NATURAL HISTORY of A 7 RWAT. 51 



were all diffolved, and as it were liquified, and that the whole 

 terreftrial mafs, with its detached and intermingled parts, at laft 

 came to a coalition above the abyfs, in the form of a convex 

 vault, one ftratum above another, ftone, earth, fand, chalk, and 

 other fubftances, fubfiding quicker or flower, according to their fpe- 

 cific gravities; the feveral fubftances thus obtaining their collected 

 ftrata, the outward fhell of the earth was fmooth and level; and 

 Burnet, in his Theory of the Earth, holds this to have been the 

 ftate of things from the creation to the flood, when the water 

 broke up and demolifhed the fmooth fhell, and this difruption 

 mingling different bodies, threw all things into their prefent dis- 

 order ; though the wifdom of a divine ceconomy be ftill univer- 

 hlly confpicuous. Woodward, in. anfwer to the queftion, how 

 the furface of the globe, which, according to his opinion, was 

 rendered fmooth by the deluge, fell into its prefent irregularity ? 

 how the middle or loweft ftrata were thrown uppermoft, and fuch 

 a general confufton prevailed ? fuppofes, that immediately after 

 the deluge, the ahovementioned great change and diflblution * 

 took place, by which fome detached ftrata ftood with one end 

 in the air, and the other fubmerged, that the place of the 

 depreffed was filled by the elevation of parts or fragments of dif- 

 ferent layers. Tho' this be but an hypothefis, yet it appears to 

 me the only one, which accounts for and illuftrates what I have 

 moft wondered at, in my fpeculations on the ftupendous ftructure 

 of our northern rocks, and particularly the ftrata of their different 

 parts. In thefe rocks, which are compofed of maffes very differ- 

 ent in colour and figure, it is plainly feen that the fubftances 

 thereof have been as it were liquified, and afterwards fubfided 

 ftratum fuper ftratum, yet not always horizontal, according to 

 the laws of motion and gravity, but rather in general, oblique, or 

 in various, and in fome places, even in perpendicular directions. 

 The caufe of this pofition cannot be cleared up without admitting 

 the aforefaid opinion of Woodward, at leaft till fome more rati- 



* Several caufes of this may be ailed ged, but in my opinion this appears the moft 

 plaufible. As a new wall, if the foundation gives way ever fo little, cracks, and 

 even finks and falls to ruin ; the like muft have happened foon after the flood, 'when 

 this new mixture came to be dried ; and this ficcity muft occafion crevices and aper- 

 tures in the lower .part, and confequently in its upper furface, which neceflarily fol- 

 lowed the finking foundation, upon the water difcharging itfelf from the other parts 

 into the ocean. 



Part I. P onal 



