3 02 MijcelUneaCunofa. Vol. IlL 



broken Banks they difcover themfelTes to be 

 continued many Yards perpendicular. In feve-. 

 ral places thefe Shells are much clofer, and be- 

 ing petrefied, feem to make a Vein of a 

 Rock. I have feen in feveral places. Veins 

 of thefe Rocky Shells, three or four Yards 

 thick, at the foot of a Hill, whofe Precipice 

 might be twenty Yards perpendicular, whofe 

 Delf, I fuppofe, fhot under the Hill, pieces 

 of thefe Rocks broken off, lie there, which, 

 I fuppofe, may weigh twenty or thirty Tuns a 

 piece, and are as difficult to be broken as our 

 Free-ftone. Of thefe Rocks of Oy Iter- fhells that 

 are not fo much petrified , they burn and 

 make all their Lime \ whereof they have 

 that ftore, that no Generation will confume*^ 

 Whether thefe were formerly Oyfters, which 

 left by the fubfiding Seas, (as foitie fuppofe, 

 that all that Tra& of Land , now high 

 Ground, was once overflowed by the Sea) 

 were fin ce petrefied, or truly Stones, /z// G'e- 



^^neris^ I leave to the Honourable Society to 

 determin. But when 1 confider the conftant 

 and diftinft Ihooting of feveral- Salts, Na- 

 ture's Curidfity, in every thing, fo far ex- 



* ceeding that of Art, that the mofb Ingeni- 

 ous, when referred thereto, feem only endu- 

 ed with an Apifii fondnefs, L cannot think 

 any thing too difficult or wonderful for Na- 

 ture ; and indeed I do not apprehend, why 

 it may not be as feafible to fuppofe them to 

 have been Rocks, at firft (hot into thofe Fi- 

 gures, as to conceive the Sea to have amals'd 

 fuch a vaft number of Oyfter-fhells one upon 

 another, and afterwards fubfiding , fhould 

 leave them covered witTi fuch Mountains of 



Earth, 



