DOctor, I have made the best inquiry I could in so short a time, after the truest cause of that vein of Cockle and Muscle-shels that was dig­ged up in Norfolk, so ma­ny foot deep under the sur­face [Page 2] of the Earth. And upon my most serious ex­amination do believe, that that reason which I casual­ly bolted out when you first mentioned it to me, is the most likely and pro­bable, if not the only that can be given of it; of which I will give more than empty conjectures in the following Dis­course. But before I come to unfold that my opinion; I will insist on some things that relate to it, both for method sake, [Page 3] and to gain a little the more Reputation to it; and then will give you, or a­ny else leave to judge of it as you shall think fit; nor shall it displease me if a­ny are of a different judg­ment.

God that made the Uni­verse for Mans use and de­light, hath beautified it with infinite varieties. In the animal kingdom, what diversity of Creatures, Volatile, Reptile, Natant, and Gradient? How dif­ferent their shape, use, co­lour, [Page 4] greatness, and smalness, their sents, their tempers, natures? How various their amities, enmities, sym­pathies, and antipathies? In the Vegetable kingdom, how different their shapes, proportions, colours, orders, tastes; the first, second and other qualities of their leaves, flowrs, roots, barks, seeds, fruits, tears, and gumms? Nor is Nature less skilful in generating and ordering the strange Forms and Figures of Subterraneal bodies. Amongst an hun­dred [Page 5] thousand stones on a strand, a man shall not find two that in all things ex­actly agree; and yet there is many times some more general and gross likeness.

