_Concerning the Channel of the Sea, and the Original of it; The
Causes of its irregular Form and unequal Depths: As also of the
Original of Islands, their Situation and other Properties._
We have hitherto given an Account of the subterraneous Regions, and of
their general Form; We now come above Ground to view the Surface of the
Globe, which we find _Terraqueous_, or divided into Sea and Land: These
we must survey, and what is remarkable in them as to their Frame and
Structure, we must give an Account of from our _Hypothesis_, and shew to
be unaccountable from any other yet known.
AS for the Ocean, there are two things considerable in it, the Water and
the Channel that contains it. The Water no doubt is as ancient as the
Earth, and cotemporary with it, and we suppose it to be part of the
great Abyss wherein the World was drown’d; the rest lying cover’d under
the Hollow Fragments of Continents and Islands. But that is not so much
the Subject of our present Discourse as the Channel of the Ocean, that
vast and prodigious Cavity that runs quite round the Globe, and
reacheth, for ought we know, from Pole to Pole, and in many Places is
unsearchably deep: When I present this great Gulf to my Imagination,
emptied of all its Waters, naked and gaping at the Sun, stretching its
Jaws from one End of the Earth to another, it appears to me the most
ghastly thing in Nature. What Hands or Instruments could work a Trench
in the Body of the Earth of this vastness, and lay Mountains and Rocks
on the side of it, as Ramparts to enclose it?
BUT as we justly admire its Greatness, so we cannot at all admire its
Beauty or Elegancy, for ’tis as deform’d and irregular as it is great.
And there appearing nothing of Order, or any regular Design in its
Parts, it seems reasonable to believe that it was not the Work of
Nature, according to her first Intention, or according to the first
Model that was drawn in Measure and Proportion by the Line and by the
Plummet, but a secondary Work, and the best that could be made of broken
Materials. And upon this Supposition ’tis easy to imagine, how upon the
Dissolution of the Primæval Earth, the Channel of the Sea was made, or
that huge Cavity that lies between the several Continents of the Earth;
which shall be more particularly explain’d after we have view’d a little
better the Form of it, and the Islands that lie scatter’d by its Shores.
THERE is no Cavity in the Earth, whether open or subterraneous, that is
comparably so great as that of the Ocean, nor would any appear of that
Deformity if we could see it empty. The Inside of a Cave is rough and
unsightly; the Beds of great Rivers and great Lakes, when they are laid
dry, look very raw and rude, the Valleys of the Earth, if they were
naked, without Trees and without Grass, nothing but bare Ground and bare
Stones, from the tops of their Mountains, would have a ghastly Aspect;
but the Sea-Channel is the Complex of all these; here Caves, empty
Lakes, naked Valleys are represented as in their Original, or rather far
exceeded and out-done as to all their Irregularities; for the Cavity of
the Ocean is universally irregular, both as to the Shores and Borders of
it; as to the uncertain Breadth and the uncertain Depth of its several
Parts, and as to its Ground and Bottom and the whole Mould: If the Sea
had been drawn round the Earth in regular Figures and Borders, it might
have been a great Beauty to our Globe, and we should reasonably have
concluded it a Work of the first Creation, or of Nature’s first
Production; but finding on the contrary all the Marks of Disorder and
Disproportion in it, we may as reasonably conclude, that it did not
belong to the first Order of Things, but was something succedaneous,
when the Degeneracy of Mankind, and the Judgments of God had destroyed
the first World, and subjected the Creation to some kind of Vanity.
NOR can it easily be imagin’d, if the Sea had been always, and the
Earth, in this _Terraqueous_ Form, broke into Continents and Islands,
how Mankind could have been propagated at first thro’ the Face of the
Earth, all from one Head and from one Place. For Navigation was not then
known, at least as to the Grand Ocean, or to pass from Continent to
Continent; and I believe _Noah_’s Ark was the first Ship, or Vessel of
Bulk, that ever was built in the World; how could then the Posterity of
_Adam_ overflow the Earth, and stock the several Parts of the World, if
they had been distant or separate then, as they are now, by the
Interposal of the great Ocean? But this Consideration we will insist
upon more largely in another Place; let us reflect upon the
Irregularities of the Sea-Channel again, and the possible Causes of it.
