XVIU ADVERTISEMENT. 



of the polar ices, and of the unlverfal Deluge 

 which it produced, from Mofes and Job ; of the 

 heat of the Moon, and it's effects on ice and wa- 

 ter, from Pliny\ and from recent experiments made 

 at Rome and at Paris ; of the Currents and Tides 

 which flow alternately from the Poles toward the 

 Equator, from Chriftopher Columbus, Barents ^ Mar- 

 ten, Ellis, Lirifchotten, AbelTaJman, Dampier^ Pen- 

 nant , Rennefort, &c. I have quoted all thefe Ob- 

 fervers in terms of high approbation. 



Had I known of any Latin Author, who afcrlbed 

 to the melting of the polar ices the caufe of the 

 Tides, in fo much as any one part of the Ocean, 

 1 would have quoted him in like manner, re- 

 ferving to myfelf the glory of the Archited, that 

 of combining, and arranging thefe detached ob- 

 fervations ; of allotting them to their peculiar fea- 

 fons and latitudes, in order to clear them of the 

 apparent contradictions, which had hitherto pre- 

 vented the deduction of any fair confequence from 

 them ; and, in a word, to afiign a caufe, and evident 

 means, for effeds which, during fo many ages, 

 had been involved in myftery. I have formed, 

 then, one Whole of all thefe fcattered truths, and 

 have deduced from them the general harmony of 

 the movements of the Ocean, of which the heat 

 of the Sun is the firfh caufe, the polar ices are the 

 means, and the half-yearly and alternate Currents 



of 