But if we examine the several species of Mineral bodies, there will be visi­ble an admirable and pleasing variety. Some are seen in the form of Cylinders, of which I have been present when many thousands have been ta­ken out of Marle-pits. Some are exactly spherical [Page 6] like Bullets, but much bigger; so equally round that no art can be more exact, and of them many Ship ladings, Ovied. lib. 17. between two Hills in Cuba. Many hun­dred flints in the same form I have found disper­sedly near the place I live in: In which also I have observed that their coat and external covering is white; next to that the stone is very black; but nearer to the Centre it is of a brighter colour, in which by the help of a Microscope [Page 7] I have seen as it were lit­tle sparkling Diamonds; in others of the same form I have found with my na­ked eyes many thousand such sparkling stones as big as pins-heads, and some as big as small barley-corns, of an excellent lustre when they are held in the Sun. I have seen likewise Fossiles Aetites, if I may so call them; stones in an Oval shape as big as Pigeons Eggs, hollow in the inside, and impregnate with lesser stones, which on the sha­king [Page 8] betray'd themselves by their sound, as the ker­nels in the dry stones of Peaches. Diamonds, and our Cornish and Bristol stones are all generated with spires or points. Mr. S. S. A friend of mine imparted to me a fluor that grew on a rocky stone that is very clear and shoots in the same form, and is so hard that it will cut glass. Some are seen in the form of Cones, some of Pyramids, some of Semispheres, and gutter'd and furrow [...]d on the sides [Page 9] like the pummels of some Swords; some smooth, some writhed. Crystal doth shoot in sexangulos. I saw stones digged out of a little Ca­vern by a Springs-side be­tween St. Ives and Somer­sham in Huntingdon-shire, every one of them had the same Figure, and were in compass sexangular, with two broader and more depressed superficies, on ei­ther side it made a perfect Rhomboides, clear as Cry­stal, but very soft and apt to scale; of which none [Page 10] knew any considerable use: only the powder of it was found good to Ci­catrize green wounds. And indeed almost all sorts of stones, whether more choice and orient, or more base and vulgar, have for the most part be­sides their different ver­tues, several Figures and Colours. But these are mean, low and common observations. What shall we think of that, Cornu Monocerotis fossile; those ossa subterranea & fossilia, [Page 11] which are very often ge­nerated of osteocolla and the like substances, and have given conplexion to those stories of Not th [...]t I deny that there have been men of vast bodies in several ages. The Sons of Anak were without question very great men. Goliah and others mentioned were Giants. We read of Giants famous from the beginning, that were of so great stature and so expert in war, Baruch 3.26 of the Sons of the Titans and high Giants, Judith 16.7. At Coggeshall were found two teeth that might have been cut into two hundred of an ordinary size. Camb. de Trinobant. St. Augustine saw such an one at Utica. But these even in the Scripture, the most exact history in the World, are recorded as rare; so that I do not believe that they have been common in any Country, much less that any Country hath been inhabited by only such. An old Poet cited by our Anti­quary [Page 12] speaking that Cornwall was the seat of some, saith they were bat few. —Titanibus illa Sed paucis famulosa domus. Vid. Hackwell in Apolog. de hoc subjecto. Gyantick races in several Countries; be­cause this, like bones of men, hath been found of a vast bigness? What shall we think of those bones of Fish, and such Subterraneal Muscle and Oyster-shels found at Darmstadt in the Palatinate, and at other places near Heidelberg, and in Silesia, and those you mentioned to me? At New-house a seat of one [Page 13] Mr. Eyres in White-Parish in the County of Wilts, as they were digging of a Well about thirty foot deep (as it was related to me) between two veins of sand were found infinite num­bers of Oyster-shels in a bed, both shels closed to­gether, and nothing dis­cernable between them but a little dust. But far­ther yet, what can we say of those Tables of stone in which are seen the Pi­ctures of divers Planets, of Frogs, Serpents, Salaman­ders; [Page 14] nay, Principum & illustrium virorum imagines, as Sennertus saith are found in Islebia? Epitom. Phys. lib. 5. cap. 4. I my self have seen an Agate with a natural foil like a Black-moores head, and another like an Oaken leaf, that some have went to brush away, and yet it was within the stone, and so exact too, that it deceived the very sight. Erasmus describeth one that he saw in England in a Tem­ple at the feet of the image the Virgin Mary, in which [Page 15] there was the form of a Toad. I will set it down in his own words. Erasm: Coll. Pe­grin. re­lig. Ergo. Og. Ad pedes virginis est gemma cui nondum apud Latinos aut Graecos nomen inditum est, Galli à Bufone nomē dederunt, éo quod bufonis effigiem sic ex­primat, ut nulla ars idem possit efficere. Quod (que) majus est mi­raculum; pusillus est lapillus; non prominet bufonis imago, sed in ipsa gemma velut inclu­sa pellucet. This, Menede­mus that discourseth with him, imputes rather to the fancy of the beholder; [Page 16] as Children think they see heads, and faces, and bulls, and swords, in the Clouds. But he answer­eth. Imò nè sis nesciens, nullus bufo vivus evidentiùs exprimit seipsum quam illic erat expressus. And from his companions incredu­lity taketh occasions largely to discourse the strange forms of stones. Now although it be im­possible to find out the certain causes of these most noble and recluse works of Nature, these [Page 17] being such things where­in we have very great rea­son to admire the provi­dence of God, and his most perfect work-man-ship, that hath given to each crea­ture (as Scroder calls it) rationem seminalem; or as Severinus, the knowledge or science of its own proper form. And indeed some of them are in this as cer­tain as the most voluntary agents. And even those which casually obtain these shapes may be guessed at, for (besides [Page 18] the lusus naturae, which most flie to) the creatures they represent may be pe­trefied, à spiritu lapidescente; or may be inclosed as in a Coffin in the purer uncon­crete matter of stones; which being speedily har­dened, and those in some measure assimilated to that stony substance, their linea­ments shine through, as Flies cased in Amber are seen almost as clearly as if they were out of it. And par­ticularly for such shels we are now to discourse of, [Page 19] there may be some con­jecture had of some of their forms; and this brings me to distinguish be­tween Muscle and Cockle-shels really, and such in shape and appearance only; for I have seen many stones in the shape of these, which I imagine were thus made. The Oyster, Muscle, or Cockle-shels, lying in such places where they have been cast out by men, have casually received the succus lapidescens, or uncon­crete matter of stones, and [Page 20] have become a bed or ma­trix to it; and so hath that stone been shapen ac­cording to this mould, as gourds while they are young put in glasses grow not according to their u­sual natural form, but ac­cording to the shape and proportion of the glasses.

