THE liAUTH. 4>7 



tip to the raouth of the cavern. Nor do these souikIs cease, iis 

 the place is continually furnished with a fresh supply." 



There are many more of these dreadful perpendicidar fissures 

 m different parts of the earth ; wdth accounts of which, Kircher, 

 Gaffarellus, and others who have given histories of the wonders 

 of the subterranean world, abundantly supply us. The gener- 

 ality of readers, however, will consider them with less astonish- 

 ment when they are informed of their being common all over the 

 earth ; that in every field, and every quarry, these, perpendicular 

 -fissures are to be found, either still gaping, or filled %vith matter 

 that has accidently closed their interstices. The inattentive 

 spectator neglects the inquiry, but their being' common is partly 

 the cause that excites the philosopher's attention to them : the 

 irregularities of nature he is often content to let pass unexamin- 

 ed ; but when a constant and a common appearance presents it- 

 self, every return of the object is a fresh call to his curiosity; 

 and the chink in the next quarry becomes as great a matter of 

 wonder as the chasm in Eldenhole. Philosophers have long, 

 therefore, endeavoured to find out the cause of these perpendi- 

 cular fissures, which our own countrymen, Woodward and Ray, 

 were the first that found to be so common and universal. 

 Mr Buflfon supposes them to be cracks made by the sun, in 

 drying up the earth, immediately after its immersion from the 

 deep. The heat of the sun is very probably a piincipal cause ; 

 but it is not right to ascribe to one only, what we find may be 

 the result of many. Earthquakes, severe frosts, bursting waters, 

 and storms tearing up the roots of trees, have, in our own times, 

 produced them ; and to this variety of causes we must, at present, 

 be content to assign those that have happened before we had 

 opportunities for observation. 



CHAP. VIL 



Of CAVES AND SUBTERaANEOUS PASSAGES THAT SI>fK, BUT NOT 

 rERPENDICULAULY, INTO THE EARTH. 



In surveying the subterranean wonders of the globe, besides 

 iLuie fissures that descend perpendicularly, we frequently fii.d 



