Imprimatur.  
June 13. 1664. Roger L'Estrange.   

A DISCOURSE OF SUBTERRANEAL TREASURE. Occasioned by some late Discoveries thereof in the County of NORFOLK, And sent in a LETTER To Thomas Brown, M. D.  
LONDON, Printed for J. Collins, at the King's Head in Westminster-Hall, 1668.   

TO THE Reader.  
READER,  
I Am unwilling to make those Common-Pleas (with which thou hast been sufficiently tired already) for my exposing this to the public, lest I become as censurable for those, as for the Tract itself. I must confess that I sent it willingly into the light; and although I cannot pretend any general good in it, yet it may be useful to some that are studious of Nature's book, as another man's discoveries or rational Discourses may be to me. I do not fear to say, that I have so much doted on the Volumes of the Creation, that as I cannot think the meanest of God's creatures so despicable but that its contemplation deserves to be matter of business as well as of diversion to the wisest; so (to those that are considerate and observing) the Arcana Naturae, or (if it be lawful so to call these) the magnalia Dei, are much more valuable and worth our search. If I have discovered any thing in this little handful, as I hope I have; or if the discovery can be to any, any way useful, as I hope it may be, either to satisfy, or at least to actuate them to a further inquiry (the Field is large enough, we need not just) I have my design. And though it were, or be but a partial detecting of a concealed truth; yet even that will hid some indiscretions in the management. However as he said of Evils, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. I may say of my faults, The secrecy of the business discoursed will hid the errors of the discourser. But if thou shouldst judge me fond of a fancy or invention, I shall not fail of thy excuse, since I am not the first that have run naked into public with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in my mouth; what is amiss amend, and  
Farewell. T. L.   

Mercurius Centralis: OR, A DISCOURSE OF Subterraneal Cockle, Muscle, and Oyster-shels, found in the digging of a Well, etc.  
DOctor, I have made the best inquiry I could in so short a time, after the truest cause of that vein of Cockle and Muscle-shels that was digged up in Norfolk, so many foot deep under the surface of the Earth. And upon my most serious examination do believe, that that reason which I casually bolted out when you first mentioned it to me, is the most likely and probable, if not the only that can be given of it; of which I will give more than empty conjectures in the following Discourse. But before I come to unfold that my opinion; I will insist on some things that relate to it, both for method sake, and to gain a little the more Reputation to it; and then will give you, or any else leave to judge of it as you shall think fit; nor shall it displease me if any are of a different judgement.  
God that made the Universe for Man's use and delight, hath beautified it with infinite varieties. In the animal kingdom, what diversity of Creatures, Volatile, Reptile, Natant, and Gradient? How different their shape, use, colour, greatness, and smallness, their scents, their tempers, natures? How various their amities, enmities, sympathies, and antipathies? In the Vegetable kingdom, how different their shapes, proportions, colours, orders, tastes; the first, second and other qualities of their leaves, flowers, roots, barks, seeds, fruits, tears, and gums? Nor is Nature less skilful in generating and ordering the strange Forms and Figures of Subterraneal bodies. Amongst an hundred thousand stones on a strand, a man shall not find two that in all things exactly agree; and yet there is many times some more general and gross likeness.  
But if we examine the several species of Mineral bodies, there will be visible an admirable and pleasing variety. Some are seen in the form of Cylinders, of which I have been present when many thousands have been taken out of Marl-pits. Some are exactly spherical like Bullets, but much bigger; so equally round that no art can be more exact, and of them many Ship ladings, 
●●vied. ●. 17.  between two Hills in Cuba. Many hundred flints in the same form I have found dispersedly near the place I live in: In which also I have observed that their coat and external covering is white; next to that the stone is very black; but nearer to the Centre it is of a brighter colour, in which by the help of a Microscope I have seen as it were little sparkling Diamonds; in others of the same form I have found with my naked eyes many thousand such sparkling stones as big as pins-heads, and some as big as small barley-corns, of an excellent lustre when they are held in the Sun. I have seen likewise Fossiles Aetites, if I may so call them; stones in an Oval shape as big as Pigeons Eggs, hollow in the inside, and impregnate with lesser stones, which on the shaking betrayed themselves by their sound, as the kernels in the dry stones of Peaches. Diamonds, and our Cornish and Bristol stones are all generated with spires or points. 
