[19] Quartzum hyalinum, Linn. Syst. nat. 3. p. 65. Quartzum solidum pellucidum, Wallerii Miner. 91. [[120]]The common Quartz, Forster’s Mineralogy, p. 16. And Quartzum coloratum, Linn. Syst. nat. 3. p. 65. Quartzum solidum opacum coloratum. Wall. Min. 99. The impure Quartz, Forst. Min. p. 16. [↑]
[20] In Sweden, and in the north of Germany, the round holes in rivers, with a stoney or rocky bed, which the whirling of the water has made, are called giants pots; these holes are likewise mentioned in Mr. Grosleys new observations on Italy, Vol. I. p. 8. F. [↑]
[21] How far this approbation of the Royal Society, ought to be credited, is to be understood from the advertisements published at the head of each new volume of the Philosophical Transactions. F. [↑]
[22] Thomas Herriot, servant to Sir Walter Raleigh, who was employed by him to examine into the productions of North America, makes no mention of the peach among the other fruits he describes, and M. du Pratz, who has given a very good account of Louisiana and the Missisippi, says, that the natives got their peaches from the English colony of Carolina, before the French settled there. P. [↑]
[23] These worms are the Larva’s of the Oestrus or Gadfly, which deposits its eggs on the back of cattle, and the Larva’s being hatched from these eggs, cause great sores, wherein they live till they are ready for their change. In the south of Russia they use for the same purpose the decoction of Veratrum, or the white Hellebore. F. [↑]
[24] The bones and tusks of Elephants are not only found in Russia, but also in the canton of Basel in Swisserland, in the dominions of the Marquis of Bareith in Franconia, and more instances are found in the Protogæa of the celebrated Leibnitz. Lately near the river Ohio have been discovered, a great number of skeletons of Elephants with their tusks, and very remarkable grinders still sticking in their jaw bones were sent to the British Museum; the late Dr. Littleton Bishop of Carlisle, also lodged some teeth sticking in their jawbones in the Museum of the Royal Society, which were brought from Peru. The rivers Chatunga and Indighirka in Siberia, are remarkable for affording on their banks great quantities of bones and tusks of Elephants, which [[136]]being preserved there by the great frost, and in the short summer of a few weeks, the rain being rare, these tusks are commonly so fresh that they are employed in Russia, as common ivory, on account of the great quantity brought from these places to Russia; some of them were eight feet long, and of three hundred pounds weight. There have been found grinders of nine inches diameter. But the American grinders of Elephants from near the Ohio are yet more remarkable, on account of their being provided with crowns on their tops, such as are only found in the carnivorous animals, and such as feed on hard bones or nuts. Whilst on the contrary, Elephants at present feeding on grasses and soft vegetables have no such crowns at the tops of their grinders. Livy, it is true, makes a distinction between the Asiatic or Indian Elephants, and the African ones; and remarks the latter to be inferior to the former in size and vigour; but whether the teeth in these animals are so much different from those of the other variety, has never been attended to. This circumstance of the difference in the fossil grinders of Elephants, from those in the living ones, and the place where these skeletons were found in, viz. Siberia, Germany and America, where at present no Elephants are to be met with, opens a wide field to conjectures in regard to the way, by which these animals were carried to those spots. The flood in the deluge perhaps has carried them thither; nor is it contrary to reason, history or revelation, to believe, these skeletons to be the remainders of animals, which lived on the surface of this globe, anterior to the Mosaic creation, which may be considered only as a new modification of the creatures living on this globe, adapted to its present state, under which it will remain till circumstances will make a new change necessary, and then our globe will by a new creation of revolution appear more adapted to its state, and be stocked with a set of animals more suitable to that state. Every [[137]]man used to philosophy and reasoning will find, that this plan gives a grand idea of the Creator, his œconomy and management of the universe: and moreover, it is conformable to the meaning of the words of a sacred writer, who says: Ps. civ. 29. 30. Thou bidest thy face and they (small and great beasts) are troubled; thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created; and thou renewest the fact of the earth. See Dr. Hunter’s remarks on the above-mentioned teeth, in the Philosophical Trans. Vol. lviii. F. [↑]
