their Morality were no better than their Physicks their Wise man they boast of might be so denominated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they of Gotham But let us look a little further and we shall find that the Stoicks were not the first Authors of this Opinion of the Conflagration but that it was of far greater Antiquity than that Sect. Others of the more ancient Philosophers having entertained it viz. Empedocles as Clemens Alexandrinus testifies in his 5 Strom. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That there shall sometime be a change of the World into the nature or substance of Fire 2. Heraclitus as the same Clemens shews at large out of him in the same place 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And Laertius in the Life of Heraclitus He taught 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That there is but one World and that it was generated out of Fire and again burnt up or turned into Fire at certain periods alternately throughout all Ages I might add to these the Ancient Greek Poets Sophocles and Diphilus as we find them quoâ—ed by Iustin Martyr and Clemens Alexandrinus Neither yet were these the first Inventers and Broachers of this Opinion but they received it by Tradition from their Forefathers and look'd
the steepest Rocks of any Mountains I have seen and that not only in their highest Cliffs but also in most of their other Crags till you descend to the lower Valleys This I can ascribe to nothing else but the Rains and Snow which fall on those high Mountains I think in ten times the quantity they do on the lower Hills and Valleys 2. I have observed a considerable quantity of the chips or parings if I may so call them of these Cliffs to lye in vast heaps at the roots of them and these are of several sorts and materials being in some places covered with Grass and in others as bare as the Sea-shore and those bare places do consist sometimes of Gravel and an innumerable number of Rock-fragments from a pound weight to twenty c. and are sometimes composed of huge Stones from an hundred pound weight to several Tuns 3. In the Valleys of Lhanberys and Nant-Phrankon the People find it necessary to rid their Grounds often of the Stones which the Mountain floods bring down and yet notwithstanding this care they often lose considerable parcels of Land 4. I affirm That by this means not only such Mountains as consist of much Earth and small Stones or of softer Rocks and such as are more easily dissoluble are thus wasted but also the hardest Rocks in Wales and they seem to be as weighty and of as firm and close a texture as Marble it self It happen'd in the Valley of Nant-Phrancon Anno 1685. that part of a Rock of one of the impendent Cliffs call'd 〈…〉 became so undermined doubtless by the continual Rains and subterraneous â—eins of Water occasioned by them that losing its hold it fell down in several pieces and in its passage down a sleep and craggy Cliff dislodged thousands of other Stones whereof many were intercepted e're they came down to the Valley but as much came down as ruin'd a small piece of Ground and several Stones were scatter'd at least 200 yards asunder In this Accident one great Stone the biggest remaining piece of the broken Rock made such a Trench in its descent as the small Mountain rills commonly run in and when it came down to the plain Ground it continued its passage through a small Meadow and a considerable Brook and lodged it self on the other side it From hence I gather that all the other vast Stones that lye in our mountainous Valleys have by such Accidents as this fallen down Vnless perhaps we may do better to refer the greatest part of them to the Vniversal Deluge For considering there are some thousands of them in these two Valleys of Lhanberys and Nant-Phranâ—on whereof for what I can learn there are but two or three that have fallen in the memory of any Man now living in the ordinary course of Nature we shall be compelled to allow the rest many thousands of years more then the Age of the World So far Mr. Lloyd To this last Particular and for a further account of it may be added That sometimes there happen strange and violent Storms and Hurricanes wherein the Rain is driven with that sorce upon the tops and sides of the Mountains by furious and tempestuous Winds as to do more execution upon them by breaking in pieces tearing and throwing down Rocks and Stones in a few days then in the ordinary course of Nature by the usual Weather is effected in many hundred years 2. By reason of the abundance of Earth thus washed off the Mountains by shots of Rain and carried down with the Floods to the Sea about the out-lets of the Rivers where the violent Motion of the Water ceases setling to the bottom and raising it up by degrees above the Surface of the Water the Land continually gains upon and drives back the Sea The Egyptian Pharos or Light-house of old time stood in an Island a good distance from Land which is now joyned to the Continent the interjacent Fretum having been filled up by the Silt brought down by the River Nilus in the time of the Flood subsiding there Indeed the ancient Historians do truly make the whole Land of Egypt to have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Gift of the River and by this means gained from the Sea Seneca in the sixth Book of his Nat. Quest. chap. 26. gives this account Aegyptus ex limo tota concrevit Tantum enim si Homero fides aberat à continenti Pharos quantum navis diurno cursu metiri plenis lata velis potest Sed continenti admota est Turbidus enim defluens Nilus multumque secum limum trahens eum subinde apponens prioribus terris Aegyptum annuo incremento semper ultra tulit Inde pinguis limosi soli est nec ulla intervalla in se habet sed crevit in solidum arescente limo quo pressa erat cedens structura c. that is all Egypt is but a Concretion of Mud. For if Homer may be believed the Pharos was as far distant from the Continent as a Ship with full sail could run in a days time but now it is joyned to it For Nilus flowing with troubled Waters brings down a great deal of Mud and Silt and adding it to the old Land carries on Egypt further and further still by an annual increase Hence it is of a fat and muddy Soil and hath no pores or cavities in it And this Reason he gives why it is not troubled with Earthquakes Which also may be the Reason why it hath no fresh Springs and Fountains For though indeed Dr. Robinson doth very probably impute its want of Rain and Springs to the want of Mountains yet because as we shall afterwards prove Springs may be derived from Mountains at a good distance I know not whether all Mountains are so far remote from Egypt as that there may be no subterraneous Channels of that length as to derive the Water even thither from them and therefore probably one Reason of their wanting of Springs may be the density and thickness of the Soil whereby it becomes impenetrable to the Water and it may be should they use the same Artifices there which the Inhabitants of the lower Austria and of the Territory of Modena and Bologna in Italy do that is dig and bore quite through this Coat of Mud till they come to a Sand or looser Earth they might in like manner procure themselves Fountains of springing Water Thus by reason of the great Rivers Po Athesis Brenta and others which empty themselves into the Lagune or Shallows about Venice in Italy and in times of Floods bring down thither great store of Earth those Lagune are in danger to be in time atterrated and with the City situate in the midst of of them added to the firm Land they being already bare at every Ebb only Channels maintain'd from all the neighbouring Places to the City not without considerable Charge to the State in Engines and Labourers in some places to clear them of the Mud