Mr. S.S.  A friend of mine imparted to me a fluor that grew on a rocky stone that is very clear and shoots in the same form, and is so hard that it will cut glass. Some are seen in the form of Cones, some of Pyramids, some of Semispheres, and guttered and furrowed on the sides like the pummels of some Swords; some smooth, some writhed. Crystal doth shoot in sexangulos. I saw stones digged out of a little Cavern by a Springs-side between St. Ives and Somersham in Huntingdon-shire, every one of them had the same Figure, and were in compass sexangular, with two broader and more depressed superficies, on either side it made a perfect Rhomboides, clear as Crystal, but very soft and apt to scale; of which none knew any considerable use: only the powder of it was found good to Cicatrize green wounds. And indeed almost all sorts of stones, whether more choice and orient, or more base and vulgar, have for the most part besides their different virtues, several Figures and Colours. But these are mean, low and common observations. What shall we think of that, Cornu Monocerotis fossil; those ossa subterranea & fossilia, which are very often generated of osteocolla and the like substances, and have given conplexion to those stories of 
* Not that I deny that there have been men of vast bodies in several ages. The Sons of Anak were without question very great men. Goliath and others mentioned were Giants. We read of Giants famous from the beginning, that were of so great stature and so expert in war, Baruch 3.26. of the Sons of the Titans and high Giants, Judith 16.7. At Coggeshall were found two teeth that might have been cut into two hundred of an ordinary size. Camb. de Trinobant. St. Augustine saw such an one at Utica. But these even in the Scripture, the most exact history in the World, are recorded as rare; so that I do not believe that they have been common in any Country, much less that any Country hath been inhabited by only such. An old Poet cited by our Antiquary speaking that Cornwall was the seat of some, saith they were but few. 
— Titanibus illa  
Sed paucis famulosa domus.  Vid. Hackwell in Apolog. de hoc subjecto.  Gyantick races in several Countries; because this, like bones of men, hath been found of a vast bigness? What shall we think of those bones of Fish, and such Subterraneal Muscle and Oyster-shels found at Darmstadt in the Palatinate, and at other places near Heidelberg, and in Silesia, and those you mentioned to me? At Newhouse a seat of one Mr. Eyres in White-Parish in the County of Wilts, as they were digging of a Well about thirty foot deep (as it was related to me) between two veins of sand were found infinite numbers of Oyster-shels in a bed, both shells closed together, and nothing discernible between them but a little dust. But farther yet, what can we say of those Tables of stone in which are seen the Pictures of divers Planets, of Frogs, Serpents, Salamanders; nay, Principum & illustrium virorum imagines, as Sennertus saith are found in Islebia? 
Epitome. Phys. lib. 5. cap. 4.  I myself have seen an Agate with a natural foil like a Blackmoors head, and another like an Oaken leaf, that some have went to brush away, and yet it was within the stone, and so exact too, that it deceived the very sight. Erasmus describeth one hat he saw in England in a Temple at the feet of the image the Virgin Mary, in which there was the form of a Toad. I will set it down in his own words. 
Erasm: Coll. Pegrin. relig. Ergo.  Og. Ad pedes virginis est gemma cui nondum apud Latinos aut Graecos nomen inditum est, Galli à Bufone nomen dederunt, eo quod bufonis effigiem sic exprimat, ut nulla ars idem possit efficere. Quodque majus est miraculum; pusillus est lapillus; non prominet bufonis imago, fed ipsa gemma velut inclusa pellucet. This, Menedemus that discourseth with him, imputes rather to the fancy of the beholder; as Children think they see heads, and faces, and bulls, and swords, in the Clouds. But he answereth. Imò nè sis nesciens, nullus bufo vivus evidentiùs exprimit seipsum quam illic erat expressus. And from his companions incredulity taketh occasions largely to discourse the strange forms of stones. Now although it be impossible to find out the certain causes of these most noble and recluse works of Nature, these being such things wherein we have very great reason to admire the providence of God, and his most perfect work-man-ship, that hath given to each creature (as Scroder calls it) rationem seminalem; or as Severinus, the knowledge or science of its own proper form. And indeed some of them are in this as certain as the most voluntary agents. And even those which casually obtain these shapes may be guessed at, for (besides the lusus naturae, which most fly to) the creatures they represent may be petrified, a spiritu lapidescente; or may be enclosed as in a Coffin in the purer unconcrete matter of stones; which being speedily hardened, and those in some measure assimilated to that stony substance, their lineaments shine through, as Flies cased in Amber are seen almost as clearly as if they were out of it. And particularly for such shells we are now to discourse of, there may be some conjecture had of some of their forms; and this brings me to distinguish between Muscle and Cockleshells really, and such in shape and appearance only; for I have seen many stones in the shape of these, which I imagine were thus made. The Oyster, Muscle, or Cockleshells, lying in such places where they have been cast out by men, have casually received the succus lapidescens, or unconcrete matter of stones, and have become a bed or matrix to it; and so hath that stone been shapen according to this mould, as gourds while they are young put in glasses grow not according to their usual natural form, but according to the shape and proportion of the glasses.  
