380 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 170. 



ficult, according to his hypothesis, to get rid of the water with which the earth 

 was covered, than it is, according to others, to find a sufficient quantity. Mr. 

 Ray has accounted for this amazing event, by supposing a change to have happened 

 in the centre of gravity of the earth. But how to find a cause for such a change 

 in the centre of gravity, and for a restoration of it to the same place again, is 

 more difficult, and the supposition of it more inconsistent with our philosophical 

 ideas, than any other hypothesis whatever. 



Such have been some of the principal theories hitherto advanced, and far be 

 it from me, says Mr. K. to presume that mine may not in the end be found 

 equally fallible ; but it appears to be more plain and consistent, and at the same 

 time is free from that great difficulty which has perplexed all the rest, and is in- 

 deed the most important difficulty in the inquiry, that is the accounting for a suf- 

 ficient quantity of water. 



We find in the Mosaic history of the creation, that God at the first created 

 sea as well as land ; and therefore have grounds to believe both from thence, and 

 from the reason of things, that there was as great a quantity of sea on the ante- 

 diluvian earth, as there is now on the earth in its present state. We find also 

 the whole surface of the earth to be undermined by subterraneous fires, which 

 make their appearance in various places, in very formidable volcanoes. This has 

 been the case in Italy, and among the Azores, in Tartary, in Kamtschatca, in 

 South America, in Ireland, in the islands of the East Indies, and in other parts : 

 and we have reason to believe that these subterraneous fires have made eruptions, 

 not unfrequently, even in the bottom of the sea ; as Mr. Mitchell has made ap- 

 pear in his excellent paper concerning the causes of the earthquakes. We have 

 also in the Phil. Trans, accounts of entire islands being raised in the Archipe- 

 lago, and among the Azores, by such subterraneous fires ; and Mr. Ray, in his 

 travels, mentions a mountain 100 feet high, raised by the earthquake in 1538, 

 which also threw up so much earth, stones, and ashes, as quite filled, up the 

 Lacus Lucrinus. To which may be added, that fossil shells and other marine 

 bodies are so universally found in all parts of the present continents and islands, 

 as to amount almost to a demonstration, that all the now dry land was once co- 

 vered with sea, and that for a considerable space of time, probably much longer 

 than the continuance of the deluge is related to have been. For though such a 

 violent flux of waters might have thrown up some shells and marine bodies on the 

 hills and mountains, yet it could not have flung up such vast quantities, nor so 

 universally. The prodigious beds of shells which we now find in all parts cannot 

 well be accounted for, but by supposing the waters, in which those shell-fish 

 lived, to have covered the countries where they are now found, for a long time, 

 and even for ages. 

 .The supposition therefore, which Mr. K. advances, founded on these facts is 