wherewith otherwise they would indanger to be obstructed and choaked up which Engines they call Cava-fango's Thus in the Camarg or Isle that the River Rhosne makes near Arles in Provence there hath been so much lately gained from the Sea that the Watch-tower had in the memory of some Men living 1665. been removed forward three times as we were there informed And it seems to me probable that the whole Low-Countreys were thus gained from the Sea For Varenius in his Geography tells us That sinking a Well at Amsterdam at near an hundred foot depth they met with a bed or floor of Sand and Cockle-shells whence it is evident one would think that of old time the bottom of the Sea lay so deep and that that hundred foot thickness of Earth above the Sand arose from the Sediments of the Waters of those great Rivers the Rhine Scheld Maes c. which there abouts emptied themselves into the Sea and in times of Floods brought down with them abundance of Earth from the upper Grounds The same Original doubtless had that great Level of the Fens running through the Isle of Ely Holland in Lincolnshire and Marshland in Norfolk That there hath been no small quantity of Earth thus brought down appears also in that along the Channels of most great Rivers as for Example the Thames and Trent in England especially near their Mouths or Out-lets between the Mountains and higher Grounds on each side there are large Levels and Plains which seem to have been originally part of the Sea raised up and atterrated by Earth and Silt brought down by those Rivers in great Floods Strabo in the first Book of his Geography 〈◊〉 much to this purpose 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And after a while he adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is For this landing up and aâ—â—erration of the skirts of the Sea is for the most part about the mouths of Rivers as about the Out-lets of Ister the places called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Deserts of Scytâ—ia about those of Phasis the Sea-coast of Colchis which is sandy and low and soâ—t About Thermodâ—n and Iris all Themâ—scyra the Plain of the Amazons and the most part of Sidene And the like may be said of other Rivers For all of them imitate the Nile adding to the Continent or Mainland the part lying before their mouths some more some less those less that bring not down much Mud and those more that run a great way over soft and lose Ground and receive many Torrents Of which kind is the River Pyramus which hath added a great part of its Land to Cilicia Concerning which there is an Oracle come abroad importing That there will a time come in future Ages when the River Pyramus shall carry on the Shore and Land up the Sea as far as Cyprus So it might in time happen that the whole Sea should gradually be landed up beginning from the Shores if the Effusions of the Rivers that is the Earth and Mud they bring down did spread so wide as to be continuous Thus far Strabo But the Oracle he mentions predicting the carrying on and continuation of Cilicia as far as Cyprus and the joyning that Island to the Continent proves false there having not been as yet that we hear or read of any considerable advance made towards it in almost 2000 years Now the Rain thus continually washing away and carrying down Earth from the Mountains and higher Grounds and raising up the Valleys near the Sea as long as there is any descent for the Rivers so long will they continue to run carry forward the low Ground and streighten the Sea which also by its working by reason of the declivity easily carries down the Earth towards the lower and middle part of its Channel alveus and by degrees may sill it up Monsieur Loubere in his late Voyage to Siam takes notice of the increase of the Banks and Sands in and near the Mouths of the great Rivers of the Oriental Kingdoms occasion'd by the Sediments brought down from the Countries by the several Streams so that says he the Navigation into and up those Rivers grows more and more difficult and may in process of time be quite interrupted The same Observation I believe may be made in most of our great Europaean Rivers wherein new Beds are rais'd and old ones enlarged Moreover the Clouds still pouring down Rain upon the Earth it will descend as far as there is any declivity and where that fails it will stagnate and joyning with Sea cover first the skirts of the Earth and so by degrees higher and higher till the whole be covered To this we may add that some assistance toward the levelling of the Mountains may be contributed by the Courses and Catarracts of subterraneous Rivers washing away the Earth continually and weakning their â—oundations so by degrees causing them to founder subside and fall in That the Mountains do daily diminish and many of them sink that the Valleys are raised that the skirts of the Sea are atterrated no man can deny That these things must needs in process of time have a very considerable and great effect is as evident which what else can it be then that we have mentioned Moreover towards this levelling of the Mountains and filling up of the Sea the fire also contributes its Mite For the burning Mountains or Vulcano's as for example Aetna and Vesuvius vomit at times out of their Bowels such prodigious quantities of Sand and Ashes and with that force that they are by the Winds carried and dispersed all over the Country nay transported over Seas into foreign and remote Regions but let fall so copiously in the circumjacent places as to cover the Earth to a considerable thickness and not only so but they also pour forth Floods of melted Stones Minerals and other Materials that run down as low as the Sea and fill up the Havens as of old one near Catana and make Moles and Promontories or Points as in the last Eruptions both of Aetna and Vesuvius the Tops of these Mountains falling in and subsiding proportionably to the quantity of the ejected matter as Borellus proves Meeting with a quotation in Dr. Hakewil's Apology out of Iosephus Blancanus his Book De Mundi Fabrica I earnestly desired to get a fight of that Book but could not procure it till the Copy of this Discourse was out of my hands and sent up to London in order to its printing But then obtaining it I found it so exactly consonant to my own thoughts and to what I have here written concerning that Subject and some Particulars occurring therein by me omitted that I could not forbear translating the whole Discourse into English and annexing it to this Chapter especially because the Book is not commonly to be met with The Discourse is first set down in his Book De locis Mathematicis Aristotelis more at large and afterward repeated
