it has run thro' the Lake Tofpia it again immerges, and being carried under Ground about fix German Miles, it breaks out again. Our modern Maps feldom exhibit fuch Receptacles.

3. ARISTOTLE (in Book i. Chap. xi. Meteor.) writes, that there were several fuch Brooks in the Peloponnefus about Arcadia; fome of which are mentioned by the Poets. The two following, viz. Lycus and Erafinus, are excellently defcribed by Ovid in the following Verfes.

So Lycus fwallow'd by the yawning Earth,
Takes in another Place it's fecond Birth:
Great Erafinus now seems loft, but yields
His rifing Waters to th' Arcadian Fields.

MORRICE,

4. THE Alpheus, a River in Greece, is fwallowed by the Earth, and, as the Greek Poets write, takes it's Courfe under both Sea and Land into Sicily, where it rifes, as they fay, on the Syracufian Shore, and is the fame with the River called Arethufa in Sicily (d). This they were induced to think, because that this River, every fifth Summer, did caft up the Dung of Cattle, at the fame Time that the Olympic Games were celebrated in Achaia, when the Dung of the flain Victims was thrown into the Alpheus, which was therefore carried with a direct Course into Sicily.

5. THE River Guadiana, between Portugal and Andalusia, (formerly called Anas) hideth itself

(d) This (and also the former) are thought to meer Poetical Fictions, for no fuch Rivers are found to exist at prefent. That which was anciently called Alpheus is now named Carbon or Orfea, which rifes from the

Mountain Stymphalus, and running all it's Course above Ground, receives a great Number of Rivers, and afterwards falls into the Gulph of Cafiel di Tornefe.

under

under Ground, near the Town of Medelin, and gushes out again about eight German Miles from that Place (e).

6. THE Brook Dan (which together with for makes the River Jordan) emerges fome Miles below it's real Fountain the Lake Phyala; for Chaff being thrown in here is caft up at the other end of the Orifice, or where the Fountain feems to be.

PLINY and others have wrote that the Nile, in fome Places, runs under Ground; but we know, by Experience, that it runs it's whole Courfe above Ground. Ariftotle alfo tells us, that the Po, a famous River in Italy, hideth itfelf for fome Space under Ground; but Experience fhews the

contrary.

THE Reason why these Rivers hide themselves under the Earth and appear again, is, because they meet with elevated Ground which they cannot overflow, and therefore are forced to glide into the next Grotto they meet with: or make themselves a fubterraneous Chanel, if the Earth be soft and easy to penetrate.

THERE are alfo fome Rivers that hide themfelves under Ground, but do not appear any more as we fhall fhall fhew prefently.

PROPOSITION VII.

Most of the Small Rivers, many of the middling ones, and all the large ones, exonerate themselves into the Sea, or into a Lake; and the Place where they discharge their Water is called their Mouth. Some Rivers alfo have one Mouth, fome two, fome

(e) This River is at prefent faid, not to bury itself under Ground (as was reported for

merly) by all the Spaniards that have mentioned it.

three,

three, and others more. Several of the middling, and fmall Rivers difcharge themselves into the great ones: the reft either ftagnate, or are fwallowed up by. the Earth.

CONCERNING the great Rivers the thing is manifeft, as the Rhine, the Elbe, the Danube, the Wolga, &c. The Danube discharges itself at five Mouths into the Euxine Sea; the Wolga is reckoned by fome to have at least seventy Mouths; the Nile seven, and, when it overflows, more (ƒ).

THE Reason why thefe great Rivers exonerate themselves into the Sea is their fwift Course, and their Plenty of Water; and why at more than one Mouth is, 1. [The Situation of the Coaft]. 2. The Shelves and Sand-Banks, which are gathered in their Mouths, and in Procefs of Time become Islands; and if there happen to be but one of these, the River is divided into two Branches, and is faid to have two Mouths; if more, the Mouths are increased accordingly. By this means the Land often gains on the Sea; and few great Rivers are found without fome Iflands before their Mouths.

THE Ancients tell us, that the Nile formerly discharged it's Water at one Mouth only, which they called the Canobian Mouth. To these two Causes therefore a third may be added, viz. Human Industry. For People often draw Canals from Rivers, or turn them thro' a new Chanel, into the Sea, partly to water their Fields, and partly for the Ufe of Navigation, and in process of Time these are made larger by the Current. And therefore we may believe the Antients, when they tell us, that all the Mouths of the Nile, except that at Canobus, were made by Human Industry. But

(f) See the next Note below.

of

of this more fully in the next Propofition, where we fhall explain how it comes to pafs, that one River flows into the Chanel of another.

THE River Wolcoff, in Muscovy, (not Wolga) arifes from one Lake, and runs into another.

RIVULETS, or Brooks, that neither run into the Sea, nor into other Rivers, are either peculiar Rivers, or Branches of others. They that are the Branches of other Rivers probably stagnate, and do not run under Ground; and the Reason why they do not reach the Sea is, 1. Because their Chanels lie low, and contain but little Water. 2. Because they meet with rocky Ground, which hinders their Progrefs. 3. Several of them are made by Art, to moiften the Ground, and for the Ufe of their Water. 4. Perhaps their Mouths are ftopped or obftructed, by intervening Land, which is gained from the Sea, or by Shelves, which are increased to fuch a Bulk as to ftop their Current; fo that they are forced to retreat towards their Fountain, or to the Place where they divaricated. Thus a Branch of the Rhine, which formerly ran into the German Ocean, at the Huys le Britain, near Catwick, is now choaked up with Sand, and ftagnates between Catwick and Leyden.

BUT fuch as are proper Rivers, and neither run into others, nor exonerate themselves into the Sea, but fpring up in one Place, and are fwallowed up in another, are few in Number, and very fmall; as thofe that flow from the Mountains of Peru, India, and Africa, are buried in the Gravel, or fucked up by the fandy Soil. Alfo at Meten (a Village near the Arabian Gulph) there is a fmall River whofe Chanel is full of Gravel, under which the Water in Summer-Time hides itself, and glides along out of Sight. If thefe Rivers find no fubterraneous Paffage they run into fmall Lakes, or Bogs; but fome of them fpring fo flowly, that

they

they are exhaled into Vapours, almost as faft as they fpring, and thus they are dried up, and neither make Lakes, nor run under Ground. There are several of these in Muscovy; as the Conitra, the Salle, the Marefsa, the Feleefa, and others taken Notice of in larger Maps.

PROPOSITION VIII.

To determine whether the Chanels, in which Rivers flow, were originally made by Art or Nature.

IT is probable the Chanels of thofe Rivers, which are not of the fame date with the Earth itself, were made by Industry, for these Reasons: 1. We are well affured that when new Fountains break forth, the running Water does not make itself a Chanel, but diffuses it's Streams over the adjacent Country, and therefore wants to be brought to a Chanel by Art. 2. Because there

are feveral Canals even now cut by Hand. So the Chinese have cut a Canal for the Water to run out of the yellow River into another. There are feveral other well known Inftances which I omit. 3. Because fuch Lakes and Marshes found about the Fountains of feveral Rivers, viz. of the Nile, the Tanais, the Wolga, &c. confirm this. For fince these Lakes, without donbt, were made by the Effufion and fpreading of the Fountain-Water, the Inhabitants, to drain it from their Fields, which were in danger of being overflowed, made a Chanel to contain it, and carry it off. The fame is to be understood of Rivers, whofe Heads are in Mountains.

THERE is a Question like this; viz. Whether the Rivers which exonerate themselves into others, have of themselves made their way thither, or have been brought thither by Chanels made with hands?

The