2. If they were really Muscle and Cockle-shells, that could not be the place of their generation, but they must be by some vio­lence and impetuosity hurri­ed thither; and for their [Page 21] loco-motion we can find no other Media than the earth or air. And first for the air. Those that have sail­ed to the Indies can inform you with what force Hir­canoes or Turbines (which some distinguish; but I think that there is no other difference between them, than that the Hir­cano is a circumagitation of the air or whirlewind tend­ing downwards; and the Turbo the whirlewind tend­ing upwards) the meeting together of contrary furi­ous [Page 22] winds, have taken up whole Seas of water; and what should hinder them that when they fall foul near a shore, they should not rake the Seas, and carry other bodies besides the water? Hacklu­yt. Disc. to. 3. p. 100. Some Mariners in the North-west discovery were eye-witnesses of such a whirlwind, that for the space of three hours toge­ther, took up vast quan­tities of water, furiously mounting them up in the air. And altogether as strange hath the force of [Page 23] it been on dry ground; of which Bellarmine gives us a relation that it is so in­credible, Bell. de Ascens. m [...]nt. in Deum, Grad. 2. cap. 4. that he premiseth this, Quod nisi vidissem, non crederem. He thus descri­beth it; Vidi ego à vehe­mentissimo vento effossam in­gentem terrae molem, eám (que) delatam super pagum quen­dam, ut fovea altissima con­spiceretur unde eruta fuerat, & pagus totus coopertus & quasi sepultus manserit, ad quem terra illa devenerat. It is ordinary in most histories to read of bloud [Page 24] falling in showres, Anno ab urbe condita cccclxxx lac de coello ma­nare vi­sum est. Oros. lib. 4. cap. 5. In the fourth year of Ivor the son of Alan in Wales, it rained bloud in England and Ireland. Welch. chron. Gabiis lacte pluit. T. Graccho, Tit. M [...]nlio, Coss. In Graecostasi. C.C.L. Cai. Sext. Coss. Praeneste. L. Cecil. L. Aurel. Cos. In Agro Perusino P. Sor. G. Atil. Coss. sanguire per biduum pluit in Area Vulcani & Concordiae. M.C. Quint. Fab. Coss. Lapid. Pluviae. In Aventino Tuscis lapidibus pluit. Vid. Iul. Obs. de prodig. ad fin. Plinii. or at least of what is analogous to bloud, of wood, wool, worms. Munster Munster. Cosmog. lib. 4. cap. 22. tells us of Frogs, Mice, and Rats, that fell with some feculent showres in Norway. There is one at this time living, that walking through a low marish ground in England, [Page 25] in a foggie morning, had his Hat almost covered with little Frogs, that fell on it as he walked: and many at some times on the tops of houses and leads, have found great num­bers of such creatures. At Arles in France in the year 1553. Valeriolae obs. lib. 1 [...]. obs. 1. Infinite swarms of Locusts fell on their fields, and immediately devoured all that was green, Magnâ incolarum admiratione & consternatione. So we read that by an East wind the Locusts which covered the face of Egypt [Page 26] were brought on it, & by as a strong West wind they were carried off again; Exo. 10.13, 19. Stones like­wise have thus fallen. In Iapan, Organ­tius. on a day when they solemnized a great Fe­stival to their Idol, there fell among them a great showre of stones, which slew many, and put the rest to their heels to shift for themselves. And it is very likely that those showres of hail that slew so many in several stories, were grandines lapidum, (as [Page 27] Lactantius calls those showres of vengeance, Lactant. Dio. Iust. l. 7. c. 26. that God will at the last send on the Devil and his ac­complices) to which the ex­pression of history agrees. At the time of Alexanders birth, Oros. l. 3. c. 6. Saxea de nubibus grando descendens, veris ter­ram lapidibus verberavit. And to this is the Scripture consonant, Ios. 10.11. For what is called hail in the later part of the verse, is stones in the former. And as they fled from before Israel, and were going down to [Page 28] Bethoron, the Lord cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekah, and they died. And that heteroge­neous bodies are found in mines, and on the tops of mountains, Arist. Meteoro. Aristotle insinu­ates this to be the cause, viz. that they are brought to such places by the winds. It seems I must confess the more colourable, that things should be brought this way from the Sea, because the Sea both of old, and more lately, hath been deemed to be the [Page 29] father of the winds. Eras­mus describing Paratha­lassia saith, Peregr▪ relig. Ergo. In propinquo est oceanus ventorum pater, and the old Poet speaking of the generation of the winds, finds out the same cause:

Hesiod. Oper. & dies p. 44. And therefore winds have in some places been ob­served to be Obsequious to the course of the Moon as the waters are, which that Roman Poet hints.

Horat. Carm. lib. 1. Od. 25. 'Tis true, no man can tell the force and fury of the unbridled winds, that are so mad that they know not whence they come, nor whither they will. But yet were such heteroge­neities which are found so deep this way brought, they should be found in all or most places alike; and they should be found a­bove ground too, unless we can imagine that immediately on their [Page 31] falling the Earth suffer some Chasm, and doth in­gulf and swallow them into its bowels. And there­fore it is most probable they are brought to such places from the Sea, the place of their Generation, generally under the Earth.

3. If they are brought from the Sea to the place they are found in, under the Earth, it must be either by a natural or by a supernatu­ral impellent or mover; by spi­rits, or by a natural vehicle. No man that is either a [Page 32] Philosopher or a Christian can doubt of the power of spirits, by Gods command or permission, to effect this and many more a­ctions that are far more difficult and unlikely. And Paracelsus with some others would have us be­lieve that there are innu­merable such spirits or ge­nii that inhabit the Earth, as he hath projected there are Inhabitants of the Sun, Moon, and other Pla­nets, which he calls Solar, Lunar, Saturnine, &c. and [Page 33] of the air which he styles aerial. And to their ma­nagements referreth all the natural motions of Generation and Corruption, and the violent, as of Chasms, Earthquakes, and o­ther alterations in the bowels of the Earth. Nay, they reduce them to seve­ral Classes and Orders, and with a little invitation would be ready to swear, that many of them are Engineers that contrive the Water-works, and make Ri­vers and Aqueducts; that [Page 34] some are Blacksmiths by Trade that work in the Vulcanoes; that some are Brewers that boil natural baths, and use Minerals in­stead of Mault. But these opinions are such, that besides their own natural absurdity, our Religion will teach us to explode, and are then confuted when they are only na­med. For though we grant that some such things are possible to be done by the Devil; that is not so the Prince of the [Page 35] power of the air, as not to be the God of this lower world; yet to impute all things to them must needs be asylum ignorantiae, and a Remora to all inge­nuous and Philosophical dis­quisitions, of the nature and causes of all things and a­ctions in the bowels of the Earth, and a means to make us know no more of nature than what is ob­vious to sense. So that I take it for granted, that some natural, ordinary vehicle there is under the Earth that [Page 36] brings such heterogeneous bodies from their native and genial seat, and proper place, to such Vaults, Hills, Veins, and Caverns where they are found.

