56 HISTORY OF 



turn. Their several sounds, however, are heard 

 as they descend ; the bleating of sheep, the low- 

 ing of oxen, and the neighing of horses, issuing 

 up to the mouth of the cavern. Nor do these 

 sounds cease, as the place is continually furnished 

 with a fresh supply." 



There are many more of these dreadful perpen- 

 dicular fissures in different parts of the earth ; 

 with accounts of which Kircher, Gaffarellus, and 

 others, who have given histories of the wonders 

 of the subterranean world, abundantly supply us. 

 The generality of readers, however, will consider 

 them with less astonishment, when they are in- 

 formed of their being common all over the earth : 

 that in every field, in every quarry, these perpen- 

 dicular fissures are to be found ; either still gap- 

 ing, or filled with matter that has accidentally 

 closed their interstices. The inattentive specta- 

 tor neglects the inquiry, but their being common 

 is partly the cause that excites the philosopher's 

 attention to them : the irregularities of nature he 

 is often content to let pass unexamined j but 

 when a constant and a common appearance pre- 

 sents itself, every return of the object is a fresh 

 call to his curiosity ; and the chink in the next 

 quarry becomes as great a matter of wonder as the 

 chasm in Elden-hole. Philosophers have long, 

 therefore, endeavoured to find out the cause of 

 these perpendicular fissures, which our own coun- 

 trymen, Woodward and Ray, were the first that 

 found to be so common and universal. M. BufFon 

 supposes them to be cracks made by the sun, in 

 drying up the earth immediately after its emer- 



