246 LETTER IX. 



the vulgar notion, viz. That there is no Tide at 

 all, but in lieu of it, a fmall irregular Current 

 among our Leeward Charibee Wands, had not a 

 Merchant, many years fetled at Nevis ^ (wh^ 

 was brought up a Mariner, and reckoned a very 

 fkilful one) afiured me from his own Obfervations 

 that we had a very regular, though fmall Tide 

 there ; which fmallnefs we attributed to the want 

 of a SinuG, to confine and raife the Water more, 

 N, B, That the River Amazcjis^ in South- Ame- 

 rica^ direflly under the Equator, is twelve hun- 

 dred Leagues long, fifty Leagues wide, at it's 

 mouth, and its Tide rifes five or fix fathoms. 

 Here indeed, is Sinus enough to effe6t it. 



2 I . Since my laft return from Cambridge^ I 

 have infpeded your Patron, Dr. Woodiiuard'^ Na- 

 tural Hitlory of the Earth, publifhed in EngliJJ:^ 

 hy Benjamin HoUoiray^ LL.B, and Fellow of the 

 Royal Society ; and if this natural Hiftory be ad- 

 mitted for truth, it is then certain enough, that my 

 Stones, in the fhape of hollow Oyfter-lhells, are 

 rightly accounted for by him, and not by Maxi^ 

 mllian Mifjbn, I obferve, how he fays, in page 

 50, That Stone in its Strata and under ground, 

 does grow gradually more and more hard, and 

 fo by little and little attains a compleat So- 

 lidity. I never made it my bufinefs to examine 

 narrowly into the affair -, but that many Stones 

 do grow, is evident enough to nie, who fhall not 



trouble 