2. If they were really Muscle and Cockle-shells, that could not be the place of their generation, but they must be by some violence and impetuosity hurried thither; and for their loco-motion we can find no other Media than the earth or air. And first for the air. Those that have sailed to the Indies can inform you with what force Hircanoes or Turbines (which some distinguish; but I think that there is no other difference between them, than that the Hircano is a circumagitation of the air or whirlwind tending downwards; and the Turbo the whirlwind tending upwards) the meeting together of contrary furious winds, have taken up whole Seas of water; and what should hinder them that when they fall foul near a shore, they should not rake the Seas, and carry other bodies besides the water? 
Hackluyt. Disc. to. 3. p. 100  Some Mariners in the Northwest discovery were eye witnesses of such a whirlwind, that for the space of three hours together, took up vast quantities of water, furiously mounting them up in the air. And altogether as strange hath the force of it been on dry ground; of which Bellarmine gives us a relation that it is so incredible, 
Bell. de Ascensment. in Deum, Grad. 2. cap. 4.  that he premiseth this, Quod nisi vidissem, non crederem. He thus describeth it; Vidi ego à vehementissimo vento effossam ingentem terrae molem, eámque delatam super pagum quendam, ut fovea altissima conspiceretur unde eruta fuerat, & pagus totus coopertus & quasi sepultus manserit, ad quem terra illa devenerat. It is ordinary in most histories to read of blood falling in showers, 
Anno ab urbe condita cccclxxx lac de coelo manare visum est. Oros. lib. 4. cap. 5. In the fourth year of Ivor the son of Alan in Wales, it reigned blood in England and Ireland. Welch. chron. Gabiis lacte pluit. T. Graccho, Tit. Manlio, Coss. In Graecostasi. C.C. L. Cai. Sext. Coss. Praeneste. L. Cecil. L. Aurel. Cos●. In Agro Perusino P. Sor. G. Atil. Coss. sanguino per biduum pluit in Area Vulcani & Concordiae. M. C. Quint. Fab. Coss. Lapid. Pluviae. In Aventino Tuscis lapidibus pluit. Vid. Jul. Obs. de prodig. ad fin. Plinii.  or at least of what is analogous to blood, of wood, wool, worms. Munster 
* Munster. Cosmog. lib. 4. cap. 22.  tells us of Frogs, Mice, and Rats, that fell with some feculent showers in Norway. There is one at this time living, that walking through a low marish ground in England, in a foggy morning, had his Hat almost covered with little Frogs, that fell on it as he walked: and many at some times on the tops of houses and leads, have found great numbers of such creatures. At Arles in France in the year 1553. Infinite swarms of Locusts fell on their fields, 
Valeriolae obs. lib. 1. obs. 1.  and immediately devoured all that was green, Magnâ incolarum admiratione & consternatione. So we read that by an East wind the Locusts which covered the face of Egypt were brought on it, & by as a strong West wind they were carried off again; Exo. 10.13, 19 Stones likewise have thus fallen. In Japan, 
Organtius.  on a day when they solemnised a great Festival to their Idol, there fell among them a great shower of stones, which slew many, and put the rest to their heels to shift for themselves. And it is very likely that those showers of hail that slew so many in several stories, were grandines lapidum, (as Lactantius calls those showers of vengeance, 
Lactant. Dio. Just. l. 7. c. 26.  that God will at the last send on the Devil and his accomplices) to which the expression of history agrees. 
Oros. l. 3. c. 6.  At the time of Alexander's birth, Saxea de nubibus grando descendens, veris terram lapidibus verberavit. And to this is the Scripture consonant, Jos. 10.11. For what is called hail in the later part of the verse, is stones in the former. And as they fled from before Israel, and were going down to Bethoron, the Lord cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekah, and they died. And that heterogeneous bodies are found in mines, and on the tops of mountains, Aristotle 
Arist. Meteoro.  insinuates this to be the cause, viz. that they are brought to such places by the winds. It seems I must confess the more colourable, that things should be brought this way from the Sea, because the Sea both of old, and more lately, hath been deemed to be the father of the winds. Erasmus describing Parathalassia saith, 
Peregr. relig. Ergo.  In propinquo est oceanus ventorum pater, and the old Poet speaking of the generation of the winds, finds out the same cause: 
Hesiod. Oper. & dies p. 44.  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉.  And therefore winds have in some places been observed to be Obsequious to the course of the Moon as the waters are, which that Roman Poet hints.  Thracio bacchante magis sub interlunia vento. 
Horat. Carm. lib. 1. Od. 25.  
'Tis true, no man can tell the force and fury of the unbridled winds, that are so mad that they know not whence they come, nor whither they will. But yet were such heterogeneities which are found so deep this way brought, they should be found in all or most places alike; and they should be found above ground too, unless we can imagine that immediately on their falling the Earth suffer some Chasm, and doth ingulf and swallow them into its bowels. And therefore it is most probable they are brought to such places from the Sea, the place of their Generation, generally under the Earth.  