in his Book De Mundi Fabrica more briefly Pergratum Lectori fore existimavi si rem sâ—itu dignissimam exposuero c. I thought it might be very acceptable to the Reader if I should discover to him a thing most worthy to be known which I have long ago and for a long time observed and am daily more confirmed in especially seeing no former Writer that I know of hath published any thing concerning it It is this That the Superficies of the whole Earth which is now rough and uneven by reason of Mountains and Valleys and so only rudely Sphaerical is daily from the very beginning of the World reducing to a perâ—â—â—t roundness in so much that it will necessarily come to pass in a natural way that it be one day overflown by the Sea and rendred unhabitble First then that we may clearly apprehend the Causes of this thing we must lay down as a Foundation from Holy Writ That the Terraqueous Globe was in the beginning endued with a more perfect Spherical Figure that is without any inequalities of Mountains and Valleys and that it was wholly covered with the Sea and so altogether unfit for Terrestrial Animals to inhabit but it was then rendred habitable when by the beck or command of its Creator the greatest part of the Land was translated from one place to another whereupon here appeared the hollows of the Seas there the heights of the Mountains And all the Waters which before covered the face of the whole Earth receded and flowing down filled those depressed and hollow places and this Congregation of Waters was called the Sea Hence some grave Authors doubt not to assert That the Mountains were made up of that very Earth which before filled the Cavities of the Sea Whence it follows that the Earth as now it is mountainous and elevated above the Waters hath not its Natural Figure but is in a violent state but Nullum violentum est perpetuum Besides the Earth being heavier then the Water none of its parts ought to be extant and appear above its Superficies and yet we see that the Earth is really higher than the Sea especially the mountainous parts of it in which respect also both Land and Water are in a violent state Wherefore it is very convenient to the Nature of both that they should daily return towards their ancient and primigenial state and figure and accordingly we affirm that they do so Moreover we say that the Waters both of Rains and Rivers are the Cause of this Restitution as will appear by the following Observations First we see that Rivers do daily fret and undermine the Roots of the Mountains so that here and there from most Mountains they cause great Ruins and Precipices whence the Mountains appear broken and the Earth so fallen from the Mountains the Rivers carry down to the lower places From these Corrosions of the Rivers proceed these â—low but great Ruines called Labinae à labendo in which some Streets and whole Villages are precipitated into the Rivers 2. We daily see that the Rain-waters wash away the Superficies of the Mountains and carry them down to the lower places Hence it comes to pass that the higher Mountains are also harder and more stony than the rest by means whereof they better resist the Water Hence also it comes to pass that ancient Buildings in Mountains their Foundations being by degrees discovered prove not very durable For which reason the Foundations of the Roman Capitol are now wholly extant above ground which of old at its first erection were sunk very deep into it This same thing all the Inhabitants of the Mountains do confirm all saying that this lowering of Mountains was long since known to them for that formerly some intermediate Mountains intercepted the sight of a Castle or Tower situate in a more remote Mountain which after many Years the intervenient Mountain being depressed came clearly into view And George Agricola is of Opinion which I very much approve of that the Rivers produced the Mountains and Hills in this manner In the beginning of the World there were not so many particular divided Mountains but only perpetual eminent Ridges of Land not dissected into so many Valleys as we now see So for example our Appennine was at first one continued even eminent Ridge of Land not divided into any particular Mountains and Hills by intervening Valleys as now it is but that after the Rivers began to flow down from the top of it by little and little fretting and corroding the Ground they made Valleys and daily more and more and by this means the whole Apennine came to be divided into many Hills and Mountains 3. In Plains we see the directly contrary happens for the Plains are daily more and more elevated because the Waters do let fall in the plain and hollow places the Earth they brought down with them from the Mountains Hence we see that ancient Buildings in such places are almost wholly buried in the ground So in Rome at the foot of the Capitoline Mountain we see the Triumphal Arch of Septimius almost wholly overwhelmed in the Earth and every-where in ancient Cities many Gates and Doors of Houses almost landed up little thereof being extant above ground From which it appears that this sinking and demersion of Buildings into the Earth is a manifest sign of their Antiquity which is so much the greater by how much the deeper they are sunk So for example at Bononia in Italy many of the ancient Gates of the City which the Bolognese call Torresotti are very deeply sunk which is a certain argument of their Antiquity and thence it appears to be true that Histories relate that they were built in the time of S. Petronius about 1200 Years ago But here it is to be noted that other things agreeing those are deeper depressed that are built in lower places than those in higher for the reason above-said So at Bononia that old Port called Il Torresotto di S. Georgio is deeplier buried or landed up than that which is called Il Torresotto di Stra Castilione because that is situated in a lower place and therefore the Earth is more easily raised up about it 4. The same is affirmed by Architects who when they dig their Foundations do every-where in plain places first of all remove the Earth which they call Commota loose or shaken which is mixt with Fragments of Wood Iron Rubbish Coyns ancient Urns and other things which when it is thrown out they come to another sort of Earth that hath never been stirred but is solid compact and not mixt with any heterogeneous things especially artificial That moved Commota and impure Earth is it which the Waters have by little and little brought down from the higher to the more depressed places which is not every-where of equal depth But now because in the Mountains there is no where found such moved or new Earth as is plain from the Experience of