IF we could imagine the Channel of the Sea to have been made as we may
imagine the Channel of Rivers to have been, by long and insensible
Attrition, the Water wearing by degrees the Ground under it, by the
Force it hath from its Descent and Course, we should not wonder at its
irregular Form; but ’tis not possible this Channel should have had any
such Original; whence should its Water have descended, from what
Mountains, or from what Clouds? Where is the Spring-head of the Sea?
What Force could eat away half the Surface of the Earth; and wear it
hollow to an immeasurable Depth? This must not be from feeble and
lingring Causes, such as the Attrition of Waters, but from some great
Violence offer’d to Nature, such as we suppose to have been in the
general Deluge, when the Frame of the Earth was broken. And after we
have a little survey’d the Sea-Coast, and, so far as we can, the Form of
the Sea-Channel, we shall the more easily believe that they could have
no other Original than what we assign.
THE Shores and Coasts of the Sea are no way equal or uniform, but go in
a Line uncertainly crooked and broke; indented and jagg’d as a thing
torn, as you may see in the Maps of the Coasts and the Sea-charts; and
yet there are innumerable more Inequalities than are taken Notice of in
those Draughts; for they only mark the greater Promontories and Bays;
but there are besides those a Multitude of Creeks and Out-lets, Necks of
Land and Angles, which break the Evenness of the Shore in all manner of
Ways. Then the Height and Level of the Shore is as uncertain as the Line
of it; ’tis sometimes high and sometimes low, sometimes spread in sandy
Plains, as smooth as the Sea it self, and of such an equal Height with
it, that the Waves seem to have no Bounds, but the meer Figure and
Convexity of the Globe; in other Places ’tis rais’d into Banks and
Ramparts of Earth, and in others ’tis wall’d in with Rocks; and all this
without any Order that we can observe, or any other Reason than that
this is what might be expected in a Ruin.
AS to the Depths and Soundings of the Sea, they are under no Rule nor
Equality, any more than the Figures of the Shores; Shallows in some
Places, and Gulphs in others; Beds of Sands sometimes, and sometimes
Rocks under Water; as Navigators have learn’d by a long and dangerous
Experience: And tho’ we that are upon dry Land, are not much concern’d
how the Rocks and the Shelves lie in the Sea, yet a poor
Shipwreckt-Mariner, when he hath run his Vessel upon a Rock in the
middle of the Channel, expostulates bitterly with Nature, who it was
that plac’d that Rock there, and to what purpose? Was there not Room
enough, saith he, upon the Land, or the Shore, to lay your great Stones,
but they must be thrown into the middle of the Sea, as it were in spite
to Navigation? The best Apology that can be made for Nature in this
Case, so far as I know, is to confess, that the whole Business of the
Sea-Channel is but a Ruin, and in a Ruin Things tumble uncertainly, and
commonly lie in Confusion: Tho’ to speak the Truth, it seldom happens,
unless in narrow Seas, that Rocks, or Banks, or Islands, lie in the
middle of them, or very far from the Shores.
HAVING view’d the more visible Parts of the Channel of the Sea, we must
now descend to the Bottom of it, and see the Form and Contrivance of
that; but who shall guide us in our Journey, while we walk, as _Job_
saith, _Chap. xxxviii. 16._ in the search of the Deep? Or who can make a
Description of that which none hath seen? It is reasonable to believe,
that the Bottom of the Sea is much more rugged, broken and irregular
than the Face of the Land. There are Mountains, and Valleys, and Rocks,
and Ridges of Rocks, and all the common Inequalities we see upon Land;
beside these, ’tis very likely there are Caves under Water, and hollow
Passages into the Bowels of the Earth, by which the Seas circulate and
communicate one with another, and with subterraneous Waters; those great
_Eddies_ and infamous _Syrtes_ and Whirpools that are in some Seas, as
the _Baltick_ and the _Mediterranean_, that suck into them and overwhelm
whatever comes within their reach, shew that there is something below
that sucks from them in Proportion, and that drinks up the Sea, as the
Sea drinks up the Rivers. We ought also to imagine the Shores within the
Water to go inclin’d and sloping, but with great Inequality; there are
many Shelves in the way, and Chambers, and sharp Angles; and many broken
Rocks and great Stones lie rolled down to the Bottom.
