raifed fucceffively, and gradually, by the force of winds and hurricanes, but chiefly by currents, and by the flux and reflux of the fea. I fhall beftow a few obfervations upon each of these hypothefes, before I lay down what I think was the true cause of their production. To With regard to the first opinion, it doth not feem probable, that the earth, in its first formation, had any high mountains in it. I have already offered one argument against that fuppofition*, from the circumstance of there having been no rain in the primitive earth; whence it was inferred, that therefore there could have been no mountains to produce it. this may be added, That, had the mountains been part of the original creation, it is probable they would have been laid out in a more regular manner; and that the feveral ftrata, of which they confift, would have lain horizontally above each other, ftratum fuper ftratum, according to * Chap. II. p. 46. their fpecific gravities: Whereas now, they appear in all manner of irregular fhapes aud directions, without any order, or regard to the laws of gravity; and even contrary to them: Not only different diftricts containing different materials, one country being ftony, another fandy, a third gravelly, or claiy; fome parts containing metals and minerals of some certain kinds, others of quite different kinds : But the fame lump, or mass of earth, having in it the corpufcles of feveral metals and minerals, confufedly intermixt one with another, and with its own earthy parts: All which appearances, with feveral others that might be obferved, demonftrate great irregularity and confufion; and look more like the effects of a general wreck, or ruin; than of any regular, and uniform ftructure. This argument hath been ftrongly urged by Dr. Burnett, Mr. Whifton, and others, against the fuppofition, that either the earth in general, or particularly the mountains, were were originally thus formed. To account for their formation in this manner, Mr. Ray, and others, fuppofe they were raised by an earthquake, on the third day's work of the creation; when the dry land was feparated from the water. But it doth not feem probable, that, the element of fire having been detached from the other parts of the chaos, on the first day, there fhould be fo much of it left, as to kindle and spread to that degree, by the third day, as to caufe fuch an univerfal earthquake Earthquakes, as Mr. Ray himfelf obferves, in a treatife which he wrote on this fubject, being a kind of subterraneous thunder; or an explosion of nitrofulphureous vapours, kindled in the bowels of the earth; by which he justly supposes the mountains were thus forced up; though not at the time which he affigns for it. Dr. Keil fuppofes, the mountains might have been formed at the creation, "without any refpect had to gravity, or levity; that body coming fooneft to its reft, which was neareft to the centre; and where these bodies happened to be thickeft, or highest, or their parts lefs coherent; there alfo, after their fall, would their surfaces be highest; and the face of the whole would be very rugged and mountainous-That holes, cavities, and caverns were made by the falling of these irregular pieces on one another; which were filled by the liquids; the overplus of which, fpreading upon the vallies, would leave great protuberances of the folid mafs, as great as any of our mountains, ftanding out above the furface of the water-That in the chaos, there might be a great many bodies, which being in a great measure hollow, or faftened to fome other matter of lefs gravity, than that of the fluid chaos, would fwim on the furface of it, after the fubfiding of all the reft; and fome parts of them, ftanding above the furface of the watery orb, would form mountains *." * Dr. Keil's exam. of the reflections on the theory of the earth, p. 195. No No one wrote more philofophically, in the main, on this fubject, than Dr. Keil: But in this refpect he is certainly very unphilofophical; and makes as great a chaos of the earth, as that in which he found it. His antagonist is not too fevere upon him, when he treats this account, which he gives of the mountains, as precarious, chimerical, and ridiculous. I fhall reft the proof of this point upon one fingle argument; which I flatter myfelf will be thought equal to a thousand. If the mountains were in any manner formed at the creation, I prefume they will not be supposed to have been formed on any other than the third day, when the dry land was feparated from the water. The bowels of the mountains, to the depth of 700 or 800 feet, (for to that depth, and more, they have been dug into,) have been found to contain fhells of fea-fifh, and other marine fubftances, incorporated with, and lying under, rocks and |