64 Ihe Production and Generation 



kingdom, but be an effential part of their common 

 mother, the earth, how can we pretend to limit 

 their origination to a certain day or period of 

 time, and rather not allow their having exifted, 

 in their principal part, from the beginning, and 

 probably from the third day of the creation ; tho' 

 afterwards, from time to time, they were ex- 

 tended and became more firm and ftrong. 



The deluge is an event, which has produced 

 the moil remarkable alterations in the earth, 

 that have at any time happened, and to which 

 many effects, obfervable at this day, are to be af- 

 cribed. The hiftory of the deluge gives great light 

 towards the knowledge of nature, and the prefent 

 ftate of the earth feems to verify this event : by the 

 violence of the deluge the mineral kingdom was 

 thrown into confufion, parts before conjoined were • 

 feparated, ores and veins diflodged, and new beds 

 and petitions given them. The feveral ftrata y 

 wherein minerals are at prefent found, afford con- 

 vincing inftances, as well of the truth as of the 

 confufion wrought by this event, efpecially in parts 

 where clay, fand, fhiver, ftone and the like, lie 

 in beds and layers on each other. For inftance, 

 at Waldenberg, in Mifnia, famous for its earthen 

 vefTHs employed for diftilling and other purpofes. 

 Firft, beneath the under-turf earth, which is alfo 

 ftony enough, a coarfe, flony fand lies •, under- 

 neath this again, flints, of the lize of hen -eggs, 

 and above thefe a clear white fand. Thirdly, a 

 middle fand, wherein are nefts of black-ftone with 

 fione-marrow. Fourthly, that extremely fat, clear 

 clay, from 2, 3, to 31 German ells mighty or thick ; 

 and from the under-turf earth, from 10 to 20 ells 

 deep •, from which our fmooth earthen pots, jugs, 

 and the like veffels are prepared. Fifthly, under- 

 neath this, appears a leaner, namely, a fandy fort 



of 



