2G>4

Consequences of the Deluge .

You will reply, This may be a tolerabkaccount of our Englijh Earthquakes, whic jare finished at one explosion, but what fi>allwe fay to thole of Jamaica , which like 3Tempest of Thunder and Lightning in ^Clouds, have (as we learn by this Relaticfvseveral Paroxysms of Explosions, and yet si°discharging of sire >

To which I answer, That I conceive tfojCaverns of the Earth wherein the inflam e£ *Damps are contained, are much larger the^then ours in England ,- and the force of tb efire joyned with the elatery of the Airing exceeding great, may of a sudden heay eup the Earth, yet not so far as to rend it l"sunder, and make its way out, but is sore#*to seek paflage where it finds least resistantthrough the lateral Cuniculi. So the ni3i"Cavern being in a great measure emptied,a""the exteriour parts of the extended matte 1,within cooling and shrinking , the East' 1may subside again, and reduce the Caver"to its former dimensions. Yet possibly thf emay not be a perfect deflagration and exti"'ction of the fire, and so new Damps asce* 1 "'ing out of the Earth, and by degrees fillipthe Cavern, there may succeed a second I s1 'flamation and explosion, and so a third, a slC jfourth, till the steams be quite burnt up " ntconsumed. But in this, I confess, [ do of

satis**