4. Now the most like­ly movers of all others to carry bodies of weight un­der the Earth are two; either exhalations or waters; for as for vapours, I look not on them as capable of carrying any thing of weight, especially so low in the Earth, where they can­not be so much rarefied, by [Page 37] reason of the natural cold­ness of that Element. 'Tis true, May-dew which is a vapour condensed will carry up an Egg-shell in which it is put, by the help of a Pike or Spear placed by it. But this is in the sight of the Sun, and if so much as a thin cloud interpose it falls again immediately: A­gain, the shell is exceeding light; besides that, the dew is sealed in it that it cannot get out; and even this moves upwards to­wards the Sun, not side­wayes [Page 38] along the Earth. So that it must be conclu­ded, that vapours cannot be serviceable to our pur­pose, so as to force whole veins of shels or other bodies to places so far distant from the Sea, and there to ram them in. It remains then, that this be effected by one or other of the for­mer means.

As for exhalations, and that their force is such that can impetuously move bodies of the greatest weight, we need look no further [Page 39] than our Gun-powder, and the Machines or Engines that are used by or with it; such as Cannons, Bul­lets, Balls of Lead or Iron, Stones, Granadoes, &c. of which some, by the help of a cold and dry exhalation pent in the Niter or Salt-Peter, and suddenly by fire flying out, make as stu­pend refractions of the air, and obtain a violence equal to that of our usual thunder and lightnings. And after the same manner is their force and light caused, [Page 40] the violence and noise of Au­rum Fulminans. And these exhalations which have such effects above, have the same strength under ground, as appears by Earthquakes, with which there are usually heard a Terra mugi u tremuit M. Cat. Quint. Mart. Coss. Fremitus infernus ad Coelum ferri visus M. Anton. A. Posth. Coss. Fremitus terrae etiam Faesulis auditus M. Per­penn. Cai. Claud. Coss. The City Ferrara in the year 1570. was surprized with a fearful noise, as if it had been battered with great Ord­nance, afterwards with a most violent trem­bling. murmur and sound. When Sempronius Gracchus was [Page 41] setting on the Picaeni, and they were just joyning battel; Oros. lib. 4. cap. 4. tam horrendo fra­gore terra tremuit, ut stupore miraculi utrumque pave­factum agmen hebesceret. These make the Earth tremble, the Mountains rowl, the Rocks quake, and especially if the exha­lation that causeth them be impregnate with Nitro­sulphureous spirits, which have sometimes thrust out hills where there were plains, Islands in the midst of Seas, made huge Rivers [Page 42] where there were none, turned the current of some, stopped others, left vast caverns and holes, de­pressed Mountains, swal­lowed Cities and Armies, subverted Temples and Palaces. Cizicus a City of Misia minor, with the fa­mous Temple of Iupiter there, were both swallow­ed in an Earthquake; and so was Philadelphia another City of the same Misia, and one of the Churches St. Iohn writ to. Apoc. 3.7. In an Earthquake in Vinianfu [Page 43] in China, the Nitrosulphure­ous spirits burst out of the Earth in such an actuall flame, that it consumed the whole City and innu­merable people. At Hien in the same Country, the fall of the houses by the same Earthquake slew eight thousand. At Enchino [...]n an hundred thousand perished. Immediately on the bitter persecution of Dioclesian, a fearful Earthquake hap­pened in Syria, Oros. lib. 7. c. 17. by which Tyre and Sydon were al­most destroyed, and [Page 44] many thousands were kil'd.

Lucan. lib. 1. Or as the same Author else­where describeth an earth­quake,

We read of one in Iudeah, Ios. An­tiq. l. 9. c. 11. at Uzzah's usurpation of the Priests office, which rent the Temple, and a Hill in the East was removed four furlongs towards the West; of another in Herods [Page 45] Reign, l. 15. c. 7. that slew ten thou­sand Iews. Marcley hill with us in Hereford-shire, Anno 1571. with a great noise removed it self from its place, and went con­tinually for three dayes together, overthrowing Kinnaston Chapel, bearing the earth 400. yards be­fore it. And therefore Exhalations may be grant­ed to remove stones and sands, and with them such heterogeneous bodies as lie on them, from one place to another, from the sea to the [Page 46] hills, from a coast far into a countrey. But Earthquakes are not frequent in any places unless near Vulcanoes, and are less usual in these parts; and yet in most places all over Europe, such heterogeneous bodies have been found under the Earth, at great distance from the Sea. Again, the force of Exhalations is most evident in mountainous, rocky countreys, because when they are pent into such places they cannot have vent; whereas these [Page 47] bodies are often found in mosses, bogs, and marish grounds, as frequently as in other earth.