That not far from Ligorn he himself had observed a whole City under Water that had been in former times drown'd by the Inundation of the Sea And over against Puteoli in the Sinus of Baia he tells us That in the bottom of the Sea there are not only Houses but the Traces and Footsteps of the Streets of some City manifestly discernable And in the County of Suffolk almost the whole Town of Donewich with the adjacent Lands hath been undermined and devoured by the Sea This washing away of the Shores is I conceive in great measure to be attributed to the forementioned streightning and cutting short of the Sea by the Earth and Siâ—t that in the times of Floods are brought down into it by the Rivers For the Vulgar have a Proverbial Tradition That what the Sea loses in one place it gains in another And both tâ—gether do very handsomly make out and explâ—in how the Earth in a natural way may be reduced to its primitive state in the Creation when the Waters covered the Land But this according to the 〈◊〉 proceedings of Nature would not come to pass in many Ages I might say in Ages of Ages Nay some think that those vast Ridges and Chains of Mountains which run through the middle of the Continents are by reason of their great height weight and solidity too great a Morsel ever to be devoured by the Jaws of the Sea But whether they be or not I need not dispute though I incline to the Negative because this is not the dissolution the Apostle here speaks of which must be by Fire But I must not here dissemble an Objection I see may be made and that is That the Superficies of the Earth is so far from being depressed that it is continually elevated For in ancient Buildings we see the Earth raised high above the foot of them So the Pantheon at Rome which was at first ascended up to by many eight Steps is now descended down to by as many The Basis and whole Pedestal of Trajan's Pillar there was buried in the Earth Dr. Tancred Robinson in the year 1683. observ'd in some places the Walls of old Rome to lye Thirty and Forty Foot under Ground so that he thinks the greater part of the Remains of that famous Ancient City is still buried and undiscovered the prodigious heaps of Ruins and Rubbish inclosed within the Vineyards and Gardens being not half dig'd up or search't as they might be the tops of Pillars peeping up and down And in our own Country we find many Ancient Roman Pavements at some depth under Ground My Learned and Ingenious Friend Mr. Edward Loyd not long since inform'd of one that himself had seen buried deep in the Church-yard at Wychester in Glocestershire Nay the Earth in time will grow over and bury the Bodies of great Timber Trees that have been â—allen and lye long upon it which is made one great reasâ—n that such great numbers even whâ—â— Woods of Subterraneous Trees are frequently met with and dug up at vast depths in the Spanish and Dutch Netherlands as well as in many places of this Island of Great Britain To which I answer as to Buildings 1. The Ruins and Rubbish of the Cities wherein they stood might be conceived to bury them as deep as they now lye under ground And by this means it's likely the Roman Pavements we find might come to be covered to that height we mentioned For that the places where they occur were anciently Roman Towns subverted and ruined may easily be proved as particularly in this we mention'd from the Termination Chesâ—er whatever Town or Village hath that addition to its Name having been anciently a Roman Town or Camp Chester seeming to be nothing but Castra 2. It is to be consider'd That weighty Buildings do in time overcome the resistance of the Foundation unless it be a solid Rock and sink into the ground Nay the very soft Water lying long upon the bottoms of the Sea or Pools doth so compress and sadden them by its weight that the very Roads that are continually beaten with Horses and Carriages are not so firm and sad And in the Sea the nearer you dig to the Low Water-Mark still the sadder and firmer it is and it 's probable still the further the sadder which seems to be confirmed by the strong fixing of Anchors This firmness of the Sand by the weight of the incumbent Water the People inhabiting near the Sea are so sensible of that I have seen them boldly ride through the Water cross a Channel three Miles broad before the Tide was out when in some places it reacht to the Horses Belly A semblance whereof we have in Ponds which being newly digg'd the Water that runs into them sinks soon into the Earth and they become dry again till after some time by often filling the Earth becomes so solid through the weight of the Water that they leak no more but hold Water up to the brink Wittie Scarborough Spaw p. 86. What force a gentle if continual pressure hath we may understand also by the Roots of Trees which we see will sometimes pierce through the Chinks of Stone Walls and in time make great Cracks and Rifts in them nay will get under their very Foundations The tender Roots of Herbs overcome the resistance of the ground and make their way through Clay or Gravel By the by we may here take Notice that one reason why plowing harrowing siâ—ting or any comminution of the Earth renders it more fruitful is because the Roots of Grass Corn and other Herbs can with more facility creep abroad and multiply their Fibres in the light and loose Earth That the rotting of Grass and other Herbs upon the ground may in some places raise the Superficies of it I will not deny that 〈◊〉 â—n Gardens and Enclosures where the Ground is rank and no Cattel are admitted 〈◊〉 eat off the Fog or long Grass but elsewhere the raising of the Superficies of the Faith is very little and inconsiderable and none at all unless in level Grounds which have but little declivity For otherwise the Soyl would by this time have come to be of a very great depth which we find to be but shallow Nor do I think that so much as the Trunks of fall'n Trees are by this means covered but rather that they sink by their own weight in time overcoming the resistance of the Earth which without much difficulty yields being soaked and softned by the Rains insinuating into it and keeping it continually most in Winter-time But if these Buildings be situate in Valleys it is clear that the Earth brought down from the Mountains by Rain may serve to land them up Again the Superficies of the Earth may be raised near the Sea Coast by the continual blowing up of Sand by the Winds This happens often in Norfolk and in Cornwall where I observed a fair Church viz. that of the Parish called Lalant which is the Mother
