190 Cause shattered and rent in two, fo as to leave an Opening, whofe Surface is lower than the Surface of the Ocean, the Water naturally gufheth in between the Cliffs, and is not ftopped till it meet with more elevated Ground, by which it is bounded, and formed into a Bay.

STREIGHTS are from this Caufe alfo pro

duced.

THE reafon why thefe Parts are now and then fo miferably torn in Pieces, as to admit Inundations (by which Bays and Streights are formed) is the impetuous Motion and violent dafhing of the Waves against the Shore, being forced by Winds, or fome other Cause, almost daily, to wash away and wafte them: whereby, in procefs of time, the Earth is broken and disjoined, and made unfit to refift the rushing of the Ocean. But this is more likely to happen if the Shore be low, and confift of loafe and crumbling Earth, eafy for the Sea to work upon, which will with small refiftance burst, and make room for a whole Bay of Water.

IT is manifest, that fome new Bays and Streights are thus produced, but we must not thence conclude, that all which are at this Day found in the Earth were fo generated: for it is very likely, that a great many of them are of the fame Date with the Earth and Ocean; and the rather, because none, nor any thing like them, have been produced in the memory of Man. Tho' the ancient Grecians have fuch Fables; and tell us, that the Mountain Calpe upon the Spanish Shore, and Abyle in Africa were formerly joined, but afterwards feparated by Hercules; from whence thefe Mountains were called Hercules's Pillars, and the Streights, Hercules's Streights (a).

(a) There are a great many Teltimonies of Authors, and se

IT

veral other Reasons, to induce us to believe, that Britain was

not

IT was a common Opinion of the Ancients, that the Streights between Italy and Sicily, were made by the Irruption of the Sea, which we do not fo much doubt of: nor do we think it impof fible, that the like fmall Streights have been and are still generated. Streights alfo may be turned into Bays, and Bays into Streights; as if, for Example, the Mouth of the Streights of Magellan or Manilha, should be stopped on the one fide or the other, they would be changed into long Bays: or if (on the other hand) the Ifthmus between Africa and Afia, fhould be removed, then the Red-Sea would be joined to the Mediterranean, and they both become Streights, and afford a Paffage to the Indian Ocean.

PROPOSITION V.

Whether the Ocean be every where of the fame Altitude.

IT appears from the first Propofition, that the Face of the Ocean in it's natural Situation, and when no Obstacle hinders, is every where of the fame Altitude, having, as was there proved a spherical Surface, and being concentrical with the Earth: but it may be here doubted, whether for fome Reasons, it may not in one Place be higher than in another; which is very worthy of Observation, and of great Moment to be well understood, by

not an Island from the Beginning, but was formerly joined to France by an Ifthmus, between Dover and Calais, and that this Ifthmus, in process of Time, being continually beat upon by two impetuous Tides

every Day on both Sides, was wore away and wafted. The great Dr Wallis was of this Opinion, and fo was Dr Mufgrave. See both their Arguments in Philof. Tranf. abridged by Motte. Part 4. Page 35, 40.

thofe

thofe that propose the cutting thro' of Ifthmus's, and joining one Part of the Ocean to another.

SEVERAL will have both the Sea and Land to be higher towards the Northern Parts, than about the Equator, and this was Ariftotle's Thought (in Lib. 2. Chap. ii. de Celo) (c). The Reason they bring for it is, that the Ocean feems to flow from the Northern Parts as from a Fountain; but this does not prove it's fuperior Altitude there: for whether the Northern Countries, or rather the Northern Chanels, be higher or lower than the Chanels near the Equator (as is yet doubtful, or at least not fufficiently proved from that Motion which is not generally found in all the Northern Parts) it does not follow, if they were so admitted, that the Ocean is there higher; because that to lower that fuperior Height, and to make the other equal with it, the Ocean is conftantly flowing towards the Equator. Ariftotle in the forecited Place adds another fabulous Reason, taken from the Poets, which is not worth an Anfwer, viz. that the Sun when it fets, hides itself beyond the great Bulk of the Northern Regions.

