qualified to make another. Each was to be with his teacher during Lent, unless prevented by fickness or imprisonment, under pain of lofing his degree. He was obliged to fhew every compofition to his teacher before it was publicly fung. They were not to follow the practice of cler y dom, i. e. dunghill bards and musicians, or any other fpecies of vagabond minstrels. They were enjoined a month before each festival, to settle their routs with their respective teachers, leaft too many of them should crowd to the fame places; only one being allowed to go to a perfon who paid ten pounds a year rent; and two to fuch who payed twenty pounds, and fo on in proportion to those of higher rank: and every teacher was obliged to keep a copy of thefe rules, to thew and inculcate to his pupils in time of Lent, when they came for their inftructions. No perfon was to mimic, mock, or scoff at the Awenyddion on account of their mental absence, or when they had on them the AWEN or poeticus furor; from an opinion that no bard, duly au thorized, could ever meditate on improper fubjects.' It were devoutly to be wifhed, that fome of the following regulations, respecting the Welsh poetical graduates, could be properly enforced to keep our present poetical Mohawks in a little order. They were prohibited from uttering any fcandalous words in fpeech or whifpers; detra.n, mocking, fcoffing, inventing lies, or repeating them after others, under pain of fine and imprisonment.' Nay, they were abfolutely forbid to make a song of any perfon without his consent.' The readers of tours will perhaps think, that the Author has enlarged too much, and too frequently, on genealogies, defcents of property, &c.: but it should be confidered, that his Tour comprehends a kind of Provincial Hiftory, of the counties through which he paffes. It must be remembered likewife, that our traveller is treading upon Welsh ground; and that he is himself a Cambrian, and accordingly may juftly claim some indulgence, if he should be thought to have been fomewhat too copious on the subject of pedigrees and fucceffions. ART. X. An Inquiry into the original State and Formation of the Earth; deduced from Fa&s and the Laws of Nature! To which is added an Appendix, containing fome general Óbfervations on the Strata in Derbyshire, &c. By John Whitehurst. 4to. 12 s. Boards, Robinfon. 1778. UR learned Readers are well acquainted with the various and, fome of them fufficiently whimfical theories, which have been invented by fpeculative philofophers, with a view, principally to account for the fingular appearances that this globe exhibits on and beneath its furface; and to discover the causes of the great changes that an examination of its various frata prove it to have undergone, in times far antecedent to ali written hiftory and tradition. The ingenious Author of this production D 3 has has had the fame object in view with his philofophical predeceffors; but profeffes, and with fome juftice, to follow a very different, and furer, though more humble route. Inftead of fpeculative inquiries, in the clofet, into the manner in which the Creator might have formed the world, had he fo pleafed;" he examines this world itfelf, and particularly it's external form; and then defcends into its bowels, in queft of data, from which he may draw juft or probable inferences, and acquire an infight into the real laws by which the Supreme Being chofe to form the world.' His examination of the mines in Derbyshire, in particular, prefented him with many appearances well adapted to throw light on fome of the principal fubjects of his inquiry; and he has accordingly availed himself of the many data with which a personal and accurate inspection of them could not fail to furnish him. Notwithstanding the proper method of investigation which the Author has followed, by founding his hiftory of the early ftate of the earth on an actual view and confideration of the general arrangement and occafional diflocations of it's ftrata, and on the materials furnished by history and philofophy; fome parts of it ftill are, and neceffarily muft be, hypothetical. His is a fober and fubftantial fyftem, however, when compared with the vifions of fome world makers; particularly that of the great French naturalift, who inftead of groping in the bowels of the earth, begins his inquiry with a flight into the planetary regions. The refult of fo hopeful an excurfion is well known. His infant world (together with its fifteen fellows) is ufhered into exiftence, in a white heat, and in the guife of a ball of melted matter, dafhed off from the parent fun, by the fhock of a blundering comet rufhing against it! The following regular though imperfect epitome of the present system, will at leaft fhew that our Theorift has not indulged himself in any fuch fplendid reveries. The Author lays the principal foundation of his theory on that great natural datum difcovered by the fagacity of Newton, and fince verified by aftronomical obfervations, and trigonometrical operations :-we mean the fpheroidical figure of the earth, or the excess of its equatorial above its polar diameter, acquired by its diurnal revolution on its axis. From this fact the Author concludes that this globe must have been originally in a state of fluidity; as it could not otherwife have yielded to the centrifugal power, fo as to have acquired this elevation at the equator.