O F S A N D. 51 



mores of our rivers, and below it a bed of fine Tarfo, or moun- 

 tain-fand, white, angular, and diaphanous, about a, yard in 

 thicknefs. On clearing it away, an amazing heap of other great 

 ftones appeared in view, in all pofitions, fome round, fome fphe- 

 rical, one or two of thefe laft nearly in a perpendicular attitude, 

 of avaftfize, dreadful to look upon, feeming to threaten imme- 

 diate deftruclion as I flood near them. They reftcd on a bed of 

 water- gravel, under which was a bed of Tarfo, like the former. 

 I digged no farther, my curiofity being fatisfied, believing that 1 

 mould have found the like ftrata of ftone, gravel and land, to 

 any depth. The direction of this hill is a demonftration of a 

 deluge or inundation of waters, and confirms the opinion of 

 Herodotus, and other obferving and valuable writers, that fuch a 

 variety of ftrata of earth, of ftone, of water-gravel, and of fharp 

 rag-fand, in fuch different ranges and difpofitions, can be attri- 

 buted to nothing but a flood, the lighter bodies being uppermoft, 

 and the heavier below them, by their own denfity and gravity. 

 I found no land, river, or fea-fhells of any kind, not fo much 

 as the molds of any. To try the fertility of the earth and 

 fand, feparated from the grofler bodies of huge Hone, and large 

 gravel, I converted the fouthern declivity of this hill, now be- 

 come pendent and Hoping, to a garden, walled the back and 

 fides of the cavity, and the femicircular foot or bottom of the 

 ilope, with the ilones. It proved very fertile, growing peas, 

 beans, various plants and flowers, and from the warmth of the 

 expofure, would undoubtedly have brought grapes to a tolerable 

 perfection. It is flickered to the north by its own lofty fummit, 

 to the eaft and weft by towering oaks, and to the fouth by an- 

 other fhady hill extending in the fame manner eail and weft, 

 and between both is a fine trout-dream, c roiled by a bridge in 

 fight of one arch, with a vale alfo in fight through which it glides, 

 adorned on each fide with banks of oak, and other forefl-trees, 



H 2 whole 