’TIS true these things affect us little, because they are not expos’d to
our Senses; and we seldom give our selves the trouble to collect from
Reason what the Form of the invisible and inaccessible Parts of the
Earth is; or if we do sometimes, those _Ideas_ are faint and weak, and
make no lasting Impression upon our Imagination and Passions; but if we
should suppose the Ocean dry, and that we look’d down from the Top of
some high Cloud upon the empty Shell, how horridly and barbarously would
it look? And with what Amazement should we see it under us like an open
Hell, or a wide bottomless Pit? So deep, and hollow, and vast; so broken
and confus’d, so every way deform’d and monstrous. This would
effectually waken our Imagination, and make us enquire and wonder how
such a thing came in Nature; from what Causes, by what Force or Engines
could the Earth be torn in this prodigious manner? Did they dig the Sea
with Spades, and carry out the Molds in Hand-baskets? Where are the
Entrails laid? and how did they cleave the Rocks asunder? If as many
Pioneers as the Army of _Xerxes_ had been at Work ever since the
Beginning of the World, they could not have made a Ditch of this
Greatness. Nor is it the Greatness only, but that wild and multifarious
Confusion which we see in the Parts and Fashion of it, that makes it
strange and unaccountable; ’tis another Chaos in its kind; who can paint
the Scenes of it? Gulphs, and Precipices, and Cataracts; Pits within
Pits, and Rocks under Rocks, broken Mountains and ragged Islands, that
look as if they had been Countries pull’d up by the Roots, and planted
in the Sea.
IF we could make true and full Representations of these things to our
selves, I think we should not be so bold as to make them the immediate
Product of Divine Omnipotence; being destitute of all Appearance of Art
or Counsel. The first Orders of things are more perfect and regular; and
this _Decorum_ seems to be observ’d, that Nature doth not fall into
Disorder till Mankind be first degenerate and leads the way. Monsters
have been often made an Argument against Providence; if a Calf have two
Heads, or five Legs, straight there must not be a God in Heaven, or at
least not upon Earth; and yet this is but a Chance that happens once in
many Years, and is of no consequence at all to the rest of the World:
But if we make the standing Frame of Nature monstrous, or deform’d and
disproportion’d, and to have been so not by Corruption and Degeneracy,
but immediately by divine Creation or Formation, it would not be so easy
to answer that Objection against Providence. Let us therefore prevent
this Imputation; and supposing, according to our Theory, that these
Things were not originally thus, let us now explain more distinctly how
they came to pass at the Deluge, or upon the Dissolution of the first
Earth.
AND we will not content our selves with a general Answer to these
Observations concerning the Sea-Channel, as if it was a sufficient
Account of them to say they were the Effects of a Ruin; there are other
things to be consider’d and explain’d beside this Irregularity, as the
vast Hollowness of this Cavity, bigger incomparably than any other
belonging to the Earth; and also the Declivity of the Sides of it, which
lie shelving from Top to Bottom: For notwithstanding all the
Inequalities we have taken Notice of in the Channel of the Sea, it hath
one general Form, which may, though under many Differences, be observed
throughout, and that is, that the Shores and Sides within the Water lie
inclin’d, and you descend by degrees to the deepest Part which is
towards the Middle. This, I know, admits of many Exceptions; for
sometimes upon a rocky Shore, or among rocky Islands, the Sea is very
deep close to the Rocks, and the deeper, commonly the higher and steeper
the Rocks are. Also where the Descent is more leisurely, ’tis often
after a different Manner, in some Coasts more equal and uniform, in
others more broken and interrupted; but still there is a Descent to the
Channel or deepest Part, and this in the deep Ocean is fathomless; and
such a deep Ocean, and such a deep Channel there is always between
Continents. This, I think, is a Property as determinate as any we can
pitch upon in the Channel of the Sea, and with those other two
mention’d; its vast Cavity, and universal Irregularity, is all one can
desire an Account of, as to the Form of it; we will therefore from this
Ground take our Rise and first Measures for the Explication of the
Sea-Channel.
