ever the Vapours begin to defcend, the Air
is lighter than it was before; it therefore not
being able to fuftain them, they must fall to
the ground; but in their way they meet with
a great refiftance, and check from the Air,
and fo muft neceffarily be condensed and fall
in drops of Water on the ground. And fince
the refiftance of the medium is always as the
fquare of the velocity with which the Body
moves through it, and because the velocity of
vapour which fell from the Comet to the
Earth, must have been according to Mr. Whi-
fton, fome thousands of times greater than the
velocity with which common Vapour or Rain
defcends, it must needs follow, that the refi-
ftance the Vapour, which was derived from
the Comet, met with, was fome millions of
times greater than the refiftance of common
Vapour when it defcends; but the resistance
of common Vapour, when it defcends, is
great enough to condense it into water; it is
evident therefore, that all fuch Vapours as
defcended from the Comet must have been of
neceffity condenfed into water long before
they ever touched the Earth. Seeing then
they defcended on the Earth in the form of
water, and feeing there was no fufficient caufe
that could immediately raise and mount them
up again, the heat of the Sun not being great
enough for fuch an effect; it is plain, that
they could never rife up again to produce the
forty Days Rain mentioned in Scripture.

Mr.

Mr. Whifton having, as he imagins, explained the great Rains, which fell on the Earth at the time of the Deluge, doth in the next place proceed to fhew, how the waters of the Abyfs were forced up to the Surface of the Earth, and became a great cause of the Universal flood. This he fuppofes to be performed by the vast quantity of waters, that had defcended from the Comet, which, he fays, being of a prodigious weight would prefs the Cruft of the Earth downwards with a mighty force, and endeavour to fink it deeper into the Abyss; by this preffure the waters of the Abyis would be forced upwards through the Cracks and Fiffures newly made by the violence of the Tide on the Surface of the Earth. He endeavours to illuftrate this method of Operation by the Example of a Stone or Marble Cylinder, exactly fitted to a hollow Cylindrical veffel, that it may juft afcend or defcend freely within it: He fuppofes the Stone Cylinder to have holes bored in it quite through, parallel to its Axis, and let down in the hollow Cylinder, which is half full of water, till it touch the water; then if each of the holes be filled with Oil or fome other fluid lighter than water, he fays that the weight of the Cylinder preffing on the water, would fqueeze the Oil on its Surface through the holes, and throw it out with fome violence, and this would be a just representation of the Deluge.

I must beg Mr. Whifton's leave to think this experiment very far from being any way a juft reprefentation of the flood; the cafe being very different, when the Solid is fpecifically heavier than the Fluid in which it is put, from what it is, when the Solid is fpecifically lighter than it. In the one cafe, the Solid would defcend and force both Oyl and water up with a confiderable force, if the holes be fufficiently fmall: In the other cafe, when the lighter Solid is put down, and fwims in the fluid, neither Oyl nor Water can afcend, because the Body it felf cannot defcend. Now by Mr. Whifton's own Hypothefis, the Cruft of the Earth is lighter than the Fluid in the Abyfs; and therefore it is clear, that it can neither defcend as the Stone Cylinder would do in water, nor force the Fluid in the Abyss to afcend, by its preffure. This will clearly appear by Mr. Whifton's reprefentation a little rectified. For if instead of the Cylinder of Stone, we should take a Cylinder of Wood, which is lighter than Water, and bore it through with holes as the other was, and put it into the Water, till it fwims, and afterwards pour Oyl into the holes; it is plain that neither Water nor Oyl could ever be raised to the top of the Cylinder: Nay the Water would be fo far from rifing higher by the additional preffure of the Oyl, that I can demonftratively prove, it would fall lower, and the Solid would not

fink fo far into the Water, as it did before the Oyl was put in. [Fig. 10. Piate V.] For let ABCD reprefent a Veffel half full of Water, in which F is a Solid fwimming; it is evident, that the Solid will fo far defcend in the Water, till the Surface ik of the Water be as much preffed by the weight of the Solid, as the Surfaces bi, klare by the weight of the incumbent fluid,

Now if we should pour Oyl into the fame Veffel above the Water and above the Solid, as in the Figure, [Fig. 11. Plate V.] where mEG n reprefents Oyl; it is plain, that the Surfaces bi, k are preffed with the addi tional Columns of Oyl m Eor, qp Gn, which being greater than ropq, the additional Oyl wherewith the Surface i k is preffed, will have a ftronger preffure than the Surface ik has; and therefore the Water at bi, kl, being more preffed than that which is at i k, it must defcend, and force that which is at ik further up: that is, the Solid will be forced upwards, and will be fo far from being heavier than 'twas in refpect of the water, that it will be relatively lighter; and this must have been the true cafe of the Water at the Deluge. For when it fell on the Surface of the Earth, it would defcend into all the Cracks and Fiffures thereof, till it had quite filled them; for water cannot lye on any Surface except all the Holes and Fiffures of that Surface be firft filled. This adventitious water in the Fiffures preffing more strongly

M 4

ftrongly on the Surface of the Abyss than the Water, which lay on the Surface of the Cruft could do, would force the Fluid immediately under it to defcend, and that which is under the Cruft to afcend. Thus I think, it is abfolutely certain, that in this cafe, the water in the Abyfs would be fo far from being able to afcend, that it must neceffarily defcend by the preffure of the incumbent water; and the whole Cruft must have been raifed higher, not immerg'd deeper in the Abyss.

There is but one poffible cafe, wherein the preffure of the water could fink the Cruft deeper into the Abyss, and that is, if the waters which lay on the Surface, could not defcend through the Cracks and Fiffures of the Earth. And tho' I can fee nothing that can hinder them from defcending; yet if I fhould fuppofe, that they did not, I can evidently prove by Calculation, that fuch a preffure could never raise the Abyss above the Surface of the Cruft.

To demonftrate this, I affume the height of the water, which was derived from the Comet, to have been a tenth part of the thickness of the whole Cruft; tho' doubtless this is much greater than in reality it can be allowed to have been and becaufe, according to Mr. Whiffon, the Columns of which the Cruft is compofed, are about four times heavier than common water, it follows, that a Column of the fame fpecifick gravity with the rest of the

Cruft,