5. So that they are most likely to be hurried thither by the force of waters, passing from the Sea through the caverns of the Earth. The reason­ableness of which opinion will the better appear, if we consider that,

1. As the Earth is of a vast compass, and no less than 7000 miles in Diameter, of which the Water doth not [Page 48] make above one third part of the Globe, and that on the surface of Earth too; and so far as was ever yet discovered of the Earth, no part of it is de­stitute of some mineral sub­stance continually genera­ting in it, unless where either the Sun exhales the force of it, or Nature is otherwise imployed in producing Vegetables. So that if the Earth be kept from the sight of the Sun, and the production of plants, nor is apt to other genera­tions, [Page 49] yet it fails not to produce Saltpeter or Nitre in good quantity. And this is the reason that Saltpeter-men dig in Stables, Cellars, and other houses. So that in the whole bow­els of the Earth, what vast heaps, what mountains of metalls are there? Some in fieri, some in facto esse; perfect and imperfect; mean metalls, Stones, Fluors of all sorts, Salts, and con­crete Iuices; besides the several sorts of Earths, Chalks, Boles, Bitumina, [Page 50] and the mixtures of all or any of these, of which it were much too large, and more besides my purpose particularly to discourse.

2. Where there are so vast and numerous generati­ons, 'tis impossible that they should succeed with­out vast quantities of wa­ter. Nay, to speak more home, the first matter that hath been yet disco­vered of all Minerals, is no other than a certain Iuice or water impregnate with the seminal vertue of this or [Page 51] that Mineral stone or Metall, which from water (when it hath found a conveni­ent matrix) becomes a gel­ly, and from a gelly this or that stone or metall. This is obvious from several springs, whose water im­pregnate with the seeds of stone, having found a place of rest convert into perfect stone. Of which sort, we read of some in War­ner. de. Aq. Hungar. Hunga­ry, of others in Peru by War­ner. de. Aq. Hungar. Acost. l. 3. c. 17. Acosta. In Guancavilica there is a Fountain that turns into a Rock, with [Page 52] which an whole village is built. At Newnham Re­gis in Warwick-shire, our Geographers tell us of a Well that after the same manner turneth wood into stone; of another in the the North, that dropping from above into a Cave, becomes clear and very hard stone beneath. Bert. Geog. p. 127. Rivus est apud Scotos Ratra dictus, in cujus ripa est spelunca, in qua guttatìm ex fornice distil­lans nnda lapidescit in metas, quae nisi tollantur humana in­dustria, spatium totum opple­rent. [Page 53] Some Minerals are no other than certain kind of Iuices accreted, as Allum, Vitriol, &c. And Mine-masters have some­times found Metalls liquid and unconcrete when they have peirced a Mine too soon; Mathesius menti­ons liquid Silver found by some. And for this without doubt among other causes, is water by the Ancients called Pansper­mia; for that the seeds of things in the Earth have very little vertue without [Page 54] this, Moses insinuates, Gen. 2.5. where he gives this reason why no Plants yet grew, viz. because they lay in arido, for the Lord had not caused it to rain on the earth. I am very confident that the Poets did not only call Venus the Goddesse of generation, [...], the spume-born Goddesse, from the saltness of the spume, (though some of later date have therefore called her [...]) but from the waters that bare it. Nor is there any question [Page 55] to be made, but that the Inhabitants of the waters are therefore more nume­rous than other creatures, not for any saltness, which at the most can but Aegyptii ideo à sale abstinuerunt (teste Plutarcho) quod sa­lem venerem irritare persuasū haberent. Le­vin. Lemn. de Nat. Miracul. l. 2. p. 228. irritate to copulation, but doth not ren­der the seed e­ver the more prolifical. For fresh water fish are as multiplicative of their species as the other in proportion. There is not a fish that swimmeth in the deep that hath a grea­ter [Page 56] quantity of spawn considering his bulk, than a Carp; yet it is a fresh water fish.