3. If they are brought from the Sea to the place they are found in, under the Earth, it must be either by a natural or by a supernatural impellent or mover; by spirits, or by a natural vehicle. No man that is either a Philosopher or a Christian can doubt of the power of spirits, by God's command or permission, to effect this and many more actions that are far more difficult and unlikely. And Paracelsus with some others would have us believe that there are innumerable such spirits or genii that inhabit the Earth, as he hath projected there are Inhabitants of the Sun, Moon, and other Planets, which he calls Solar, Lunar, Saturnine, etc. and of the air which he styles aerial. And to their managements referreth all the natural motions of Generation and Corruption, and the violent, as of Chasms, Earthquakes, and other alterations in the bowels of the Earth. Nay, they reduce them to several Classes and Orders, and with a little invitation would be ready to swear, that many of them are Engineers that contrive the Water-works, and make Rivers and Aqueducts; that some are Blacksmiths by Trade that work in the Vulcanoes; that some are Brewers that boil natural baths, and use Minerals instead of Malt. But these opinions are such, that besides their own natural absurdity, our Religion will teach us to explode, and are then confuted when they are only named. For though we grant that some such things are possible to be done by the Devil; that is not so the Prince of the power of the air, as not to be the God of this lower world; yet to impute all things to them must needs be asylum ignorantiae, and a Remora to all ingenuous and Philosophical disquisitions, of the nature and causes of all things and actions in the bowels of the Earth, and a means to make us know no more of nature than what is obvious to sense. So that I take it for granted, that some natural, ordinary vehicle there is under the Earth that brings such heterogeneous bodies from their native and genial seat, and proper place, to such Vaults, Hills, Veins, and Caverns where they are found.  
4. Now the most likely movers of all others to carry bodies of weight under the Earth are two; either exhalations or waters; for as for vapours, I look not on them as capable of carrying any thing of weight, especially so low in the Earth, where they cannot be so much rarefied, by reason of the natural coldness of that Element. 'Tis true, May-dew which is a vapour condensed will carry up an Eggshell in which it is put, by the help of a Pike or Spear placed by it. But this is in the sight of the Sun, and if so much as a thin cloud interpose it falls again immediately: Again, the shell is exceeding light; besides that, the dew is sealed in it that it cannot get out; and even this moves upwards towards the Sun, not sideways along the Earth. So that it must be concluded, that vapours cannot be serviceable to our purpose, so as to force whole veins of shells or other bodies to places so far distant from the Sea, and there to ram them in. It remains then, that this be effected by one or other of the former means.  
As for exhalations, and that their force is such that can impetuously move bodies of the greatest weight, we need look no further than our Gunpowder, and the Machine's or Engines that are used by or with it; such as Cannons, Bullets, Balls of Lead or Iron, Stones, Granades, etc. of which some, by the help of a cold and dry exhalation penned in the Niter or Salt-Peter, and suddenly by fire flying out, make as stupend refractions of the air, and obtain a violence equal to that of our usual thunder and lightnings. And after the same manner is their force and light caused, the violence and noise of Aurum Fulminans. And these exhalations which have such effects above, have the same strength under ground, as appears by Earthquakes, with which there are usually heard a 
* Terra mugi u tremuit M. Cat. Quint. Mart. Coss. Fremitus infernus ad Coelum ferri visus M. Anton. A. Posth. Coss. Fremitus terrae etiam Faesulis auditus M. Perpenn. Cai. Claud. Coss. The City Ferrara in the year 1570. was surprised with a fearful noise, as if it had been battered with great Ordnance, afterwards with a most violent trembling.  murmur and sound. When Sempronius Gracchus was setting on the Picaeni, and they were just joining battle; 
* Oros. lib. 4. cap. 4.  tam horrendo fragore terra tremuit, ut stupore miraculi utrumque pavefactum agmen hebesceret. These make the Earth tremble, the Mountains roll, the Rocks quake, and especially if the exhalation that causeth them be impregnate with Nitro-sulphureous spirits, which have sometimes thrust out hills where there were plains, Islands in the midst of Seas, made huge Rivers where there were none, turned the current of some, stopped others, left vast caverns and holes, depressed Mountains, swallowed Cities and Armies, subverted Temples and Palaces. Cizicus a City of Misia minor, with the famous Temple of Jupiter there, were both swallowed in an Earthquake; and so was Philadelphia another City of the same Misia, and one of the Churches St. John writ to. Apoc. 3.7. In an Earthquake in Vinianfu in China, the Nitrosulphureous spirits burst out of the Earth in such an actual flame, that it consumed the whole City and innumerable people. At Hien in the same Country, the fall of the houses by the same Earthquake slew eight thousand. At Enchinoen an hundred thousand perished. Immediately on the bitter persecution of Dioclesian, a fearful Earthquake happened in Syria, 
Oros. lib. 7. c. 17.  by which Tire and Sydon were almost destroyed, and many thousands were killed. 

