PART Xlli.

Breaches, and Rim-s, rolling great Billows, vaft Stones, ^c.
For the Water may move the Earth, if it hath walh’d or worn away fome parts, which being made hollow, it can no longer be held up, as it was whilft they were entire 5 or if fome Wind drive upon Chanels, and Lakes, or Hand¬ ing Waters within the Earth and the C blow 3 impulfion either (hake the Earth from thence, or the agitation of the Wind increafing with its own motion, and ftirring up it felf, be carried from the bottom to the top • as a Vcffel cannot Hand ftedfaft, untill the water which hath been troubled in it give over moving
Likewife the Earth may receive a (hock, by fome part thereof fuddainly falling down, and thereby be moved ; feeing that fome of its parts are uphcld,a5 it were,with Columns and Pillars, which decaying and finking, the wheight that is laid on them quakes : For we fee whole Houles (hake, by reafon of the jumbling, and fucculTion of Carts and Chariots.
Alfo the very Wind it felf may move the Earth, either if the Earth(its interior and lower parts being full of crannies and chinks,) be (hak- cn by fome Wind varioufly difpers’d,and falling into thofe hollow Caverns, and fo tremble in .fuch manner, as our Limbs by infinuation of Gold tremble, and are moved, whether we will or no ^ Or, if the Wind getting in at the top, and driving downwards, the Earth is driven up¬ wards by the Air under it ^ which is fomewhat grofs and watery, ( for it fuftains the Earth, ) and (haken as it were from beneath, leaps up, which happens to all things : Not only to thofe which are forc’d againft: any thing,hard or firm i or fo ftretched or bent, that being preft upon it recoils ; but alfo againfl; a fluid thing, if it be able to ftrike it back, as when Wood is plung’d into Water.
The force of this Wind, if we conceive it turned into Fire, and refcmbling Thunder, may be carried on with a great deftruftion of all things that oppofe its paffage. For as Light¬ ning, engendr’d in a Cloud, breaks thorow it, and (hakes the Air with wonderful violence ; in Jike manner, may the Fire, generated within the Caverns of the Earth of a coacervate and exagitated Wind, break thorow it, and make it tremble. ‘
Now as there appears not any Caafe, more likely than that which is taken from the Wind, and chiefly in this laft manner, either by diflrri- buting itfelf into many feveral Cavities of the Earth j it caufeth a trembling only, and ( as if there were a tranfpiration through the loofer Earth, ) the Earth is not fo broken thorow, as. that there is a breach made, or fomthing over¬ thrown, or turn’d awry; or elfe by its being heaped up together in greater Caverns, there may follow fuch a fuccuffion and impulfion, as may heave up,and cleave afunder the Earth, and make Gaps big enough to entomb whole Cities, as in divers pacesit hath often hapned.
What I fay concerning the force of the Wind, which being turned into Fire breaks thorow and (hakes the Earth, may ferve to make us un- derftand, that the eruptions of Fire which of¬ ten happen, in the fame places, as at pro¬ ceed from the fame Caufe.
For this Mountain is all hollow vi/ithin, and fo underpropped with Vaults of Flint, that the Wind (hut up in them groweth hot, and being enkindled,forceth its way thorough the breaches which it finds above, and eats into the fides of thofe Caverns V whence ( together with Flame and Smoke,) it calls up fparkles and pumices.
And the better to bring thi:s to pafs, the Sea lies at the foot of the Mountain, which rolling its Waves to and from the Shore, Onto whicS the Caverns of the Hill extend, thrufts in, and drives forward the Air,whereby the Fire is’aug- inented, and cherifh’d, as with the blowing of Bellows.
CHAP. III.
Of the Sea^ Rivers^ Fountains^ and the ove^fiow- ing of Nilus.
AS for thofe Waters which are on the (Earth, for of thofe which are generated on high, and thence fall down in Rain, we (hall fpeak more opportunely hereafter 5 ) Firft, there is a vaft body of them, which we call the Sea • For befides thofe in-land Seas which walh our Shores, there is alio an extern Sea, or Ocean, which flowing about all the habitable Earth, is believed by fome to be fo immediately placed under the Arch of Heaven, that the Sun and o* ther Scars Rife from it, and Sett in it, as we (hall have occafion to (hew elfewhere.
And indeedjthe Vallnefs of the Sea being fuchf It may be efieemed not the moil inconlierable Reafon, Why the Sea feems not to be increafed by the flowing of fo many Rivers into it •,for aU the Rivers.are hardly like a Drop, compared to fo immenie ja Body. And .withal the Sun, who with his beams fo foon dsies wet Garments^ althongh he .fuck not up much moifture from c- very place, yet from fo large 3 compafs canriot but take away a great deal. Not to mention how mucli the Winds,which in one night many times dry up the Ways, and harden the Dirt, may in I fwceping alongthe Sea, confume of it.
' ^ But, the,chiefefl: reafon feemis jco be this. Tl\c Earth being a rare Body, and eafily penetrated,
; and withal, wafhed on all fides by the Sea, the I Waters, as well as they are poured fromthb; .Earth into the Sea, fo muft they alfo foak down ■from the Sea into the^Earth,' that they may rifo up in Springs and flow again. :
Neither need it trouble us, that the water of the Sea is foltijand the waters of Springs and Rivers frefli •, becaufethe water, palling out of the Sea into the Earth is drained in fuch mati-f ner, that it puts off the little bodies of Saif, and returns quite (tripp’d of them. For, the bo¬ dy of the Sea being commixedi of Salt, and of- Water ; forafmucb,as the Seeds of Sal t,are moit hooked, and thofe of Water more fraooth, therefore, thefe glide eafily away, whilft the others cannot but be entangl left behind. rt
Hence appear eth the Caivfe ( which feeracthi the Principal, ) of the perpetual flowing; of Springs : Where they rife up, there may indeed be fome great quantity of water gather’d togc*- ther, which may ferve for fupply : But upon an¬ other