1752.] J. F. gronovius. 359 



[The Editor is indebted for the following letter, to his friend 

 Doctor Gray, of Cambridge, who is in possession of the original.] 



JOHN BARTRAM TO GRONOVIUS. 



November 30, 1752. 



Dear Friend : 



I received thy kind letter of March the 24th, 1752, by Mr. 

 Schlater, which pleased me well. Pray, how doth the Water 

 Mill prove ? Doth it answer expectation ? After what manner doth 

 it work ? I should be glad to know something of the nature of it. 



I am in expectation of enjoying great satisfaction by thy next 

 letter, and Kalm's Catalogue of Plants, which thee mentions thee 

 designs to send me. I sent thee last spring, a box of fossils, and 

 curious stones, with a letter ; but have not yet received any 

 answer. 



I have not travelled much this year, it being a very bad seed 

 year. I hope next may be better ; and I design to travel most of 

 the season, if Providence affords me health and opportunity, when 

 I hope to pick up some curiosities for thee of the fossil kind. 



I have had several accounts from curious observers, of manv 

 fish which have been catched near the middle of the sea, in which 

 there have been shell-fish, and sand reptiles, and several such like 

 submarine fish, whose abode is on sandy shoals ; which inclines me to 

 query whether there may not be vast chains of mountains, of many 

 hundreds of miles extent in the sea, as well as at land ; and 

 whether the tops of these may not be large sand-banks, which may 

 produce food for many kinds of fish (that never swim near the 

 shore), which resort to these banks for their daily food, whose 

 summits may be nearer the surface than most people may expect, 

 and where they may suppose it to be unfathomable ; as there are 

 islands already known, many of which are dispersed in most parts 

 of the sea, at unequal distances, where ships take their course in 

 sailing to the East and West Indies ; and it's very likely many 

 more are yet undiscovered, by reason of the vast tract of sea where 

 ships have not yet sailed, as may be observed by consulting the 

 Sea Journals. 



These islands being the tops of vast mountains, appearing above 

 the surface, so I think it's very likely that hundreds of them may 