the middle of the Earth which could not be meant saith he of the Sepulchre because that was hewen out of a Rock in its Superficies 3. It is a received Opinion among the Divines of the Church of Rome that Hell is about the Center of the Earth insomuch as some of them have been solicitous to demonstrate that there is room enough to receive all the Damned by giving us the Dimensions thereof Neither is it repugnant to the History of the Creation in Genesis For tho' indeed Moses doth mention only Water and Earth as the component parts of this Body yet doth he not assert that the Earth is a simple uniform homogeneous Body as neither do we when we say Vpon the face of the earth or the like For the Earth we see is a Mass made up of a multitude of different Species of Bodies Metals Minerals Stones and other Fossils Sand Clay Marle Chalk c. which do all agree in that they are consistent and solid more or less and are in that respect contradistinguished to Water and together compound one Mass which we call Earth Whether the interior parts of the Earth be made up of so great a variety of different Bodies is to us altogether unknown For tho' it be observed by Colliers that the Beds of Coals lie one way and do always dip towards the East let them go never so deep so that would it quit cost and were it not for the Water they say they might pursue the Bed of Coals to the very Center of the Earth the Coals never failing or coming to an end that way yet that is but a rash and ungrounded Conjecture For what is the depth of the profoundest Mines were they a Mile deep to the Semidiameter of the Earth not as one to four thousand Comparing this Observation of Dipping with my Notes about other Mines I find that the Veins or Beds of all generally run East and West and dip towards the East Of which what Account or Reason can we give but the motion of the Earth from West to East I know some say that the Veins for Example of Tin and Silver dip to the North tho' they confess they run East and West which is a thing I cannot understand the Veins of those Metals being narrow things Sir Tho. Willoughby in his fore-mentioned Letter writes thus I have talked with some of my Colliers about the lying of the Coal and find that generally the Basset end as they call it lies West and runs deeper toward the East allowing about twenty Yards in length to gain one in depth but sometimes they decline a little from this posture for mine lie almost South-West and North-East They always sink to the East more or less There may therefore for ought we know be Fire about the Center of the Earth as well as any other Body if it can find a Pabulum or Fuel there to maintain it And why may it not since the Fires in those subterraneous Caverns of Aetna Vesuvius Stromboli Hecla and other burning Mountains or Vulcano's have found wherewith to feed them for Thousands of Years And as there are at some tho' uncertain Periods of Time violent Eruptions of Fire from the Craters of those Mountains and mighty Streams of melted Materials poured forth from thence so why may not this Central Fire in the Earth if any such there be receiving accidentally extraordinary supplies of convenient Fuel either from some inflammable Matter within or from without rend the thick exterior Cortex which imprisons it or finding some Vents and Issues break forth and overflow the whole Superficies of the Earth and burn up all things This is not impossible and we have seen some Phaenomena in Nature which bid fair towards a Probability of it For what should be the reason of new Stars appearing and disappearing again as that noted one in Cassiopeia which at first shone with as great a lustre as Venus and then by degrees diminishing after some two Years vanish'd quite away but that by great supplies of combustible Matter the internal Fire suddenly increasing in quantity and force either found or made its way through the Cracks or Vents of the Maculae which inclosed it and in an instant as it were overflowed the whole surface of the Star whence proceeded that illustrious Light which afterwards again gradually decayed its supply failing Whereas other newly appearing Stars which either have a constant supply of Matter or where the Fire hath quite dissolved the Maculae and made them comply with its motion have endured for a long time as that which now shines in the Neck of Cygnus which appears and disappears at certain Intervals But because it is not demonstrable that there is any such Central Fire in the Earth I propose the eruption thereof rather as a possible than probable means of a Conflagration and proceed to the last means whereby it may naturally be effected and that is SECT IV. The Fourth Natural Cause of the World's Dissolution the Earth's Dryness and Inflammability IV. THE Dryness and Inflammability of the Earth under the Torrid Zone with the eruption of the Vulcano's to set it on fire Those that hold the Inclination of the Equator to the Ecliptick daily to diminish so that after the Revolutions of some Ages they will jump and consent tell us that the Sun-beams lying perpendicularly and constantly on the parts under the Equator the Ground thereabout must needs be extremely parch'd and rendred apt for Inflammation But for my part I own no such Decrement of Inclination And the best Mathematicians of our Age deny that there hath been any since the eldest Observations that are come down to us For tho' indeed Ptolomy and Hipparchus do make it more than we find it by above twenty Minutes yet that Difference is not so considerable but that it may well be imputed to the Difference of Instruments or Observations in point of Exactness So that not having decreased for Eighteen hundred Years past there is not the least ground for Conjecture that it will alter in Eighteen hundred Years to come should the World last so long And yet if there were such a Diminution it would not conduce much so far as I can see to the bringing on of a Conflagration For tho' the Earth would be extremely dried and perchance thereby rendred more inflammable yet the Air being by the same Heat as much rarified would contain but few nitrous Particles and so be inept to maintain the Fire which we see cannot live without them It being much deaded by the Sun shining upon it and burning very remisly in Summer time and hot Weather For this reason in Southern Countries in extraordinary hot Seasons the Air scarce sufficeth for Respiration To the clearing up of this let us a little consider what Fire is It seems to consist of three different sorts of parts 1. An extremely thin and subtil Body whose Particles are in a very vehement and rapid motion 2.