Lucan. lib. 1. — Quatiente ruina  
Nutantes pendere domos.—  Or as the same Author elsewhere describeth an earthquake, 
— Cardine tellus  
Subsedit, veterémque jugis nutantibus Alps  
Discussere nivem.—  We read of one in Judeah, 
Jos. Antiq. l. 9 c. 11.  at Uzzah's usurpation of the Priest's office, which rend the Temple, and a Hill in the East was removed four furlongs towards the West; of another in Herod's Reign, that slew ten thousand Jews. 
l. 15. c. 7.  Marcley hill with us in Hereford-shire, Anno 1571. with a great noise removed itself from its place, and went continually for three days together, overthrowing Kinnaston Chapel, bearing the earth 400. yards before it. And therefore Exhalations may be granted to remove stones and sands, and with them such heterogeneous bodies as lie on them, from one place to another, from the sea to the hills, from a coast far into a country. But Earthquakes are not frequent in any places unless near Vulcanoes, and are less usual in these parts; and yet in most places all over Europe, such heterogeneous bodies have been found under the Earth, at great distance from the Sea. Again, the force of Exhalations is most evident in mountainous, rocky countries, because when they are penned into such places they cannot have vent; whereas these bodies are often found in mosses, bogs, and marish grounds, as frequently as in other earth.  
5. So that they are most likely to be hurried thither by the force of waters, passing from the Sea through the caverns of the Earth. The reasonableness of which opinion will the better appear, if we consider that,  
1. As the Earth is of a vast compass, and no less than 7000 miles in Diameter, of which the Water doth not make above one third part of the Globe, and that on the surface of Earth too; and so far as was ever yet discovered of the Earth, no part of it is destitute of some mineral substance continually generating in it, unless where either the Sun exhales the force of it, or Nature is otherwise employed in producing Vegetables. So that if the Earth be kept from the sight of the Sun, and the production of plants, nor is apt to other generations, yet it fails not to produce Saltpetre or Nitre in good quantity. And this is the reason that Saltpeter-men dig in Stables, Cellars, and other houses. So that in the whole bowels of the Earth, what vast heaps, what mountains of metals are there? Some in fieri, some in facto esse; perfect and imperfect; mean metals, Stones, Fluors of all sorts, Salts, and concrete Juices; besides the several sorts of Earth's, Chalks, Bowls, Bitumina, and the mixtures of all or any of these, of which it were much too large, and more besides my purpose particularly to discourse.  
2. Where there are so vast and numerous generations, 'tis impossible that they should succeed without vast quantities of water. Nay, to speak more home, the first matter that hath been yet discovered of all Minerals, is no other than a certain Juice or water impregnate with the seminal virtue of this or that Mineral stone or Metal, which from water (when it hath found a convenient matrix) becomes a jelly, and from a jelly this or that stone or metal. This is obvious from several springs, whose water impregnate with the seeds of stone, having found a place of rest convert into perfect stone. Of which sort, we read of some in 
* Warner. de Aq. Hungar.  Hungary, of others in Peru by 
* Warner. de Aq. Hungar.  
* Accost. l. 3. c. 17.  Acosta. In Guancavilica there is a Fountain that turns into a Rock, with which an whole village is built. At Newnham Regis in , our Geographers tell us of a Well that after the same manner turneth wood into stone; of another in the the North, that dropping from above into a Cave, becomes clear and very hard stone beneath. 
Bert. Geog. p. 127.  Rivus est apud Scotos Ratra dictus, in cujus ripa est spelunca, in qua guttatìm ex fornice distillans nnda lapidescit in metas, quae nisi tollantur humana industria, spatium totum opplerent. Some Minerals are no other than certain kind of Juices accreted, as Alum, Vitriol, etc. And Mine-masters have sometimes found Metals liquid and unconcrete when they have pierced a Mine too soon; Mathesius' mentions liquid Silver found by some. And for this without doubt among other causes, is water by the Ancients called Panspermia; for that the seeds of things in the Earth have very little virtue without this, Moses insinuates, Gen. 2.5. where he gives this reason why no Plants yet grew, viz. because they lay in arido, for the Lord had not caused it to rain on the earth. I am very confident that the Poets did not only call Venus the Goddess of generation, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the spume-born Goddess, from the saltness of the spume, (though some of later date have therefore called her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) but from the waters that bore it. Nor is there any question to be made, but that the Inhabitants of the waters are therefore more numerous than other creatures, not for any saltness, which at the most can but 
* Aegyptii ideo à sale abstinuerunt (teste Plutarcho) quod salem venerem irritare persuasum haberent. Levin. Lemn. de Nat. Miracul. l. 2. p. 228.  irritate to copulation, but doth not render the seed ever the more prolifical. For fresh water fish are as multiplicative of their species as the other in proportion. There is not a fish that swimmeth in the deep that hath a greater quantity of spawn considering his bulk, than a Carp; yet it is a fresh water fish.  
