J2 The Production and Generation 



paration from the terra jirma, or that bottom, 

 which before the deluge conflituted either the up- 

 per furface, or was, by means of the deluge, firlt 

 tore up, and laid bare. 



The fecond regards the nature of tht /qua t -flone 

 itfelf ; for now to mention only Jhiver, in which 

 the pyrites fquat- veins are moflly difcovered, we 

 mufl needs fuppofe them to have been originally 

 a water-flime, gradually arrived to a leafy or flakey 

 flone, as was above folidly deduced from the ex- 

 traneous matters found therein ; it being impoffible 

 they mould have their prefent degree of firmnefs 

 and hardnefs, and at the fame time receive fuch. 

 matters as thefe : and the nature of Jhiver, efpe- 

 cially the aluminous, might ferve not a little to 

 eflablifh this, as being inflammable, and like a 

 fatty fort of flime ; nay, not unufually manifefl- 

 ing in the fire, a flame, and odour like amber and 

 bitumen. Nay, 'tis hard to fay, whether (3) this 

 other circumflance may not be allowed fome 

 weight, namely ; as lime-Hone fo readily break 

 xit&x Jhiver^ and are, above others, of a faline na- 

 ture; again, as lime flone, fhiver, and flone-coal, 

 are not eafily to be found, the one without the 

 other ; alfo, as lime- flone has aclual flone-falt 

 lodged in and upon it, of which we have a fample 

 at BottendorfF, in Thuringia : laftly, as the fea, 

 particularly in its depths, abounds with faline, bi- 

 tuminous, and fulphureous particles : and befides, 

 as fait and fulphur, fulphur and fait, fait and 

 earth, ftand fo proximately convertible; mould 

 we not, from all this, conclude, that fhiver, 

 ilone-coal, and lime-ilone, may have had, from 

 the fea, one common caufe, both of their mix- 

 tion, conflitution, and bedding ? 



And as fuch flat-work ought not to be derived 

 from the creation, flill lefs is it to be confidered 

 as a genuine Jhoad, or pcce-meal*work> thrown to- 

 gether 



