fome were made by parting them from the Continent, as at Norway: and this is most probable of those that are hard and rocky.

BUT, in the Indian Sea, fuch may happen by both ways; for while the Sea wears off, it doth at the fame time carry away with it much Earth, which fettles in another Place; and this is much caused by furious Winds, and frequent Storms, that come from the breaking of the Clouds in the rainy Months; from May to September. The Sea is ftrangely disturbed by thefe, fo that the Sand and Clay is raifed from the bottom, and carried to the Indian Shores. Thus the Mouths of the Harbours at Goa are so obstructed by Heaps of Sand, which come with the force of the Storms from May to September, that small Ships can scarcely enter; and thefe Heaps of Sand fo obftruct the Harbour of Cochin, that they are like a Bar, or Wall, that neither great nor fmall Ships can enter.

FOR continual Rains on Mount Gate, and the frequent Storms from the Clouds which are feen hanging as it were above the tops of the Mountains, pour out fo much Water with fuch Violence that the Sea carries a great deal of Sand to the Shores; where, meeting with Oppofition, the Sand fubfides, which is carried away again by the Sea, when the Winter is over, and the Harbours cleared.

THERE are fome Islands fo near the Land, that they are furrounded at the time of full Sea; and if the intervening Chanel become higher, these Islands become a Part of the Continent.

AND the overflowing of the Nile makes the Towns and Hills look like Iflands; and the Wolga doth fo fwell in May and June as to cover the Iflands and Sand-Banks in it; and feveral of the Inlands near India become like Sand-Banks in the

rainy Months, when the Nile and Ganges overflow thefe Countries.

PROPOSITION XIII.

There is another way that Iflands are formed befides the two abovementioned, which is delivered by fome Writers, viz. that the Earth on a fudden is carried from the bottom of the Sea, and fuddenly rifes to the Surface.

OTHERS think very justly that this fabulous' way comes from the fabulous Greeks and Poets, who will have Delos to have come up that way; and the grave Author Seneca fays, the Island Therafia did, in his Time, come up in the Ægean Sea, and that the Seamen observed it: and tho' indeed there are but few Examples of this kind, yet we are not therefore to think it impoffible; for there may be in the bottom of the Sea fome porous, fpongy, hollow, and fulphureous, Earth, (as there are many forts of light Earth,) which is now grown to a great Height under the Water; and if it come to break off by the force of the Sea, and being of lefs or equal Weight with the Water, it may come to the Superficies, and an Island appear on a fudden. Or a Spirit fhut up under the Earth, and endeavouring to break out, may without the force of the Water bring it up to the Surface; for these Spirits included have great Power, as appears in Earthquakes, by which whole Mountains have been thrown up and fwallowed down, and the fame way are great Towers and Walls blown up by GunPowder placed under Ground.

IF therefore the Island that thus appears fuddenly do yet adhere to the Bottom, it must be that it was forced up by the Spirits inclofed underneath; as fome write, that fometimes Moun

tains have been blown up that way; but if it do not adhere to the Bottom, it might be loosened from the Bottom, partly by the force of the Water, and partly by the inclofed Spirits, and come up by it's own Lightness.

PROPOSITION XIV.

FROM this another doubt arifes; Whether there are floating Ilands; as Thales thought the whole Earth did float on the Water of the Ocean: but his Opinion is fufficiently refuted from the Sea's Chanel being continued every where, and yet there may be floating Islands if the Earth be hollow, light, and fulphureous. Seneca tells his Experience, that he faw in the Lake Cutilia, in the Fields of the Town Reate, belonging to the Sabines, an Ifland that floated, and Trees and Herbs on it, that was carried here and there by the Wind, yea by a gentle Gale; and that he never found it for a Day and Night in the fame Place; and he says there was another Island that floated in the Lake of Vadimone; and another in the Lake of Statione. Thus the Antients fay, that Delos, and all the Islands of the Cyclades, did of old float on the Sea. Nor need it be objected, why don't they swim now? for the Answer is eafy; the floating cannot hold out long, for they reaching near the Bottom, and being carried from one place to another, they meet with a Sand-Bank and fettle there, especially if they come between two Sand-Banks, then they join and become fixed. In Honduras, a Province of America, there is a Lake in which there are feveral little Hills, planted with Shrubs and Herbs toffed up and down with the Wind.

IN the large Loch, called Lomond in Scotland, there is an Inland that floats, and is driven by

the

the Wind: it feeds Cattle, as Boëthius, the Writer of the Scots History, relates.

So far of the forming of dry Land where Sea was; now we fhall confider how there can Water come where there was dry Land.

PROPOSITION XV.

The Rivers run in new Chanels for feveral Caufes.

1. WHEN they come from their Fountains, and get a Chanel either made by Art or Nature.

2. IF a River fend out a Branch from it, which is caused for the most part by Men, either to bring Water to a Town, or to another River : Examples whereof we fhewed above.

3. IF Rivers gain more and more upon their Banks; which happens, 1. When the Chanel grows higher thro' the fubfiding of Mud and Sand. 2. If it wear off the Banks by it's fwift Course. 3. If it be increased by another River flowing into it, or by Rains or Snow.

4. IF they overflow the Land, and become Lakes by not returning to their former Chanel, which if they do and leave a good deal behind they make Bogs.

COROLLARY.

IT is probable Time was, when the Chanels of the Rhine, Elbe, Nile, and all other Rivers, were dry Ground, and may again become fo.

PROPOSITION XVI.

Lakes, Bogs, and standing Pools, occupy Places that they did not before.

i. WHEN

1. WHEN they are first formed and enlarged as in Chapter xv.

2. IF plenty of Rain fall.

3. IF the Rivers carry much Water into the Lakes with great force.

4. IF their Chanel become higher.

5. IF the Lakes by the frequent and strong Waves wear off the Banks, and cover more Ground. Thus the Lake of Harlem, within thefe thirty or forty Years paft, is enlarged about one twentieth of a Mile round.

COROLLARY

IT is probable, that the Places where the Lake Zaire, or Leman, or Parime, or of Harlem, or of Mæotis, and the Bogs in Weftphalia, and all others, were once dry Ground.

PROPOSITION XVII.

There is Ocean where there was none before.

THIS may happen feveral ways; 1. When it breaks into the Land, making Bays and Streights, as the Mediterranean, the Bay of Bengal, the Arabian Gulph, and Bay of Camboia, &c. Thus the Streights between Sicily and Italy, between Ceylon and India, between Greece and Negroponte, the Streights of Magellan, Manilha, and at the Sound; yea fome will have the Atlantic Ocean thus made, and to have parted America from Europe, that they may better deduce the Generations of Men there from Adam. It is certain the Egyptian Prieft told Solon, the Athenian, that about fix hundred Years before Chrift (as may be seen in Plato's Dialogue called Timaus) that there was once an Island over against the Herculean Streights

of