Nor can I believe there can any other reason be given, why the Irish women have so many Children, than because their Country, and consequently themselves, are so exceeding moist, as appears by their stature, their pale countenances, their flaccid, soft and phlegmatic habit of body. And indeed I think that it were as reasonable to seek for taste in an egg, 
Ex ovo omnia. Harv. And what taste is there in the white of an egg? Job.  as for salt in the sperm of fish or any other creature; for by virulent Gonorrhaea's it appears that a sharp and saline quality, is a token rather of corruption than of any active and generative energy. Et quod verissimum est dicimus; Novimus & jam nosco mulieres varias conjugatas sat juvenes, quae ab erroribus dietae à Pica sive Malacia causatis, praecipuè à salitorum, vel potiùs ab incommisti salis esu, non tandum sordidos pallidos faetidosque obtinuere colores; cutes impolitas & rugosas, ventriculos nauseabundos; verumetiam suffocatae omnino evaserunt & steriles. But although I attribute the effects above mentioned to water rather than salt; yet I would not be conceived to imbibe Thales Milesius opinion, that aqua is so named, quasi à qua omnia, as if all things were from it; and yet do believe that it is causa sine qua non, and a great nurse and fosterer of Generations, if not a Parent of them. And of Minerals too; especially if we should embrace the opinion of the Peripatetics, that all mixed bodies are immediately composed of the four Elements; for then these being the most ponderous bodies, must needs have in them the most weighty Elements in good quantity, and those are Earth and Water.  
3. The Sea is the original of all Waters; nor could any fountain else afford enough to supply the Earth to all uses. That which by the Neotericks hath lately been found out, of the Circulation of the Blood and Humours in the Microcosm, was long since discovered (which might possibly hint that) in the greater world. Eccles. 1.7. All rivers run into the Sea yet the Sea is not full: unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again. And what huge quantities of water must be necessary for the whole Earth, may be hence inferred, that the superficies of it needs so much, that besides the innumerable Springs, Fountains, Channels, Rivers and Lakes with which it is irrigated, were it not for frequent showers from above, would soon be parched up, and unable to produce sustenance for Man or Beast; which help the bowels of the Earth are destitute of; for the moisture of showers peirceth not above ten foot deep at the most. And indeed, this is the only reason that can be given of the Seas saltness, because it doth wash, and so dissolve much salt from the rocks of Salt in subterraneal caverns where it doth pass, and would long ere this have caused places, where such rocks have been, to sink in: But that, first, there is a continual generation and accretion, as well as a dissolution; and secondly, because that Salt is very hard, insomuch that some stones of salt there are found in several waters undissolved; as those of which Cambden informs us in the River Were near Batterby in the Bishopric of Durham. 
Cambd. Brit. Brigant.  And as for that dreadful story of Lot's wife turned into a pillar of salt, Gen. 19.26. as we are to believe the thing, so may it not be improbable that it was termed a pillar, as well for the solidity, durableness, and difficulty of dissolution, as well as for its shape and form; God striking her in that manner, as a more durable monument of his anger against Disobedience. And our glass at this day is but salt after its highest fusion, and yet it is very solid and durable, and imports no quality to water. Thirdly and lastly, the Sea-water having imbibed so much salt before, is the less able to dissolve more.  
4. That though the Sea on the coast near the shore, may communicate its waters by perlocation, yet to places at great distance it cannot pass so as to afford a due supply, but by Gulfs and subterraneal In-draughts. In many places of the world they make the sea-water potable and fresh by digging of pits in the sand, into which the sea-water streining itself, leaves its saltness behind. But this must be done at no great distance from the Sea, and it must be in sand or clay, or the like; for if the shore be rocky, it will not do; as we see in many places where they dig a very great depth for fresh water near the Sea, and cannot be supplied till they find a fresh spring, a great many foot under the surface of the Sea. So we see that when we filtrate liquors through shop-paper, if it be thin and bibulous, it passeth; if thick and too close, it will not pass. Some illustrate the percolation of the sea-water by this experiment. Take a round ball of moist clay, make it hollow in the inside, fill it with salt water, lay it to the fire, and it will extill by the pores of the clay, and become fresh and insipid.  
