VOL. XIX.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 45 



the psud-atlamants, the amethyst, and others ; likewise considerations touching 

 the growth of metals and minerals in the earth ; and touching the petroleum, 

 bitumen, salt, alum, vitriol, and other minerals in the water of springs ; the 

 incrustations or petrifactions of bodies in springs and rivers ; the effect that the 

 subterranean heat has on minerals, occasioning damps in mines, explosions in 

 earthquakes, oftentimes forcing the said minerals in steams out at the surface of 

 the earth, where they sometimes occasion fevers and other malignant distemper^ ; 

 and mounting up still higher in the atmosphere form meteors, are the cause of 

 thunder and lightning, &c. He closes this 4th part with a discourse concerning 

 amber, which he proves to be neither a gummous substance nor a marine pro- 

 duction, but a natural fossil, as flints, agates, &c. are, and formed at the deluge 

 as they were. 



The 5th part is concerning the alterations which the terraqueous globe has 

 undergone since the time of the deluge. And having in the former part dis- 

 patched what concerns the changes which happen in the interior parts of the 

 earth, by the transitions and removes of metals and minerals there, in this he 

 considers those alterations which befal the superficial or exterior parts of it, 

 showing that the upper or outermost stratum of earth, being the common fund 

 and promptuary out of which the matter of all animals and vegetables is derived, 

 and into which that matter is at last all returned back again, is in a continual 

 flux and revolution : and takes occasion here to discourse of the first particles or 

 elements of natural things, that rocks and mountains grow lower and lower, 

 the earth, sand, &c. being washed away, and borne down by rains, &c. 



The 6th part is concerning the state of the earth, and the productions of it, 

 before the deluge ; wherein he asserts, against the author of the theory, that 

 the face of the antediluvian earth was not smooth, but uneven, and distinguished 

 with mountains, valleys, and plains, as also with sea, lakes, and rivers ; that 

 the sea was then of the same extent, and intermixed with the land as now it is ; 

 that the water of the sea was salt, and that it was agitated with tides as at pre- 

 sent ; that the sea was abundantly replenished with fish, as were also the lakes 

 and rivers ; and that the earth was as plentifully stocked with vegetables and 

 animals; that the vegetables and animals of the primitive earth did not in any- 

 wise differ from those of the present earth ; that there were both metals and 

 minerals in the antediluvian earth ; that the terraqueous globe had then the 

 same site and position, in respect of the sun, as now, and that there were the 

 same vicissitudes of heat and cold, wet and dry, summer and winter, as at pre- 

 sent. These propositions our author deduces from his observations on the ve- 

 getable and animal remains of the antediluvian earth ; and having carefully com- 

 pared it with the account which Moses has left us of the earth, and of the 