A supposed Nitrous Pabulum or Fewel which it receives from the Air. 3. A Sulphureous or unctuous Pabulum which it acts and preys upon passing generally by the Name of Fewel This ' fore-mentioned subtil Body agitating the supposed Nitrous Particles it receives from the Air doth by their help as by Wedges to use that rude similitude penetrate the unctuous Bodies upon which it acts and divide them into their immediate component Particles and at length perchance into their first Principles which Operation is called the Chymical Anatomy of mix'd Bodies So we see Wood for Example divided by Fire into Spirit Oyl Water Salt and Earth That Fire cannot live without those Particles it receives from the Air is manifest in that if you preclude the access of all Air it is extinguished immediately and in that where and when the Air is more charged with them as in cold Countries and cold Weather the Fire rages most That likewise it cannot be continued without an unctuous Pabulum or Fewel I appeal to the Experience of all Men. Now then in the rarified Air in the Torrid Zone the nitrous Particles being proportionably scattered and thin set the Fire that might be kindled there would burn but very languidly and remisly as we said just now And so the Eruptions of Vulcano's if any such happened would not be like to do half the Execution there that they would do in cold Countries And yet I never read of any spreading Conflagration caused by the Eruptions of any Vulcano's either in hot Countries or in cold They usually cast out abundance of thick Smoak like Clouds darkning the Air and likewise Ashes and Stones sometimes of a vast bigness and some of them as Vesuvius Floods of Water others as Aetna Rivers of melted Materials running down many Miles as for the Flames that issue out of their Mouths at such times they are but transient and mounting upwards seldom set any thing on fire But not to insist upon this I do affirm that there hath not as yet been nor for the future can be any such drying or parching of the Earth under the Torrid Zone as some may imagine That there hath not yet been I appeal to Experience the Countries lying under the Course of the Sun being at this day as fertile as ever they were and wanting no more Moisture now than of old they did having as constant and plentiful Rains in their Seasons as they then had That they shall for the future suffer any more Drought than they have heretofore done there is no reason to believe or imagine the Face of the Earth being not altered nor naturally alterable as to the main more at present than it was heretofore I shall now add the Reason why I think there can be no such Exâ—iccation of the Earth in those parts It 's true indeed were there nothing to hinder them the Vapours exhaled by the Sun-beams in those hot Regions would be cast off to the North and to the South a great way and not fall down in Rain there but toward the Poles But the long and continued Ridges or Chains of exceeding high Mountains are so disposed by the great and wise Creator of the World as at least in our Continent to run East and West as Gassendus in the Life of Peireskius well observes such are Atlas Taurus and the Alps to name no more They are I say thus disposed as if it were on purpose to obviate and stop the Evagation of the Vapours Northward and reflect them back again so that they must needs be condensed and fall upon the Countries out of which they were elevated And on the South-side being near the Sea it is likely that the Wind blowing for the most part from thence hinders their excursion that way This I speak by presumption because in our Country for at least three quarters of the Year the Wind blows from the great Atlantick Ocean which was taken notice of by Iulius Caesar in the Fifth of his Commentaries De Bello Gallico Corus ventus qui magnam partem omnis temporis in his locis flare consuevit As for any Desiccation of the Sea I hold that by mere natural Causes to be impossible unless we could suppose a Transmutation of Principles or simple Bodies which for Reasons alledged in a former Discourse I cannot allow I was then and am still of Opinion that God Almighty did at first create a certain and determinate number of Principles or variously figured Corpuscles intransmutable by the force of any natural Agent even Fire itself which can only separate the Parts of heterogeneous Bodies yet not an equal number of each kind of these Principles but of some abundantly more as of Water Earth Air Aether and of others fewer as of Oyl Salt Metals Minerals c. Now that there may be some Bodies indivisible by Fire is I think demonstrable For how doth or can Fire be conceived to divide one can hardly imagine any other way than by its small parts by reason of their violent Agitation insinuating themselves into compound Bodies and separating their parts which allowing yet still there is a term of Magnitude below which it cannot divide viz. it cannot divide a Body into smaller parts than those whereof itself is compounded For taking suppose one least Part of Fire 't is clear that it cannot insinuate itself into a Body as little or less than itself and what is true of one is true of all I say we can imagine no other way than this unless perchance by a violent stroke or shock the parts of the Body to be divided may be put into so impetuous a motion as to fall in sunder of themselves into lesser Particles than those of the impellent Body are which I will not suppose at present Now it is possible that the Principles of some other simple Bodies may be as small as the Particles of Fire But however that be it is enough if the Principles of simple Bodies be by reason of their perfect solidity naturally indivisible Such a simple Body I suppose Water separated from all Heterogeneous Mixtures to be and consequently the same quantity thereof that was at first created doth still remain and will continue always in despight of all natural Agents unless it pleases the Omnipotent Creator to dissolve it And therefore there can be no Desiccation of the Seas unless by turning all its Water into Vapour and suspending it in the Air which to do what an immense and long-continuing Fire would be requisite to the maintenance whereof all the inflammable Materials near the Superficies of the Earth would not afford Fuel enough The Sun we see is so far from doing it that it hath not made one step towards it these four thousand Years there being in all likelihood as great a quantity of Water in the Ocean now as was immediately after the Flood and consequently there would probably remain as much in it should the World last four thousand Years longer This