Now that there are vast gulfs and channels from the sea under the earth, will easily appear, when we consider, that some great lakes and oceans there are, that have no other way to vent themselves. What way can the Caspian Sea exonerate itself by, after it hath taken into it Volga, Jaxares, Ochus, Oxus, and other huge Rivers? What other reason can be given why some lakes are full of sea fish, and yet at great distance from the Sea? In Bainoa, a Province of Hispaniola, is a lake of salt water which hath 24 Rivers running into it, yet never increaseth, and hath Sharks and other sea-fish in it. Again, there are salt springs in all countries' that ebb and flow as the Sea and the Coasts do. There are also salt rivers, as Ochus and Oxus; salt lakes, as that before mentioned. Besides this, it is ordinary for channels and rivers to run a great way on the earth, and then to ingulp themselves. 
Georg. Witnerus.  The waters of the Cirknickzerksey lake in Carniola, gush with that violence and swiftness out of the ground, that they will overtake a swift Horseman, and presently are swallowed in a deep gulf again. In the Province of Cazcium in Hispaniola is a great cave in an hollow rock, under the root of a very high mountain, in which divers Rivers, after they have run fourscore and ten miles, pass as into an indraught, and are swallowed up. In most Countries we read of the like. A mountain there is in Caermarthen-shire, where Careg-castle sometimes stood, in which are many spacious holes and wide caves, with a Well that ebbs and flows as the Sea on the Coast doth, twice in four and twenty hours. The Current of one and the same Sea in several parts contrary ways demonstrates this, as in the Atlantic Sea, in some places from, and in some places towards the North, like Liquor in a funnel. In some places there are whirlepools, whose waters turn clean round, insomuch that if a Ship at such times come over them, they are in most extreme danger of sinking: 
Such an one there is in the North Sea, near the coast of Norway.  At other times the waters with that violence come out of the earth, that a Cannon cast overboard will not sink. This caused Taurellus, and some others, to think these the only cause of the Tides. Andrea's Moralis 
Moral. decad. 7. c. 8.  on the Coast of Hispaniola was sucked into whirlepools, where with that violence the water was drawn into the earth, that with extraordinary toil the Ship hardly escaped sinking. Again, the heterogeneous bodies that are found so deep, are such usually that either are generated, or most usually dwell in the Sea; as shells, bones of fish, masts, anchors, parts of ships. 
Simlerus, Ortelius.  At Berna in Switzerland, Anno 1460. fifty fathom deep, in a Mine where they got metall-oar, 
Fracastorius.  a Ship was digged up, in which were forty eight carcases of Men, with other merchandise. Out of the Ocean into the Mediterranean Sea, 
In Greenland a Mast was digged out of the top of an high Hill with a pulley hanging to it.  there is a continual current by the straits of Gibraltar; another Current into the same out of the Euxine Sea, by the Thracian Bosphorus; besides, very many and great Rivers. And which way can it exonerate itself? for those vast floods do not increase it. And solomon's Circulation of humours in the Macrocosm above mentioned, is very considerable; nor is the Analogy in this particular between that and the lesser World obscure. For the Sea in that answereth to the Fountain of blood in this. The Subterraneal Rivers, and those above ground, may answer to the vessels containing the blood. And both these answer to the vasa attrahentia, & deferentia; for the subterraneal channels carry the water from the Sea, the Rivers return it to the Sea. Again, as both sorts of vessels are greater near the fountain of blood in the body; so are the channels biggest nearest the Sea their fountain; and though it may sometimes happen otherwise, yet if the banks of any are wider, so that they look like lakes a great while before they discharge themselves into the Ocean; I look on it but as casual, and bearing proportion with the divarications of vessels in man's body. Again, vessels in our bodies are from trunks (like trees) branched out, in ramulos, surculos, and other minute distributions (answering to the stalks of leaves or fruits) which are again subdivided into capillary conveyances, and thence the blood and humours pass per poros for the nutriment of the solid parts; so are the Rivers above (and without doubt the channels under ground in proportion to them) from their main trunks divided into Brooks, those Brooks into Rivulets, these into lesser conveyances as it were capillary vessels, and every where dispersed and disseminated according to the exigence of nature, and thence pass through the pores of the Earth, that no part may be destitute of a due supply for the Generation and increase of all bodies. Again, the aestus maris bears some proportion to the pulse of the blood in the Microcosm, the ebbing and contraction of the water is the systole; the turgescency, floating, and dilatation of the water, is the diastole; the space between both the perisystole. Again, as in the heart and in some vessels only that carry the blood that motion is to be found; so is the aestus discovered in some vessels only that convey the humour of the greater World. Not that I look on this as any kind of proof, but as an illustration, the better to guide our conceptions in Nature's Water-works, by what is seen that we may the better understand that which is not seen, or at least not so plainly. However enough to our purpose it is, that such Subterraneal channels there are from the Sea under the Earth. As for the common scruple of the improbability of the waters rising so high out of the Sea to the superfice of the Earth, it is the least hindrance of an hundred; for if there be a continuity of the air, waters will rise as high as the surface of the waters from whence they came, as appears in Siphunculis; and therefore may rise to the tops of the highest hills. For the highest places of the Sea answer to the tops of the loftiest mountains, or else the earth could not be spherical. 