Nor can I believe there can any other reason be given, why the Irish women have so many Children, than because their Country, and consequently themselves, are so exceeding moist, as ap­pears by their stature, their pale countenances, their flac­cid, soft and phlegmatick ha­bit of body. And indeed I think that it were as rea­sonable to seek for taste in [Page 57] an egg, Ex ovo omnia. Harv. And what taste is there in the white of an egg? Iob. as for salt in the sperm of fish or any other creature; for by virulent Gonorrhaea's it appears that a sharp and saline quality, is a token rather of corrupti­on than of any active and generative energy. Et quod verissimum est dicimus; No­vimus & jam nosco mulieres varias conjugatas sat juve­nes, quae ab erroribus dietae à Pica sive Malacia causatis, praecipuè à salitorum, vel potiùs ab incommisti salis esu, non tandum sordidos pallidos fae­tidosque obtinuere colores; cu­tes [Page 58] impolitas & rugosas, ven­triculos nauseabundos; ve­rumetiam suffocatae omnino evaserunt & steriles. But although I attribute the effects above mentioned to water rather than salt; ye [...] I would not be con­ceived to imbibe Thales Mi­lesius opinion, that aqua is so named, quasi à qua omnia, as if all things were from it; and yet do believe that it is causa sine qua non, and a great nurse and fosterer of Generations, if not a Parent of them. And of Mine­rals [Page 59] too; especially if we should embrace the opi­nion of the Peripateticks, that all mixed bodies are immediately composed of the four Elements; for then these being the most pon­derous bodies, must needs have in them the most weighty Elements in good quantity, and those are Earth and Water.

3. The Sea is the ori­ginal of all Waters; nor could any fountain else afford enough to supply the Earth to all uses. [Page 60] That which by the Neote­ricks hath lately been found out, of the Circu­lation of the Bloud and Humours in the Micro­cosm, was long since dis­covered (which might possibly hint that) in the greater world. Eccles. 1.7. All rivers run into the Sea, yet the Sea is not full: unto the place from whence the ri­vers come, thither they re­turn again. And what huge quantities of water must be necessary for the whole Earth, may be [Page 61] hence inferred, that the superficies of it needs so much, that besides the in­numerable Springs, Foun­tains, Chanels, Rivers and Lakes with which it is irrigated, were it not for frequent showres from above, would soon be parched up, and un­able to produce sustenance for Man or Beast; which help the bowels of the Earth are destitute of; for the moisture of showres peirceth not above ten foot deep at the most. [Page 62] And indeed, this is the onely reason that can be given of the Seas saltness, because it doth wash, and so dissolve much salt from the rocks of Salt in sub­terraneal caverns where it doth pass, and would long ere this have caused places, where such rocks have been, to sink in: But that, first, there is a continual generation and ac­cretion, as well as a dissolu­tion; and secondly, be­cause that Salt is very hard, insomuch that some [Page 63] stones of salt there are found in several waters undissolved; as those of which Cambden informs us in the River Weere near Batterby in the Bishoprick of Durham. Cambd. Brit. Bri­gant. And as for that dreadful story of Lots wife turned into a pillar of salt, Gen. 19.26. [...] we are to believe the thing, so may it not be improbable that it was termed a pillar, as well for the solidity, du­rableness, and difficulty of dissolution, as well as for its shape and form; God [Page 64] striking her in that man­ner, as a more durable mo­nument of his anger against Disobedience. And our glass at this day is but salt after its highest fusion, and yet it is very solid and du­rable, and imports no quality to water. Thirdly and lastly, the Sea-water ha­ving imbibed so much salt before, is the less able to dissolve more.

4. That though the Sea on the coast near the shore, may communi­cate its waters by perloca­tion, [Page 65] yet to places at great distance it cannot pass so as to afford a due supply, but by Gulphs and subter­raneal In-draughts. In ma­ny places of the world they make the sea-water potable and fresh by dig­ging of pits in the sand, into which the sea-water streining it self, leaves its saltness behind. But this must be done at no great distance from the Sea, and it must be in sand or clay, or the like; for if the shore be rocky, [Page 66] it will not do; as we see in many places where they dig a very great depth for fresh water near the Sea, and cannot be supplied till they find a fresh spring, a great ma­ny foot under the surface of the Sea. So we see that when we filtrate li­quors through shop-paper, if it be thin and bibulous, it passeth; if thick and too close, it will not pass. Some illustrate the percolation of the sea-water by this experiment. Take [Page 67] a round ball of moist clay, make it hollow in the in­side, fill it with salt wa­ter, lay it to the fire, and it will extill by the pores of the clay, and become fresh and insipid.

