LETTER VI. 133 



as well as at high Flood, Veflels do ufually fail 

 over it, with as much fafety as they can over any 

 other part of the Sea thereabouts. But no fooner 

 is the Flood a quarter fallen, than the Hiatus 

 which is then full of Water, begins to difgorge 

 it up again in a moft violent manner, together 

 with the Fi(hes and whatfoever elfe it had fo vo- 

 racioufly fwallowed down along with them. 

 The Fifhermen from the adjacent Iflands are al- 

 ways, in feafonable weather, ready upon thefe 

 Difgorgings to catch the Fiflies, which they do 

 in confiderable numbers, retiring home with them 

 before the Tide gets too near an Ebb, and of 

 courfe before there can be leaft dano;er of its hur- 

 rying them away into the Hiatus. Gordon In his 

 Geographical Grammar ftiles this Hiatus, the 

 Navel of the World, and makes it more than a 

 Mile in diameter, allowing Fiflies to be caught at 

 its difgorging, and affirms, that it fwallows down 

 every thing at hi^h Flood, and difgorges when the 

 Tide is at an ebb. My own account I had from 

 perfons,who pretended to have actually feen, and 

 failed over it. 



5. Now that this Hiatus called Macl-Sfrooju 

 (were it fo) fliould be always a filling, could raife 

 no fuch mighty wonder in us ; but the Reafons 

 or Grounds which caufe it to difgorge thus, do 

 certainly lay much deeper than my fhort line of 

 underftanding can fathom : and indeed if this 



I 3 knotty 



