[ ] 
“ morant, near a day’s journey over, is faid to be 
<f quite fwallowed up. 
88. “ In the blue mountains, from whence came 
“ thofe dreadful roarings, may reafonably be fup- 
t£ pofed to be many ftrange alterations of the like 
“ nature; but thofe wild defart places being very 
<c rarely, or never vifited by any body, we are yet 
<c ignorant of what happened there ; but whereas 
tc they ufed to afford a fine green profpedt, now one 
<c half part of them, at lead:, feem to be wholly de- 
<£ prived of their natural verdure 
Sect. VI. 
89. I have fuppofed, that fires lying at the greatefl: 
depths generally produce the mod; extenfive earth- 
quakes, we mud:, however, except from this rule 
thofe cafes where the depths are very great : for, as 
the weight of three miles perpendicular of common 
earth is capable of abfolutely reprefling the vapour of 
inflamed gunpowder, fo we may well fuppofe, that 
* See Pbilof. Tranf. N° 209. or Lowthorp’s Abridg. vol. ii. 
p. 416, where there is a great deal more to the fame purpofe. 
See alfo Hift. and Philof. of Earthq. p. 286 and 287. 
From the authorities quoted in this fedtion, it appears, how 
little reafon there is for the notion, that either large cities, or 
towns fituated near the fea-coaft, are more fubjedt to violent 
earthquakes than others : it is not, however, much to be won- 
dered at, that fuch a notion fhould have prevailed, after the great 
deftrudtion that happened in fo large and populous a city as Lifbon ; 
fince the demolition of a few ruinous houfes only, in fuch a place, 
would have affe&ed the imaginations of men more, and would 
have been more talked of, than the fubverfion of whole mountains 
in fome wild and defart country, where at moft half a dozen un- 
known fhepherds might feel the effcdls of it, or perhaps only fee it at 
a diftance. 
there 
