244 CORRESPONDENCE OF RA\. 



them are as iiTegular as those stones are that have fallen 

 to the valleys ; we must, then, allow them to be the 

 skeleton of the hill exposed to open view by rains, snow, 

 &c. ; but then how came they to lie across each other in 

 this confusion ? some of them being of an oblong flat form, 

 having their two ends e. g. e, and w., others laid athwart 

 these, some of them laid flat, but many of them in- 

 chning, being supported by other stones at the one end, 

 &c. I must confess I have seen nothing that appeared 

 to me so strange as this in all those mountains. Had 

 they been in a valley I had presently concluded they had 

 fallen from the neighboming rocks, but being on the 

 very summit of the hill, they seem to me unaccountable. 

 I know it might serve to confu'm Dr. Burnet's hypothesis, 

 but for my part, though I admire his learning and 

 ingenuity, yet I must confess I cannot (as yet) reconcile 

 his opinions either to Scripture or reason, though I have 

 not seen either of those books that are written against 

 him. The other observation is not so unaccountable as 

 it is singular, and in some respects opposite to the 

 former, viz. on the n. w. side of the same hill there is, 

 amongst many others, one naked precipice, as steep as 

 any I have seen ; but so adorned with numerous equi- 

 distant pillars, and these again slightly crossed at certain 

 joints, that should Dr. Burnet see it, I believe he would 

 say it is one small pattern of the frame of the antediluvian 

 earth. I must confess I admired it almost as much as 

 he does (lib. i, c. 9) his precipice by the Mediterranean 

 Sea, to which, after a long encomium, he says, Vale 

 Augusta sedes rege digna, &c., though I must grant that 

 the shepherd, who was my guide, was far from wishing 

 himself a mansion at this palace. 



Oxford, Peb. 30, 1691. 



