24 CREATION OF ANIMALS. 



waters, and the explosion of subterraneous va- 

 pours. He makes no direct mention of a store- 

 house of waters in the bosom of the earth as in 

 any case the source of springs and rivers, but 

 allows that " the phenomena of capillary tubes 

 may obtain in its interior. The sea-waters, 

 deprived of their salt and bitter elements, 

 may ascend through the imperceptible pores 

 of several rocks, from which, being disengaged 

 by the heat, they will form those subterra- 

 neous vapours to which many springs owe 

 their origin." A very slight alteration of this 

 passage would make it harmonize with the 

 Scripture account of the matter. If, for " some 

 rocks," we substitute through the rocky strata , 

 and to the " sea- waters " add received into the 

 abyss, it would amount to nearly the same thing. 

 It was an ancient opinion, mentioned in Plato's 

 Phaedon, that there is a flux and reflux of the 

 waters of our globe, a kind of systole and dias- 

 tole, into and from Tartarus or the great abyss, 

 which produce seas, lakes, rivers, and fountains. 1 

 That all the causes mentioned above contribute 

 to the formation of the rivers that water the 

 earth, especially the clouds and vapours that 

 gather round the tops of the mountains and high 

 hills I am ready to admit, at the same time I 

 must contend that the principal reservoir from 



i Platonis Dialogi. Ed. Forst. Phcedon. . 