THIS Opinion of the fuperior Altitude of the North Pole, feems to arife from hence; that when we turn our Faces that way, we imagine the Pole to be raised above the Horizon of the Place we are in, and therefore judge the Countries thereabouts to be elevated above us.

SOME think the Indian Ocean to be higher than the Atlantic, which they endeavour to prove from the Flux of the Sea in at the Streights of Gibralter, and of the Arabian Gulph: but then, this doubt is to be confidered, whether the Altitude of Bays, especially in their extream Parts, be the fame

(b) The Earth and Ocean are higheft about the Equator. See the Note (6) on Chap. iii.

with

with that of the Ocean, or lefs; and chiefly those Bays which are joined by very narrow Streights to

the Ocean.

THAT the Atlantic and Indian Ocean are higher than the extream Parts of the Mediterranean, near Egypt and Afia minor, none need doubt; for unless the Streights of Gibralter (where the Atlantic floweth into the Mediterranean) were fomething lower than the Ocean, there would not be fuch a ftrong Current there as it is. Perhaps at the Streight's mouth there may be but little difference; but then further, to continue the Flux all over that large Tract between Europe and Africa, the depreffion of the Bay muft by Degrees be greater, otherwife the Water could not flow when it is fo often obftructed by Rocks, Islands, Peninfula's, and other Obstaclès, which repel the Current of the Water, and diminish the Force of the Influx. We need not doubt of this, if it be true what is recorded of Sefoftris, Darius, and other Kings of Egypt, by fome Authors of good Credit, how they attempted to cut a Chanel between the Red-Sea and the Nile, that out of the Indian Ocean and thro the Red-Sea, they might fail that Way from the Mouth of the Nile into the Mediterranean; which would be of great Advantage to Egypt and other Countries upon the Coaft of the Mediterranean. But they were forced to defift from this Enterprife, when the Red-Sea was discovered by the Artificers to be much higher than the Inner Egypt. If therefore the Red-Sea be higher than the Land of Egypt, it will be alfo higher than the Water of the Nile and the Mediterranean itself, into which the Nile flows; and confequently the Red-Sea, and alfo the Indian Ocean, are both higher than the Mediterranean, especially the furtheft Parts of it about Egypt, Romania, and the Archipelago, Archipelago.

VOL. I

MORE

MOREOVER, other Kings of Egypt of old, and of late the Egyptian Sultans, and Turkise Emperors, had frequent Confultations about cutting through that Ifthmus that joins Africa to Afia, and separates the Mediterranean from the Red-Sea; but the Reason, as we are told, why they did not fet about it was, that the Indian and Red-Sea were found to be much higher than the Shores of the Mediterranean: and therefore it was feared, that the RedSea fhould overflow them, efpecially Egypt, which is reckoned by every one to be a very low Country.

THAT the Red-Sea is higher than the Mediterranean appeareth from thefe Obfervations; but this, not without Caufe, may be doubted by fome, because they are both Bays, the one of the Atlantic and the other of the Indian Ocean. Therefore to give a plausible Reafon, why the one fhould be higher than the other, it will not be amifs to confider, that tho' they are both depreffed more than the Seas from which they flow; yet the Difference is lefs fenfible in the extream Part of the Red-Sea, which is nearer the Indian Ocean, than the extream Parts of the Mediterranean are to the Atlantic. For I cannot think that the Indian Ocean is higher than the Atlantic, as fome imagine.

IF therefore the Ifthmus was cut through, no doubt but a great Quantity of Water would flow from the Red-Sea into the Mediterranean; but I cannot think fo much as to bring Egypt, and other Places about the Levant, into danger of being overflowed: because if the Indian Ocean poured in more Water, the Atlantic, would very likely emit lefs, that fo they might each retain the fame Altitude in Proportion.

BESIDES this, I fuppofe the Sultans of Egypt and the Turks, were induced by other Political

I

Caufes