J 6 S Natural History, 



the universal Deluge. These masses of indurated 

 earthy and oily matter, in falling into the abyss, 

 carried along with them vast quantities of air, by 

 the force of which they dashed against each other, 

 accumulated, and divided in so irregular a man- 

 ner, that great cavities, filled with air, were left be- 

 tween them. The waters gradually opened pas- 

 sages into these cavities, and in proportion as the 

 cavities were filled with water, parts of the crust 

 began to discover themselves in the most elevated 

 places. At last the waters appeared no where 

 but in those extensive valleys which contain the 

 ocean. Thus our ocean is a par;!' of the ancient 

 abyss; the rest of it remains in the internal cavi- 

 ties, with which the sea has still a communication. 

 Islands and rocks are the small fragments, and 

 continents the large masses of the antediluvian 

 crust. And as the rupture and fall of the mass 

 were sudden and confused, the present surface of 

 the earth is full of corresponding confusion and 

 irregularity.^ 



This '^ elegant romance" of Burnet was suc- 

 ceeded by the work of his countryman, Mr. 

 Woodward, who, in 1695, published Essays to- 

 zvards a Natural History of the Earth, and ter- 

 restrial bodies. Though he possessed much more 

 know^ledge of minerals than his predecessor, and 

 on this account had greatly the advantage of him, 

 he produced a work far less ingenious and interest-: 

 ing. He also proceeded on the supposition of the 

 Mosaic history being true, and ascribed the pre- 

 sent aspect of our globe to the influence of the 

 general deluge. He supposed that all the sub- 

 stances of which the earth is composed were 

 once in a state of solution; that this solution took 

 place at the flood; that on the gradual retiring o| 



« Sullivan's Vie%v of ^aturcf vol, i. letter 6» 



