Royal Society^ 493 
where, in a whitiAi Hone, the Echini Galeati 'punEliculatl IJuydii^ 
the ^urbinites major Lluydii^ the Cochlites l^evis vulgatior-j 
and in a blue ftone the Concha altera longa Rondeletii, exactly 
correlponding to the bignels and draught thereof in Gefner de 
'Pifcibis j he aifo found feveral Sekmnites great and fmall, per- 
forated and flat at the root, by which they grew in the antedelu- 
vian fea, to fome of which were found flicking little fhell-fifh. 
There have been many difputes amongft the learned concerning 
thefe appearances^ M/delaPryme thinks, that the antedeluvian 
world had an external lea, as well as land, mountains, hills, ri- 
vers, and fruitful fields, and plants 3 that it was about the bignels 
of our prefent earthy and that when God had a mind, by realbn 
of the wickednels of the inhabitants, to deftroy it by water, he 
broke the foundations and fubterraneous caverns thereof with 
dreadful earthquakes, by which it was for the moil part, if not 
wholly ablbrbed, and covered by the feas we now have ; and that 
this our earth role then out of the bottom of the antedeluvian lea 
in its flead ; juft as feveral iflands are fwallowed up, and others 
come up in their room. 
From this lyftem of the deluge, which is the moft conlbnant 
with the Icriptures of all others, all thole things are eafily 
Iblved, which were hard and difficult before 3 it is no longer a 
wonder that ihells, and ihell-fifh, the bones of other fi/h and of 
quadrupeds, and truits, ^c. are commonly found in beds and 
quarries, in hills and mountains, and m the bowels of the 
earth 3 as alio, in the foil that was carried with great violence, 
and confufion, from one place to another, occafioned by the work- 
ing of the waters, and the ferment and hurry they were put intoj 
and as all countries were thus raifed out of the bottom of the 
antedeluvian lea and lakes, {o that part of the country, about 
S^roughtonf appears manifeftly, to have been (in the antedeluvian 
world) the bottom of Ibme frcfli-water lake, becaufe thefe are 
fre/h-water fhell-fiih, which are found therein, and the bed upon 
which ihey bred, was a fine blue clay, which is the colour of the 
ftone to this very day 5 which bed being elevated, and mix'd with 
other earth in the commotions of the waters, and the hurry, and 
confufion that then happened, the laid bed, by the power of the 
fubterraneous heat and Effluviay was turned by degrees into 
ftone, with all the filh therein : It may be thought ftrange, feeing 
the Ihells are dole, how the matter of the bed could infinuate 
itlelf into them 3 but this is common in like cales^ for M. de la 
^ryme has frequently feen, in the bottoms of ponds and rivers, 
where fucb ihell-fiihare in plenty, that when the filh isconfum'd, 
and 