[25] In Mr. Osbeck’s Voyage to China, Vol I. p. 50. in a note, an account is given of this kind of land, which the Swedes call Swedieland, where it is observed, that the trees being burnt, their ashes afford manure sufficient for three years, after which they are left uncultivated again, till after twenty or more years, a new generation of trees being produced on them, the country people burn them, and cultivate the country for three years again. F. [↑]
[26] The learned Dr. Wallerius, in his Mineralogy, §. 8. in the note to the article, Humus communis atra, mentions that some people were of opinion, that the mould of our globe increased their parts, especially in such places as had been uncultivated ever since the deluge, and that thus in a hundred years, [[152]]half an inch of mould was produced. But he observes in the same time, that this observation was not at all exact; for as the common mould seldom exceeds a soot, it must from thence follow, that since the deluge no more than 2400 years were elapsed, though the scripture chronology reckons upwards of 4000 years since that event: besides this, he remarks, that mould always becomes more dry and compressed, where it is out of the reach, of rain and snow; and where it is exposed to rain, it is carried off to lower places, and therefore increases and decreases according to the qualities of its local situation. Moreover, vegetables it is known prosper the best where mould is found. As the surface of our globe has been covered with vegetables since the deluge, they must have had a mould to grow in ever since that time; consequently it is highly probable, that there must have been a mould covering the surface of our globe, ever since the first origin. I should be led by some other confederations, to doubt of the infallibility of this rule for the increase of mould. In Russia, on this side the river Volga, are high and extensive plains, which have been uncultivated ever since the deluge, for we know from history, that the Scythians, Sarmatians, Huns, Chazars, and Mogols, were successively the masters of these vast countries, and were altogether nomadic nations, who lived without agriculture; the country has been without wood since time immemorial, nor could there even spring up any wood whatsoever, since its rambling possessors every spring set fire to the old dry grass, in order to make room for the new grass, which in the latter end of May, I found come up very near to my waist. And these vast, desart plains, I saw every where covered with at lead two feet mould; nay, in some places it amounted to four feet; this would give according to the former rule of half an inch per Century, 4800 years, in the first instance, and in the second, 9600 years, and therefore shews that this rule for calculating the increase of mould, is very precarious. The chemical [[153]]analysis of plants, shews that they consist of water, earth, acid, alkali, oil, and an inflammable principle, independent of the last substance, and called by a late German chemist the caustic: these substances must enter yearly the new plants, and make their substance, and are as it were regenerated in these new plants, after being set at liberty from the structure of the last year’s plants by putrefaction, or by fire. Mould chemically examined, has the same analogous parts. Acid and caustic are plentifully contained in the common air, and may also easily be restored to the mould, and thus circulate through a new system of plants. Water comes likewise from rain and snow, out of our atmosphere: alkaline and oily particles, or a kind of soap, are the only things wanting, which when added with the former to any subtle earth, will make a good mould, and these are produced by putrefaction or fire, from vegetable and animal substances, and are the great promoters of vegetation.
But the great question is, from whence these various substances necessary for vegetation originally came? To believe they are produced from putrified vegetables is begging the question, and making a circulus vitiosus in the argument. There is therefore no evasion; they were certainly produced by the great Creator of the universe, and endowed with such qualities, as make them capable of producing in various mixtures new bodies; and when they are introduced by moisture, into the first stamina of a plant, or a seed, they expand these stamina, and constitute a new being, capable of affording food to the animal creation. It is evident, Mr. Kalm hinted at the above-mentioned opinion of the increase of mould, and this gave me an opportunity of confirming his argument, and of stating fairly the great question oh which agriculture, the most necessary branch of human arts depends. F. [↑]
[27] As the shells of oysters are a marine animal production, and their cavities are full of particles of sea-water, the moisture of it flies off, leaving behind its salt; when the shells are burnt, and the lime is slacked, the salt mixes with the lime: and though the mortar of such a lime grows ever so dry, the particles of salt immediately attract the moisture of the air, and cause that dampness complained of here. F. [↑]