-In this ftate, its component parts, folids and fluids, were uniformly blended together, and thus compofed one general mass or pulp, of equal confiftence and fameness in every part, from its furface to its center.' The heterogeneous principles, however, of which this chaos confifted, yielding to the univerfal law of gravitation, and at the fame fame time exercifing their respective affinities on each other; the uniform fufpenfion of the component parts of the pulpy mafs was deftroyed. The folid particles, fuch as the calcareous, argillaceous, metallic, or other earths, for example, respectively combined with each other, and formed ftrata of lime stone, clay, metals, &c. while the particles of air united likewife with those of air; and thofe of water with their kindred particles; fo that, after the feparation and fubfidence of all the folid parts, the whole globe was covered with this laft mentioned element. The firft lands that appeared were islands, of no great extent or elevation; and for the formation of which the Author naturally enough accounts, by the action of the moon; which raifing the water unequally in different places, while the folid particles were coalefcing and fubfiding, would produce protuberances which would afterwards become firm, and adapted to the support of animal and vegetable life: in the fame manner as fand banks are formed in the prefent fea, by the flux and reflux of the tides. At the close of this account, the Author marks the coincidence between his theory and the Mofaical hiftory of the Creation. On many other occafions, where they coincide, the Author does not fail to remind us of this coincidence. Nevertheless, in fome few inftances, Mofes may perhaps be thought to hang nearly as heavy on our Theorift, as he lately did on the neck of the Canon Recupero*. In the times prior to the formation of thefe primitive islands, it is to be observed that the waters were peopled with their marine inhabitants, from pole to pole. But, while the islands were forming and increafing in extent, many of these animals, particularly the fhell fifh, as the moft ftationary and the leaft active, muft neceffarily become inveloped and buried in the femifluid mud, by means of the flux and reflux of the waters above-mentioned. This mud, likewife, afterwards acquired firmness, and became folid clay, limestone, &c. As the fea originally covered the whole earth, and was every where inhabited, it follows that many of its inhabitants must have been thus buried in all parts of the ocean, from pole to pole. Now modern obfervations fhew that, in all the regions of the world which have been properly explored; on the highest mountains, and parts moft remote from the prefent fea, the exuvia of marine animals have been found: particularly their bones, teeth, and fhells, imbedded in the fubftance of stone, chalk, clay, &c. and that the fragments of fhells are much more numerous than the bones or teeth of other fish, who could more eafily elude the action of the waters. * Sce M. R. Vol. xlix. July 1773, page 29. Оп On this occafion the Author has made an useful collection, from various writers, of the moft ftriking appearances of this kind obferved in different parts of the world. Many of these inftances prove that the teeth and shells, in particular, thus found, had actually heretofore belonged to living animals. The former exhibit marks of their having been worn by use: and the fhells are frequently found with holes in them, bored by the pholades who prey on the contained fifh. Several beds of fea fhells have been lately difcovered near Stableford, the feat of the Earl of Harborough, which still retain their native marine matter, though much decayed. In Sir Afhton Lever's excellent Museum, are two curious fpecimens of the Cornu Ammonis, with their native fhelly matter remaining: but in the lime ftone ftrata in Derbyshire, examined by the Author, the various marine exuviæ, consisting of cockles, corals, entrochi, &c. and found at a depth of