NATURAL HISTORY of N RWAY, 51 



were all difTolved 3 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 Subftances, fubfiding quicker or flower, according to their Spe- 

 cific gravities; the feveral fubftances thus obtaining their colle£ted 

 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 clemolifhed the fmooth fliell, and this difruption 

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

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

 fally 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 throwm uppermoft, and Such 

 a general confufion prevailed ? fuppofes, that immediately after 

 the deluge, the abovementioned great change and diflblution * 

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

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

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

 ferent layers. Tho' this be but an hypothecs, 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 ftruclure 

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

 parts. In thefe rocks, which are compofed of maftes 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 Super ftratum, yet not always horizontal, according to 

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

 in various, and in feme places, even in perpendicular directions, 

 The caufe of this pofition cannot be cleared up without admitting 

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



* Several caufes of this may be alledged, but in my opinion this appears the moll 

 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 necefiarily fol- . 

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

 into the ocean. 



Part I. P onal 