Now that there are vast gulphs and chanels from the sea under the earth, will easily appear, when we consider, that some great lakes and oce­ans there are, that have no other way to vent them­selves. What way can the Caspian Sea exonerate it self [Page 68] by, after it hath taken into it Volga, Iaxares, Ochus, Oxus, and other huge Rivers? What o­ther reason can be given why some lakes are full of sea fish, and yet at great distance from the Sea? In Bainoa, a Pro­vince of Hispaniola, is a lake of salt water which hath 24 Rivers running into it, yet never increa­seth, and hath Sharks and other sea-fish in it. Again, there are salt springs in all Countreys that ebbe [Page 69] and flow as the Sea and the Coasts do. There are also salt rivers, as Ochus and Oxus; salt lakes, as that before mentioned. Besides this, it is ordi­nary for chanels and rivers to run a great way on the earth, and then to in­gulp themselves. Georg. Witne­rus. The wa­ters of the Cirknickzerksey lake in Carniola, gush with that violence and swift­nesse out of the ground, that they will overtake a swift Horse-man, and presently are swallowed [Page 70] in a deep gulph again. In the Province of Caz­cium in Hispaniola is a great cave in an hollow rock, under the root of a very high mountain, in which divers Rivers, af­ter they have run four­score and ten miles, pass as into an indraught, and are swallowed up. In most Countreys we read of the like. A moun­tain there is in Caermar­then-shire, where Careg-castle sometimes stood, in which are many spa­cious [Page 71] holes and wide caves, with a Well that ebbs and flows as the Sea on the Coast doth, twice in four and twenty hours. The Current of one and the same Sea in several parts contrary ways demon­strates this, as in the Atlantick Sea, in some places from, and in some places towards the North, like Liquor in a fun­nel. In some places there are whirlepools, whose wa­ters turn clean round, in­somuch that if a Ship at [Page 72] such times come over them, they are in most extreme danger of sink­ing: Such an one there is in the North Sea, near the coast of Nor­way. At other times the waters with that violence come out of the earth, that a Cannon cast over­board will not sink. This caused Taurellus, and some others, to think these the onely cause of the Tides. Moral. decad. 7. c. 8. Andreas Moralis on the Coast of Hispaniola was sucked into whirle­pools, where with that violence the water was drawn into the earth, that [Page 73] with extraordinary toil the Ship hardly escaped sinking. Again, the hete­rogeneous bodies that are found so deep, are such usually that either are ge­nerated, or most usually dwell in the Sea; as shells, bones of fish, masts, anchors, parts of ships. Si [...]ler [...] Or [...]elius. At Berna in Switzerland, Anno 1460. fifty fathom deep, in a Mine where they got metall-oar, Fracasto­rius. a Ship was digged up, in which were forty eight carkases of Men, with other merchan­dise. Out of the Ocean [Page 74] into the Medi­terranean Sea, In Greenland a Mast was digged out of the top of an high Hill with a pully hanging to it. there is a con­tinual current by the streights of Gibral­tar; another Current into the same out of the Euxine Sea, by the Thrasian Bosphorus; be­sides, very many and great Rivers. And which way can it exonerate it self? for those vast flouds do not increase it. And Solomons Circulation of hu­mours in the Macrocosm above mentioned, is ve­ry [Page 75] considerable; nor is the Analogy in this parti­cular between that and the lesser World obscure. For the Sea in that an­swereth to the Fountain of bloud in this. The Subterraneal Rivers, and those above ground, may answer to the vessels containing the bloud. And both these answer to the vasa attrahentia, & deferentia; for the sub­terraneal chanels carry the water from the Sea, the Rivers return it to the Sea. [Page 76] Again, as both sorts of vessels are greater near the fountain of bloud in the body; so are the chanels biggest nearest the Sea their fountain; and though it may sometimes happen otherwise, yet if the banks of any are wider, so that they look like lakes a great while before they discharge themselves in­to the Ocean; I look on it but as casuall, and bearing proportion with the divarications of vessels in mans body. Again, [Page 77] vessels in our bodies are from trunks (like trees) branched out, in ramulos, surculos, and other minute distributions (answering to the stalks of leaves or fruits) which are again subdivided into capillary conveyances, and thence the bloud and humours pass per poros for the nutriment of the solid parts; so are the Rivers above (and without doubt the cha­nels under ground in pro­portion to them) from their main trunks divided [Page 78] into Brooks, those Brooks into Rivulets, these into lesser conveyances as it were capillary vessels, and eve­ry where dispersed and disseminated according to the exigence of nature, and thence passe through the pores of the Earth, that no part may be destitute of a due supply for the Genera­tion and increase of all bo­dies. Again, the aestus maris bears some propor­tion to the pulse of the bloud in the Microcosm, the ebbing and contraction [Page 79] of the water is the systole; the turgescency, floating, and dilatation of the water, is the diastole; the space be­tween both the perisy­stole. Again, as in the heart and in some vessels only that carry the bloud that motion is to be found; so is the aestus discovered in some vessels only that conveigh the humour of the greater World. Not that I look on this as any kind of proof, but as an illustration, the better to guide our conceptions [Page 80] in Natures Water-works, by what is seen that we may the better under­stand that which is not seen, or at least not so plainly. However e­nough to our purpose it is, that such Subterraneal chanels there are from the Sea under the Earth. As for the common scruple of the improbability of the waters rising so high out of the Sea to the su­perfice of the Earth, it is the least hindrance of an hundred; for if there be [Page 81] a continuity of the air, waters will rise as high as the surface of the waters from whence they came, as appears in Siphunculis; and therefore may rise to the tops of the highest hills. For the highest places of the Sea answer to the tops of the loftiest mountains, or else the earth could not be spherical. Were it not for bounds God hath set, the wa­ters are high enough to turn again and co­ver the earth, v. 9. He hath Chambers or Receptacles by which to water the hills, v. 13. To this the Psal­mist is conso­nant, Psalme 104. The wa­ters [Page 82] go up by the Mountains, they go down by the Valleys unto the place which thou hast founded for them. With what violence do the waters gush out of Saint Winifreds Well in Wales on the top of a great hill? Again, com­pression of those vast quantities of water for­cing them into Earth, may make them mount the higher; as Hoggsheads full and newly broached run the faster. I'le il­lustrate this by the fol­lowing [Page 83] experiment. Take two round Boards e­qually sized, fasten strong Leather to those Boards above, below, and on the sides so close that they may hold water; from the lower board let an hol­low pipe go up on the out-side higher than the upper board; fill this instrument with water; then put a weight on the upper board, and pro­portionable to the weight so will the waters mount [Page 84] to a greater or lesser height, as in this Figure.