is at hand We see the Apostle labours to rectifie and for the future to prevent this Mistake so likewise the Apostle Peter in the 8th and 9th Verses of this Chapter And yet this Opinion had taken such deep root in them that it was not easie to be extirpated but continued for some Ages in the Church Indeed there are so many places in the New Testament which speak of the Coming of Christ as very near that if we should have lived in their time and understood them all as they did of his Coming to Judge the World we could hardly have avoided being of the same Opinion But if we apply them as Dr. Hammond doth to his Coming to take Vengeance on his Enemies then they do not hinder but that the Day of Judgment I mean the General Judgment may be far enough off So I leave this Question unresolved concluding that when that Day will come God only knows CHAP. X. How far this Conflagration shall extend 6. A Sixth Question is How far shall this Conflagration extend Whether to the Ethereal Heavens and all the Host of them Sun Moon and Stars or to the Aereal only I Answer If we follow Ancient Tradition not only the Earth but also the Heavens and heavenly Bodies will be involved in one common Fate as appears by those Verses quoted out of Lucretius Ovid Lucan c. Of Christians some exempt the Ethereal Region from this Destruction for the two following Reasons which I shall set down in Reuterus 's words 1. Because in this Chapter the Conflagration is compared to the Deluge in the time of Noah But the Deluge extended not to the upper Regions of the Air much less to the Heavens the Waters arising only fifteen Cubits above the tops of the Mountains if so much Therefore neither shall the Conflagration transcend that term So Beza upon 2 Pet. 3. 6. Tantum ascendet ille ignis quantum aqua altior supra omnes montes That fire shall ascend as high as the Waters stood above the Mountains This passage I do not find in the last Edition of his Notes The ordinary Gloss also upon these words 2 Thess. 1. 2. In flaming fire rendring vengeance saith Christum venturum praecedet ignis in mundo qui tantum ascendet quantum aqua in diluvio There shall a fire go before Christ when he comes which shall reach as high as did the Water in the Deluge And S. Augustine De Civit. Dei lib. 20. cap. 18. Petrus etiam commemorans factum ante diluvium videtur admonuisse quodammodo quatenus in fine hujus seculi istum mundum periturum esse credamus Peter also mentioning the Ancient Deluge seems in a manner to have advised us how far at the consummation of time we are to believe this World shall perish But this Argument is of no force because it is not the Apostle's design in that place to describe the limits of the Conflagration but only against Scoffers to shew that the World should one day perish by fire as it had of old been destroyed by Water 2. The second Reason is Because the Heavenly Bodies are not subject to Passion alteration or corruption They can contract no filth and so need no expurgation by fire To this we answer not in the words of Reuter but our own That it is an idle and ill grounded conceit of the Peripateticks That the Heavenly Bodies are of their own nature incorruptible and unalterable for on the contrary it is demonstrable that many of them are of the same nature with the Earth we live upon and the most pure as the Sun and probably too the fixt Stars suffer Alterations maculoe or opaque Concretions being commonly generated and dissolved in them And Comets frequently and sometimes New Stars appear in the Etherial Regions So that these Arguments are insufficient to exempt the Heavens from Dissolution and on the other side many places there are in Scripture which seem to subject them thereto As Psal. 102. 25 26. recited Hebr. 1. 10. which hath already often been quoted The Heavens are the Works of thy Hands They shall perish Matth. 24. 35. Heaven and Earth shall pass away Isa. 65. 17. 51. 6. The Heavens shall vanish away like smoke Yet am I not of opinion that the last Fire shall reach the Heavens They are too far distant from us to suffer by it nor indeed doth the Scripture affirm it but where it mentions the Dissolution of the Heavens it expresseth it by such Phrases as seem rather to intimate that it shall come to pass by a consenescency and decay than be effected by any sudden and violent means Psal. 102. 25 26. They all shall wax old as doth a Garment c. Though I confess nothing of Certainty can be gathered from such Expressions for we find the same used concerning the Earth Isa. 51. 6. The Heavens shall vanish away like smoke and the Earth shall wax old as doth a garment The heavenly Bodies are none of them uncorruptible and eternal but may in like manner as the Earth be consumed and destroyed at what times and by what means whether Fire or some other Element the Almighty hath decreed and ordered CHAP. XI Whether shall the Whole World be consumed and annihilated or only refined and purified THere remains now only the Seventh Question to be resolved Whether shall the World be wholly consumed burnt up and destroyed or annihilated or only refined purified or renewed To this I answer That the latter part seems to me more probable viz. That it shall not be destroyed and annihilated but only refined and purified I know what potent Adversaries I have in this case I need name no more than Gerard in his Common Places and Dr. Hakewil â—n his Apology and the Defence of it who contend earnestly for the Abolition or Annihâ—lation But yet upon the whole matter the Renovation or Restitution seems to me most probable as being most consonant to Scripture Reason and Antiquity The Scripture speaks of an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Restitution Acts 3. 21. Whom the Heavens must contain until the time of the restitution of all things Speaking of our Saviour and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Regeneration of the World the very word the Stoicks and Pythagoreans use in this case Mat. 19. 28 29. Verily I say unto you That ye which have followed me in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit on the Throne of his glory ye also shall sit upon twelve Thrones c. Psal. 102. 26. As a vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed Which words are again taken up and repeated Heb. 1. 12. Now it is one thing to be changed another to be annihilated and destroyed 1 Cor. 7. 31. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The fashion of this world passeth away As if he had said It shall be transfigured or its outward form changed not its matter or substance destroyed Isa. 65. 17. Behold I create new Heavens and
