416 THE PROTOG^A OF LEIBNITZ, 



41. Ubi nunc Venetiarum et Principum Estensium re- 



giones, ibi antiquissimis temporibus mare et paludes 



fuere. 



42. Fontium Mutinensium rairaculum exponitur. 

 43. Caussa horum fontium proditu-r. 

 44. Descriptio stratorum terrse soli Rostorpiensis prope 



Goettingam, Mutinensi aliquo modo similis. 

 45. De obrutis terra arboribns, et fossili ligno. 

 46. De Torfa ej usque origine. 



4T. Singularis de arboribus terra obrutis observatio. 

 48. Enumeratio stratorum terra?, Amstelodami in putei 



fossione observatorum." 



This learned and curious memoir is embellished by 

 many figures, contained in twelve plates. 



Leibnitz confesses himself a believer in the extensive 



._ 



operation of fire upon this globe. " I believe," he 

 writes in his fifth letter to Mr. Bourguet, torn. vi. epist. 

 5. p. 213, "that our globe has been one day in a state 

 like that of a burning mountain ; and it was then that 

 the minerals which are discovered in these times, and 

 that are capable of being imitated in our furnaces, were 

 formed." " Ilocks, which may be called the bones of 

 the earth, are the sconce, or vitrification of this ancient 

 fusion; sand is only the glass of this fusion, pulverized 

 by motion; sea water is but an oleum per deliquium,' 

 produced by cooling, after the calcination. Thus the 

 three most extensive materials on the globe's surface 

 (the sea, rocks and sand) are naturally explained by 

 fire, while it is not easy to explain them by any other 

 hypothesis." 