LET us suppose then in the Dissolution of the Earth, when it began to
fall, that it was divided only into three or four Fragments, according
to the Number of our Continents; but those Fragments being vastly great
could not descend at their full Breadth and Expansion, or at least could
not descend so fast in the Middle, as towards the Extremities; because
the Air about the Edges would yield and give Place easily, not having
far to go, to get out of the Way; but the Air that was under the Middle
of the Fragment could not without a very swift Motion get from under the
Concave of it, and consequently its Descent there would be more resisted
and suspended; but the Sides in the mean time would continually descend,
bending the Fragment with their Weight, and so making it of a lesser
Compass and Expansion than it was before: And by this Means there would
be an Interval and Distance made between the two falling Fragments, and
a good Part of the Abyss, after their Descent, would lie uncover’d in
the Middle betwixt them; as may be seen in the annex’d Figure, where the
Fragments A. B. bending downwards in their Extremities, separate as they
go, and after they are faln, leave a good Space in the Abyss betwixt
them altogether uncover’d: This Space is the main Channel of the great
Ocean, lying betwixt two Continents; and the inclining Sides shew the
Declivity of the Shores.
[Illustration: Fragments are starting to break into Continents.]
[Illustration: The Fragments have Fallen like double Doors.]
THIS we have represented here only in a Ring or Circle of the Earth, in
the first Figure; but it may be better represented in a broader Surface,
as in the second Figure, where the two Fragments A. B. that are to make
the two opposite Continents, fall in like double Doors, opening
downwards, the Hinges being towards the Land on either Side, so as at
the Bottom they leave in the Middle betwixt them a deep Channel of
Water, _a. a. a._ such as is betwixt all Continents; and the Water
reaching a good Height upon the Land on either Side, makes Sea there
too, but shallower, and by degrees you descend into the deepest Channel.
[Illustration: The great Disorder in the Chasm between the Fragments.]
THIS gives an Account of two Things that we mention’d to be consider’d
and explain’d as to the Sea, how the great Cavity of its Channel was
made, and how it was made in that general Form of Declivity in its Sides
from the Land: The third Thing was the Irregularities of it, both as to
its various Depths, and as to the Form of the Shores and of the Bottom.
And this is as easily and naturally explain’d from the same Supposition
as the former two; for tho’ we have hitherto represented the Fragments
A. B. as even and regular after their Fall, because that was most
simple, and there was no occasion then to represent them otherwise, yet
we must suppose, that as soon as in their Fall they hit upon the Top or
Bottom of the Abyss, that great Force and Weight with which they
descended broke off all the Edges and Extremities, and so made
innumerable Ruptures and Inequalities in the Shores, and as many within
the Sea, and at the Bottom; where the broken Rocks and Lumps of Earth
would lie in all imaginable Disorder; as you may conceive from the
_third Figure_. For when the Motion came on a sudden to be obstructed,
the Load of the Fragment still pressing it forwards, such a Concussion
arose, as made thousands of lesser Fragments, of all Shapes and
Magnitudes, and in all Postures and Forms, and most of them irregular.
And by these Fractions and secondary Ruins the Line of the Shores was
broken, and the Level of them too: In some Places they would stand high,
in others low, sometimes rough, and sometimes even, and generally
crooked, with Angles and In-lets, and uncertain Windings. The Bottom
also by the same Stroke was diversify’d into all Manner of Forms,
sometimes rocky with Pits and Gulphs, and sometimes spread in plain
Beds, sometimes shallow, and sometimes deep; for those Differences would
depend only upon the Situation of the secondary Fragments; and so it
might come to pass, that some Places near the Shore might be excessive
deep when a Rock or Rocks stood in a steep Posture, as (_Figure 3._) _b.
b. b._ and, on the contrary, sometimes Places much more advanc’d into
the Ocean might be less deep, where a Fragment of Earth lay under Water,
or one bore up another, as _c. c. c._ but these Cases would not be very
frequent. To conclude, There are no Properties of the Sea-channel, that
I know of, nor Differences or Irregularities in the Form of it, which
this _Hypothesis_ doth not give a fair Account of: And having thus far
open’d the Way and laid down the general Grounds for their Explication,
other things that are more minute, we leave to the Curiosity of
particular Genius’s; being unwilling to clog the Theory at first with
things that may seem unnecessary. We proceed now to the Consideration of
Islands.
