HISTORY OF 



workmen arrive at the depth of sixty-three feet* 

 they come to a bed of chalk, which they bore 

 with an auger five feet deejp : they then withdraw 

 from the pit, before the auger is removed, and 

 upon its extraction the water bursts up through 

 the aperture with great violence^ and quickly fills 

 this hew made well, Which continues full, and is 

 affected neither by rains nor droughts. But that 

 which is most remarkable in this Operation, is the 

 layers of earth as we descend* At the depth of 

 fourteen feet are found the ruins of an ancient 

 City, paved streets, houses, floors, and different 

 jpieces of Mosaic. Under this is found a solid 

 earth, that would induce one to think had never 

 been removed ; however, under it is found a soft 

 oozy earth, made up of Vegetables ; and at twenty* 

 six feet depth, large trees entire, such as walnut 

 trees, With the walnuts still sticking on the stem, 

 and their leaves and branches in exact preserva- 

 tion. At twenty-eight feet deep, a soft chalk is 

 found, mixed with a vast quantity of shells ; and 

 this bed is eleven feet thick. Under this, vege- 

 tables are found again, with leaves and branches 

 of trees as before ; and thus alternately chalk and 

 vegetable earth to the depth of sixty-three feet. 

 These are the layers wherever the workmen at- 

 tempt to bore ; While in many of them they also 

 find pieces of charcoal, bones, and bits of iron. 

 From this description, therefore, it appears that 

 this country has been alternately overflowed and 

 deserted by the sea, one age after another : nor 

 were these overflowings and retirings of trifling 

 depth, or of short continuance. When the sea 



