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When the Earth fays he, was broken and fell into the Abyfs, a good part of it was covered with water by the mere depth of the Abyss it fell into; and thofe parts of it that were higher than the Abyfs was deep, and confequently would ftand above it in a calm water, were notwithstanding reached and overtopp'd by the waters during the agitation and violent commotion of the Abyss; for it is not imaginable fays he, what the commotion of the Abyfs would be upon this diffolution of the Earth, nor to what height its waves would be thrown when these prodigious fragments were tumbled down into it. If you would fuppofe a stone of ten thoufand weight taken up into the Air, a Mile or two, and then let fall into the middle of the Ocean, it is Credible that the dafhing of the water upon that impreffion would rife as high as a Mountain; but if you will fuppofe a mighty Rock, or a heap of Rocks to fall from that height, or a great Ifland or Continent, thefe would expel the waters out of their places with fuch a force and violence as would fling them above the highest Clouds.

This is in fhort, the method the Theorist has found out for making an univerfal_Deluge. But if I can prove from his own Principles, that long before the Deluge happened, all the Waters in the Abyfs were drawn up by the heat of the Sun to fupply the Rivers that were neceffary to water the Earth, I would

would fain know what would become of his Deluge, or how he can make in that cafe the fall of the Cruft to be the cause of an Univerfal Flood: for by all the conception that I can have of it, the water which was upon the furface of the Earth, by the fall would rush into the Abyfs; and it would be fo far from making any Flood, that it would leave the furface of the Earth and make dry Land appear where formerly there was none. To prove this I muft firft enquire what proportion the quantity of waters which the Sea receives from the Rivers of the Earth in any time bears to the quantity of water in the Ocean; and by confequence I will Calculate the time the Rivers would take to fill the Ocean if it were empty, and they ran as they do now, or which is the fame thing, I will find what time the Sea would take to empty it felf into the Rivers fuppofing that it was not recruited again by the continual courfe of fresh waters, which run into it, that is, if the Abyss did formerly fupply all the Rivers with water, before the flood, and none of them ran into it again, as the Theorift fuppofes they did not, I am to find what time it would take to empty it felf, on the furface of the Earth. And if I can prove that it would quite empty it self on the furface, long before the Deluge happened, I think from thence it would neceffarily fol

low

low that there would be no Deluge at all, by the fall of the Cruft.

To begin therefore, I will fuppofe as the Theorist has done, in his fecond Chap. Book firft, that one half of the surface of the Terraqueous Globe is Sea, and the other Land, and that if we take the Sea one place with another, it is a quarter of a mile deep. Now the furface of the whole Earth being 170981012 Italian miles, the furface of the Sea is 85490506 fquare miles, which being multiplied by 4th (the Sea being th of a mile deep) the product is 21372626 Cubical miles, which is the quantity of water contained in the whole Ocean.

Now to Calculate the water the Ocean receives from the Rivers, we must confider fome great river whofe breadth depth and fwiftnefs are best known, fuch is the Po which pafles through Lombardy and waters a large Country of 380 miles in Length: Ricciolus in his Geographia Reformata tells us, that its breadth before its divifion into a great many Channels, by which it falls into the Sea, is a hundred Bononian Perches, or a thousand feet, and its depth is one Perch or ten Feet, and therefore its perpendicular Section, from one fide to the other is a hundred fquare Perches, or 40000 square Feet: Its fwiftnefs alfo is fo great, that the courfe of the water is about four Italian miles

in an hour, or which is the fame thing 2000 Italian Perches, for there are 500 Perches in a mile; The Po therefore carries into the Adriatick 200000 Cubical Perches of water, in the space of an hour, and therefore the quantity of water it brings into the Sea in a day is 4800000 Cubical Perches or 380000000 Cubical Feet of water; but one Cubical mile contains 125000090 Cubical Perches, and therefore if the Po takes one day, to bring into the Adriatick 4800000 Cubical Perches of water, it will require twenty fix days, to carry into the Sea 125000000 Cubical Perches, or one Cubical mile, or which comes to the fame thing, twenty fix Rivers every one of which is of the fame fwiftnefs with the Po will pour into the Sea one Cubical mile of water in a day.

I muft in the next place determin what proportion all the Rivers in the Earth bear to the Po, which to determin exactly would be a task, not easily to be performed; but I think we may determin it near enough for our prefent purpose, by fuppofing that the quantity of water received into the Sea, by the great Rivers in any Country, is very near proportional to the extent and furface of that Country; And confequently the Country which is watered by the Po, and the Rivers which run into it, bears the fame proportion to the furface of the whole dry Land, that the Po doth to all the Rivers in the Earth:

But

But I have obferved from the exacteft Maps I could fee, that the Po from its Origin in the Alps, to its end where it runs into the Sea, is in length three hundred and eighty miles, and that the Rivers which fall into it from each fide, come from Springs of about fixty miles diftance from the Po; confequently the Po and the Rivers which run into it, water a Country which is 380 miles long, and 120 broad, all which makes 45600 fquare miles; but the furface of all the Land being equal to half the Terraqueous Globe is 85490506 fquare miles, and therefore according to the proportion formerly mentioned, the water which is carried into the Sea by all the Rivers, is 1874 times greater than what the Po carries into the Sea.

It is true, there are in the Earth fome barren places which have no great quantity of water or Rivers in them, but they being but small will not much alter our account, and for an Equivalent, we can easily prove, that tho' there are fome Countries not fo well ftored with Rivers as Lombardy, yet there are feveral others which are much better furnifhed with them, particularly the South part of America, where there are Rivers, which according to credible relations are above fourfcore miles in breadth, and therefore by allowing a proportional depth, they will be feveral hundreds of times bigger than the

Po.

Now

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