C 57 ] 
few different forts in each particular place, as they 
would of courfe do upon a fuppofition that thofe re- 
fpeCtive beds were formerly at the bottom of the fea, 
in the feveral places where thofe different kind of (hell 
fifh lived and bred ; and that they were from thence* 
together with the bottom of the antediluvian ocean, 
raifed up by the force of fubterranean fires : for we 
may obferve in the prefent feas, that one fpecies of 
fhell fifh take up their habitation in one place, whiift 
thofe of a different fpecies are found in fome other ; 
and that numbers of the fame kind, as for inftance 
cockles, or oyfters, are generally found on the fame 
banks. The prefent appearance of fofiil (hells, there- 
fore, does at lead: in this refpeCt feem confident with 
the conjectures here advanced : whereas, upon a fup- 
pofition that thefe foflil (hells were carried to their re- 
fpeCtive places, at the time of the .flood, merely by 
the torrent of water that then flowed to and fro, 
they ought rather to be found mixed promifcuoufly 
together ; and not thofe of one fpecies in one place ; 
and thofe of a different fpecies in another,. And I 
beg leave here to mention* that, fince the writing of 
the foregoing paper, 1 find an hypothefis fomewhat 
fimilar to what is here advanced was adopted by 
Lazzaro Moro, a Venetian author, who aflerts that 
the continents wCre originally raifed by fubterranean 
fires ; but he confiders this merely as the caufe of 
their firfl: and original formation, and not as having 
occafioned the deluge, nor as having happened at 
that time. 
Vol. LVII. 
I 
V. An 
