107 



of the consistence of a firm paste. Bury this three or 

 four feet under ground. In six or seven hours time, 

 the earth will begin to tremble, crack, and smoke, and 

 fire and flame will burst through. So that there only 

 wants a sufficient quantity of this matter, to produce a 

 true ^Etna. If it were supposed to burst out under the 

 sea, it might occasion a new island. 



To explain this point a little farther. This globe of 

 earth is bored through with iufiuite cavities, which,, 

 branching out like the veins, arteries, and nerves in our 

 bodies, pass under the very bottom of the sea. Some 

 of them serve to convey water, others a more unctious 

 substance, others an igneous matter, that gives motion* 

 to the whole frame. 



Thus the exterior sea communicates with the inmost 

 abyss, and passes to the roots of the hills and mountains. 

 Mean time a constant air or wind, forces the water into 

 the dark caverns, and receives and keeps alive a per- 

 petual lire. 



Have we not indubitable examples of these things 1 

 Does not the vast river Wolga pour such a quantity 

 of water into the Caspian, within the space of one year, 

 as would be sufficient, were there not some invisible out- 

 let, to cover the whole earth? This invisible outlet is a 

 huge cavern, that passes under Mount Caucasus into the 

 Euxine sea. Hereby the waters of the one sea, dis- 

 charge themselves into the other. And the whole king- 

 doms of Georgia and Mengreiia, are a$ it were a bridge 

 over those subterraneous waters.. 



When the Gaspiaiirsea has been, on occasion of winds, 

 too much emptied into the Euxine, it is replenished from 

 the Persian Guiph >r which is a kind of reservoir for 

 it. And the subterraneous communication between 

 the Red sea, and the Mediterranean is now out of all 

 dispute. 



And how many instances of this, have we in rivers'? 

 So late geographers assure us, that the river Niger, r*i 

 Africa, is derived from the river Nile, under the mighty 

 chain of the mountains of Nubia : on the western side 

 of which mountains, it takes the uaine of "Niger, and < 

 F 5 



