SIS A Difjertation on the 



find the Cruji of the Earth furrounding the Abyfs, and 

 broken into innumerable apertures and fiffures ; the 

 largeft of which are the beds of Lakes, Seas and Oceans j 

 the next lefs are the canals for the waters of Springs ; 

 and the leaft, the cracks, through which the vapours 

 of the Abyfs afcend into the Atmofphere." To render 

 this account more intelligible the Author compares the 

 Earth to an Egg : its Criiji to the Shell j the Abyfs, to 

 the White ; and the Nucleus, to the Tolk, He then en- 

 ters into an elaborate argument to prove the exiftence 

 of this Abyfs of waters ; an attempt, in which he is 

 pronounced fuccefsful by Jones and Ai>ams. 



Three methods are pointed out by Mr. Catcott, in 

 which the waters of the Abyfs may be conveyed to the 

 orifices of Fountains : 



By the afcent of Vapour through the Cracks in 



the Cruft ; 

 By Upward Filtration ; and 

 By the PreiTure of the Ocean. 

 The Vapour, mentioned in the firft method, is fup- 

 pofed to be occafioned by a Jire, exifting fomewhere in 

 the bowels of the Earth. To avoid repeating what has 

 already been faid refpeding an internal fire ; I will 

 barely remark, that fuch a fire can not e^ifl: in the Nu' 

 deus ; for there can be no regular fupply of air to fup- 

 port it : nor in the Abyfs ; for, had it once been kind- 

 led there, the water mufi: immediately have extinguifli- 

 ed it : and that if fuppofed to exift in the Crufi, it 

 could have no effed: on the waters beneath. Were we, 

 however, to allow the exifi;ence of fuch a fire in the 

 Nucleus, operating on the bottom of the Abyfs, like 

 our common culinary fires on the bottom of a kittle : 

 Hill, the Vapour thus occafioned would be condenfed, 

 in its afcent through many miles of cold water, long 

 before it reached the under furface of the Crufl:. The 

 only alternative is to imagine the Abyfs to be, and to 

 have always been, an immenfe fubterranean ocean of 

 hot water. — In this way, if \vq fuppofe ifi:. That there 

 is fuch an abyfs j 2dly. That it is a mere mafs of hot 