Were it not for bounds God hath set, the waters are high enough to turn again and cover the earth, v. 9 He hath Chambers or Receptacles by which to water the hills, v. 13  To this the Psalmist is consonant, Psalm 104. The waters go up by the Mountains, they go down by the Valleys unto the place which thou hast founded for them. With what violence do the waters gush out of Saint Winifred's Well in Wales on the top of a great hill? Again, compression of those vast quantities of water forcing them into Earth, may make them mount the higher; as Hoggsheads full and newly broached run the faster. I'll illustrate this by the following experiment. Take two round Board's equally sized, fasten strong Leather to those Board's above, below, and on the sides so close that they may hold water; from the lower board let an hollow pipe go up on the outside higher than the upper board; fill this instrument with water; then put a weight on the upper board, and proportionable to the weight so will the waters mount to a greater or lesser height, as in this Figure.   diagram of experimental apperatus to demonstrate the vertical displacement of water under pressure or pumping 


A. The upper board.  
B. The lower board.  
ccc. The Leather on every side.  
D. The Pipe through which the water will leap upwards.  
E. The weight of compression.    
But it may be objected, that this is an adventitious and external compression; and not that of the water only. But I answer, that such a compression there is in the Sea from agitation of the waters by wind, and other causes; and yet that waters by their own natural compression will mount higher than the brims of the vessel containing, may be evident from this, that if we take one of a considerable capacity, with a pipe on the outside something higher than its brims; and rub the brims with Rosin, or such like Gum, and then fill it full till no more water can be poured in, stopping the orifice of the pipe in the mean time with ones finger, then removing the finger, it will presently burst out at the pipe. It may be demanded then, Why are not all River's salt? To this I answer; That most of them have their waters stopped and percolated, and so leave their saltness behind. But as for those that have no hindrance, they are not only salt, but do constantly ebb and flow, as hath been exemplified already. Those that have a stoppage by a bank of earth to such an height only, issue fresh water at their ebb, and at their float salt; as that fountain in the Isle of Gades doth. 
See Ortel. map. epitomixed in the description of Gades.  Those that are salt, and have no tides, are such as after percolation wash some rocks of salt before their eruption.  
5. Where mighty floods come with violence, as these must of necessity do by reason of the vast quantity, the mighty compression, and the unspeakable weight of the waters of the Ocean, they will easily carry with them light, and with no great difficulty ponderous bodies. This needs not, and therefore shall not, have any proof.  
6. Heterogeneous bodies by the weight and strength of waters forced into a narrow place, cannot easily by the return of those beyond them, (if they return at all the same way) be brought forth again. Because there is little or no compression, and therefore the return of the water is leisurely, and by degrees. This is obvious to Sense, and therefore needs no illustration.  
7. And as much evident to sense it is that any heterogeneous bodies so remaining unremoved, soon gather slime and sand about them, and in a small space of time are lodged as it were in firm ground. This is no more wonderful than to have any vessel in the Microcosm obstructed by crude and heterogeneous bodies, caeteris paribus. Nor need we seek for rare Water-works; for every ordinary gutter and sink will demonstrate this.  
And thus (Doctor) you have my Opinion of the way by which those Cockle, Muscle, and Oyster-shells you mentioned, were brought and lodged in that place. If they were truly shells, they were conveyed either above or under ground; but not so usually above, therefore under. If under ground, then by natural or voluntary agents. If by natural and necessary, then either by Vapours, Exhalations, or Waters; but this is done usually and commonly by none of the former, therefore by the last; which is the more likely to effect it,  
1. Because there are numerous generations in the Earth.  
2. Where many generations are, much water is necessary.  
3. No fountain can supply the earth to these purposes but the Sea, which is the original of all waters.  
4. Though the Sea communicate his waters to places near it by percolation; it must and doth supply that afar off by whole floods, gulfs, and indraughts.  
5. Where mighty floods come with violence, they will carry very weighty bodies with them.  
6. Heterogeneous bodies are not easily brought back again when they are forced into a narrow place.  
7. But in a little time gather slime, and earth about them, and so are lodged in firm ground.  Psal. 139.14. 
Marvellous are thy works (O Lord) and that my soul knows right well.  
FINIS.