WE must in the first Place distinguish between _Original_ Islands and
_Fictitious_ Islands: Those I call fictitious, that are not of the same
Date and Antiquity with the Sea, but have been made some at one time,
some at another, by accidental Causes, as the Aggestion of Sands and
Sand-beds, or the Sea leaving the Tops of some shallow Places that lie
high, and yet flowing about the lower Skirts of them; these make sandy
and plain Islands, that have no high Land in them, and are but
Mock-Islands in effect. Others are made by Divulsion from some
Continent, when an Isthmus, or the Neck of a Promontory running into the
Sea, sinks or falls in, by an Earthquake or otherwise, and the Sea
entring in at the Gap passeth through, and makes that Promontory or
Country become an Island. Thus the Island _Sicily_ is suppos’d to have
been made, and all _Africa_ might be an Island, if the Isthmus between
the _Mediterranean_ and the red Sea should sink down. And these Islands
may have Rocks and Mountains in them, if the Land had so before. Lastly,
There are Islands that have been said to rise from the Bottom of the
Sea; History mentions such in both the _Archipelago_’s, _Ægæan_ and
_Indian_; and this seems to argue that there are great Fragments or
Tracts of Earth that lie loose at the Bottom of the Sea, or that are not
incorporated with the Ground; which agrees very well with our
Explication of the Sea-Channel.
BUT beside these Islands, and the several Sorts of them, there are
others which I call _Original_; because they could not be produc’d in
any of the forementioned Ways, but are of the same Origin and Antiquity
with the Channel of the Sea; and such are the Generality of our Islands;
they were not made of Heaps of Sands, nor torn from any Continent, but
are as ancient as the Continents themselves, namely, ever since the
Deluge, the common Parent of them both. Nor is there any Difficulty to
understand how Islands were made at the Dissolution of the Earth, any
more than how Continents were made; for Islands are but lesser
Continents, or Continents greater Islands; and according as Continents
were made of greater Masses of Earth, or greater Fragments standing
above the Water, so Islands were made of less, but so big always, and in
such a Posture, as to bear their Tops above the Water. Yet tho’ they
agree thus far, there is a particular Difference to be taken notice of,
as to their Origin; for the Continents were made of those three or four
primary Masses into which the falling Orb of the Earth was divided, but
the Islands were made of the Fractures of these, and broken off by the
Fall, from the Skirts and Extremities of the Continents: We noted
before, that when those great Masses and primary Fragments came to dash
upon the Abyss in their Fall, the sudden Stop of the Motion, and the
weighty Bulk of the descending Fragment broke off all the Edges and
Extremities of it, which Edges and Extremities broken off made the
Islands; and accordingly we see that they generally lie scatter’d along
the Sides of the Continents, and are but Splinters, as it were, of those
greater Bodies. ’Tis true, beside these, there were an infinite Number
of other Pieces broke off that do not appear, some making Rocks under
Water, some Shallows and Banks in the Sea; but the greatest of them when
they fell either one upon another, or in such a Posture as to prop up
one another, their Heads and higher Parts would stand out of the Water
and make Islands.
THUS I conceive the Islands of the Sea were at first produc’d; we cannot
wonder therefore that they should be so numerous, or far more numerous
than the Continents; these are the Parents, and those are the Children;
nor can we wonder to see along the Sides of the Continents several
Islands, or Sets of Islands, sown, as it were, by Handfuls, or laid in
Trains; for the Manner of their Generation would lead us to think they
would be so plac’d. So the _American_ Islands lie scatter’d upon the
Coast of that Continent; the _Maldivian_ and _Philippine_ upon the
_East-India_ Shore, and the _Hesperides_ upon the _Africk_; and there
seldom happen to be any towards the Middle of the Ocean, tho’ by an
Accident, that also might come to pass. Lastly, It suits very well with
our Explication, that there should be Mountains and Rocks, sometimes in
Clusters, sometimes in long Chains, in all Islands; (as we find there
are in all that are true and original) for ’tis that makes them high
enough to appear above the Water, and strong enough to continue and
preserve themselves in that high Situation.
AND thus much may suffice for a summary Explication of the Causes of the
Sea-Channel and Islands, according to our _Hypothesis_.