• A. The upper board.
• B. The lower board.
• ccc. The Leather on eve­ry side.
• [Page 85]D. The Pipe through which the water will leap up­wards.
• E. The weight of com­pression.

But it may be object­ed, that this is an adven­titious and external com­pression; and not that of the water onely. But I answer, that such a compression there is in the Sea from agitation of the waters by wind, and other causes; and yet that waters by their own [Page 86] natural compression will mount higher than the brims of the vessel contain­ing, may be evident from this, that if we take one of a consider­able capacity, with a pipe on the outside something higher than its brims; and rub the brims with Rosin, or such like Gum, and then fill it full till no more water can be poured in, stopping the orifice of the pipe in the mean time with ones fin­ger, then removing the [Page 87] finger, it will presently burst out at the pipe. It may be demanded then, Why are not all Rivers salt? To this I an­swer; That most of them have their waters stopped and percolated, and so leave their saltnesse be­hind. But as for those that have no hinderance, they are not onely salt, but do constantly ebbe and flow, as hath been ex­emplified already. Those that have a stoppage by a bank of earth to such an [Page 88] heighth onely, issue fresh water at their ebbe, and at their flote salt; as that fountain in the Isle of Gades doth. See Or­tel. map. epitomi­xed in the de­scription of Gades. Those that are salt, and have no tides, are such as after perco­lation wash some rocks of salt before their erup­tion.

5. Where mighty flouds come with violence, as these must of necessity do by reason of the vast quantity, the mighty com­pression, and the unspeak­able weight of the waters [Page 89] of the Ocean, they will easily carry with them light, and with no great difficulty ponderous bodies. This needs not, and there­fore shall not, have any proof.

6. Heterogeneous bodies by the weight and strength of waters forced into a narrow place, cannot easi­ly by the return of those beyond them, (if they return at all the same way) be brought forth again. Because there is little or no compression, and [Page 90] therefore the return of the water is leasurely, and by degrees. This is ob­vious to Sense, and therefore needs no illu­stration.

7. And as much evi­dent to sense it is that any heterogeneous bodies so remaining unremoved, soon gather slime and sand a­bout them, and in a small space of time are lodged as it were in firm ground. This is no more wonderful than to have any vessel in the Micro­cosm [Page 91] obstructed by crude and heterogeneous bodies, caeteris paribus. Nor need we seek for rare Water­works; for every ordinary gutter and sink will de­monstrate this.

And thus ( Doctor) you have my Opinion of the way by which those Cockle, Muscle, and Oyster-shells you mentioned, were brought and lodg­ed in that place. If they were truly shells, they were conveyed ei­ther above or under ground; [Page 92] but not so usually above, therefore under. If under ground, then by natural or voluntary agents. If by natural and necessary, then either by Vapours, Exhala­tions, or Waters; but this is done usually and com­monly by none of the for­mer, therefore by the last; which is the more likely to effect it,

• 1. Because there are numerous generations in the Earth.
• 2. Where many genera­tions are, much water is ne­cessary.
• [Page 93]3. No fountain can sup­ply the earth to these pur­poses but the Sea, which is the original of all waters.
• 4. Though the Sea communicate his waters to places near it by perco­lation; it must and doth supply that afar off by whole flouds, gulphs and indraughts.
• 5. Where mighty flouds come with violence, they will carry very weighty bo­dies with them.
• 6. Heterogeneous bodies are not easily brought [Page 94] back again when they are forced into a narrow place.
• 7. But in a little time gather slime, and earth a­bout them, and so are lodged in firm ground.