solving this Phaenomenon and that is by supposing that the Divine Power might at that time by the instrumentality of some natural Agent to us at present unknown so depress the Surface of the Ocean as to force the Waters of the Abyss through the forementioned Channels and Apertures and so make them a partial and concurrent Cause of the Deluge That there are at some times in the course of Nature extraordinary pressures upon the Surface of the Sea which force the Water outwards upon the Shores to a great height is evident We had upon our Coasts the last Year an extraordinary Tide wherein the Water rose so high as to overflow all the Sea-Banks drown multitudes of Cattel and fill the lower Rooms of the Houses of many Villages that stood near the Sea so that the Inhabitants to save themselves were â—orced to get up into the upper Rooms and Garrets of their Houses Now how this could be effected but by an unusual pressure upon the Superficies of the Ocean I cannot well conceive In like manner that the Divine Providence might at the time of the Deluge so order and dispose second Causes as to make so strong a pressure upon the face of the Waters as to force them up to a height sufficient to overflow the Earth is no way unreasonable to believe These Hypotheses I propose as seeming to me at present most facile and consonant to Scripture without any concern for either of them and therefore am not solicitous to gather together and heap up Arguments to confirm them or to answer Objections that may be made against them being as ready to relinquish them upon better information as I was to admit and entertain them CHAP. III. Of the Effects of the Deluge I Come now to the Third Particular proposed that is To Enquire concerning the Consequents of the Deluge What considerable Effects it had upon the Earth and and its Inhabitants It had doubtless very great in changing the Superficies of the dry Land In some places adding to the Sea in some taking from it making Islands of Peninsulae and joining others to the Continent altering the Beds of Rivers throwing up lesser Hills and washing away others c. The most remarkable Effects it 's likely were in the skirts of the Continents because the Motion of the Water was there most violent Athanasius Kircher gives us a Map and Description of the World after the Flood shewing what Changes were made therein by it or upon occasion of it afterward as he fansies or conjectures But because I do not love to trouble the Reader with uncertain Conjectures I shall content my self to have said in general that it may rationally be supposed there were then great Mutations and Alterations made in the superficial part of the Earth but what they were though we may guess yet can we have no certain knowledge of and for Particulars refer the Curious to him One malignant effect it had upon Mankind and probably upon other Animals too in shortning their Age or the duration of their lives which I have touched before and shewn that this diminution of Age is to be attributed either to the change of the Temperature of the Air as to Salubrity or Equality sudden and frequent changes of Weather having a very bad influence upon the Age of Man in abbreviating of it as I could easily prove or else to the deteriority of the Diet or to both these Causes But how the Flood should induce or occasion such a change in the Air and productions of the Earth I do not comprehend CHAP. IV. Of formed Stones Sea-shells and other Marine-like Bodies found at great distances from the Shores supposed to have been brought in by the Deluge ANother supposed Effect of the Flood was a bringing up out of the Sea and scattering all the Earth over an innumerable multitude of Shells and Shell-fish there being of these shell-like Bodies not only on lower Grounds and Hillocks but upon the highest Mountains the Appennine and Alps themselves A supposed Effect I say because it is not yet agreed among the Learned whether these Bodies formerly called petrified Shells but now a-days passing by the name of formed Stones be original Productions of Nature formed in imitation of the Shells of Fishes or the real Shells themselves either remaining still entire and uncorrupt or petrified and turned into Stone or at least Stones cast in some Animal Mold Both parts have strong Arguments and Patrons I shall not balance Authorities but only consider and weigh Arguments Those for the latter part wherewith I shall begin are First Because it seems contrary to that great Wisdom of Nature which is observable in all its Works and Productions to design every thing to a determinate end and for the attaining that end make use of such ways as are most aggreeable to Man's reason that these prettily shaped Bodies should have all those curious Figures and Contrivances which many of them are formed and adorned with generated or wrought by a Plastic Vertue for no higher end than only to exhibite such a form This is Mr. Hook's Argumentation To which Dr. Plot answers That the end of such Productions is to beautifie the World with those Varieties and that this is no more repugnant to the Prudence of Nature than is the production of most Flowers Tulips Anemones c. of which we know as little use of as of formed Stones But hereto we may reply That Flowers are for the Ornament of a Body that hath some degree of life in it a Vegetaâ—ive Soul whereby it performs the actions of Nutrition Auction and Generation which it is reasonable should be so beautified And Secondly Flowers serve to embrace and cherish the Fruit while it is yet tender and to desend it from the injuries of Sun and Weather especially for the protection and security of the Apices which are no idle or useless part but contain the Masculine Sperm and serve to give fecundity to the Seed Thirdly Though formed Stones may be useful to Man in Medicine yet Flowers afford us abundantly more uses both in Meat and Medicine Yet I must not dissemble that there is a Phaenomenon in Nature which doth somewhat puzzle me to reconcile with the prudence observable in all its works and seems strongly to prove that Nature doth sometimes ludere and delineate Figures for no other end but for the Ornament of some Stones and to entertain and gratifie our Curiosity or exercise our Wits That is those elegant Impressions of the Leaves of Plants upon Cole-state the knowledge whereof I must confess my self to owe to my Learned and Ingenious Friend Mr. Edward Lloyd of Oxford who observed of it in some Cole-pits in the way from Wychester in Glocestershire to Bristol and afterwards communicated to me a Sample of it That which he found was marked with the Leaves of two or three kinds of Ferns and of Harts-tongue He told me also that Mr. Woodward a Londoner shewed him