two hundred fathoms, the teftaceous matter has been changed to a ftony fubftance. In all these inftances, the marine animals to which thefe exuvia belonged, and fome of which are now natives of very different climates, are fuppofed to have lived and died in the very beds where they are now found. From these and various other confiderations it appears, according to the Author, that the fea wholly covered the Antediluvian earth and that marine animals were created, and those whose exuvia are now found, were entombed, before terrestrial animals could have any footing on this globe. Accordingly Mr. W. obferves, that no terreftrial animals or vegetables are found inveloped in the lime stone ftrata of Derbyshire, which contain the marine productions: nor are any remains of marine animals ever found in the argillaceous ftrata, which contain the vege table impreffions. And it is further to be observed, that the argillaceous ftrata are incumbent on the lime ftone or calcareous beds.' The world however which we have hitherto been defcribing, is not the prefent world. The former, or the Antediluvian earth, confifted only of small islands gradually rifing from the decp, or of fmooth, even, and uniform elevations; whereas the world on which we tread at present confifts of immenfe continents and mountains, of fteep or impending fhores, craggy rocks, immenfe vallies and caverns. Our marine exuvia for merly lay at the bottom of the ocean of the Author's primitive world; whereas many of them are now fituated near the tops of thofe immenfe mountains, the Alps and the Andes, and at great diftances from the fea. Some powerful agent is required to effect fo great a revolution; and this agent the Author attempts to ascertain, by collecting together the many inftances which hiftory, and even that of our own times, affords us of ftupendous changes that that have been produced on the furface and in the bowels of the prefent earth. • We learn from Pliny and other natural hiftorians, that the fu perficial parts of the earth have fuffered great alterations, at different periods of time, viz. 1. That many mountains have been raifed, and others depressed, or totally swallowed, with cities, and large districts of land; and that navigable lakes have appeared in the places of them. 2. That many mountains have likewife been fhivered to pieces, and their fragments thrown into their adjacent vallies, and even to the diftance of ten or fifteen miles. 3. That great clefts or fiffures have been frequently produced, from whence rivers of water and melted matter have flowed, and deluged the adjacent countries; and likewife that great agitations of the fea, and also rivers, and lakes in the inland countries, have frequently accompanied thefe tremendous convulfions of nature.' The Author collects feveral of the more ftriking inftances of the rifing of islands, fuch as Santorini, Hiera, &c. from the bottom of the fea, attended with eruptions of fire. He enumerates feveral islands and mountains having volcanic appearances, and' which may accordingly be likewife fuppofed to owe their origin to the fame caufe, in times anterior to all hiftory. Such are Iceland, Fyal, &c. in the Northern fea; St. Helena and Afcenfion iflands, between Africa and Brazil; Eafter or Davis's ifland, Otaheite, &c. in the Southern ocean; feveral of the Moluccas in the Indian fea; Madeira, feveral of the Azores and the Antilles, &c. in the Atlantic oceán; the Lipari islands, Ifchai, &c. in the Mediterranean fea. After collecting many inftances of mountains formed, and large diftricts of land fwallowed up, fhattered, and rent afunder by earthquakes, and particularly by volcanos; he obferves that as we may, from analogy, be juftified in inferring that all fimilar appearances may have been the effects of the fame caufe; and though vestiges of volcanos are not every where vifible, the earth presents us with indications of their having exifted in fo many different regions, that there is reafon to fuppofe that fubterraneous fire muft at different times have exifted univerfally in its bowels. He then proceeds to fhew that this cause, acting on a larger fcale, produced, at the fame time, the immenfe continents and mountains in the prefent globe, and the universal deluge. When the Author afcribes these great phenomena to fire, it must be understood that he means, in general, the united action of fire and water; or the expanfive power of the latter when converted into fieam, or an elastic vapour, by means of heat:force which is indeed enormous, and which has been lately calculated, from actual experiments, to exceed even that of gunpowder, in the proportion of fourteen thousand to five hundred. -a Оп |