already furveyed; and the prodigious variety, and multitudes of curious and wonderful things obfervable in its inhabitants of all forts, are an inexhauftible fcene of the Creator's wifdom and power. The vaft bulk of fome, and prodigious minuteness of others, together with the in

com

thods of keeping it fweet and clean, by its faltnefs, by the tides, and agitations by the winds; the making the waters useful to the vegetation of plants, and for food to animals, by the noble methods of fweetning them; and many other things besides, which are infifted on in that part of my furvey.

Pliny having named divers mirabilia aquarum, to fhew their power; then proceeds to their ufes, viz. Eædem cadentes omnium terra nafcentium caufa fiunt, prorfus mirabili natura, fiquis velit reputare, ut fruges gignantur, arbores fruticefque vivant, in cœlum migrare aquas, animamque eriam herbis vitalem inde deferre, 'jufta confeffione, omnes terræ quoque vires aquarum effe beneficio. Quapropter ante omnia ipfarum potentiæ exempla ponemus : cunctas enim quis mortalium enumerare queat? And then he goes on with an enumeration of fome waters famed for being medicinal, or fome other unufual quality. Plin. 1. 31. c. 1, and 2.

Pliny reckons 176 kinds in the waters, whofe names may be met with in his 1. 32. c. 11. but he is fhort in his account.

C

Pliny, 1. 9. c. 3. faith, that in the Indian fea there are balenz quaternum jugerum, (i. e. 960 feet) priftes 200 cubitorum, (i. e. 300 feet).' And 1. 32. c. 1. he mentions whales 600 foct long, and 360 broad, that came into a river of Arabia. If the reader hath a mind he may fce his reafon why the largeft animals are bied in the fea, 1. 9. c. 2.

As the largeft, fo the most minute animals are bred in the waters, as thofe in pepper-water; and fuch as make the green feum

on

comparable contrivance and ftructure of the bodies of all, the provifions and fupplies of food afforded to fuch an innumerable company of eaters, and that in an element, unlikely, one would think, to afford any great store of supplies ; the bufinefs of refpiration performed in a way fo different from, but equivalent to what is in land animals ; the adjustment of the organs

of

on the waters, or make them feem as if green, See book iv. chap. 11.

It might be here fhewn, that the bodies of all the feveral inhabitants of the waters, are the best contrived and fuited to that place and business in the waters, which is proper for them; that particularly, their bodies are clothed and guarded, in the best manner, with fcales, or thells, &c. fuitable to the place they are to refide in, the dangers they may be there expofed unto, and the motion and bufinefs they are there to perform that the centre of gravity, of great confideration in that fluid element, is always placed in the fittest part of the body that the fhape of their bodies, especially the more fwift, is the most commodious for making way through the waters, and most agreeable to geometrical rules; and many other matters befides would deferve a place here, were they not too long for notes, and that I shall anticipate what shall be more proper for another place, and more accurately treated of there.

See before, book iv. chap. 11.

Galen was aware of the refpiration of fifhes by their branchine. For having faid, that fishes have no occafion of a voice, neither refpire through the mouth, as land animals do, he faith, Sed earum, quas branchias nuncupamus, conftructio, ipfis vice pulmonis eft. Cum enim crebris ac tenuibus foraminibus fint branchiae haec interceptæ, acri quidem et vapori perviis, fubtilioribus tamen quam

h

of vifion to that element in which the animal

liveth; the poife, the fupport, the motion of the body', forwards with great fwiftnefs, and

And fo Ariftotle feems to be in

that fishes refpired by their gills; but he faith Ariftotle was of a different opinion. Plin. l. 9. c. 7. his Hiftory of Animals, 1. 8. c. 2. and in other places. And I may add our famous Dr. Needham. See his, De Form. Fot. cap. 6. and Anfwer to Severinus.

A protuberant eye would have been inconvenient for fishes, by hindering their motion in fo dense a medium as water is; or else their brushing through fo thick a medium would have been apt to wear, and prejudice their eyes; therefore their cornea is flat. To make amends for which, as alfo for the refraction of water, differ ent from that of the air, the wife Contriver of the eye hath made the chrystalline spherical in fishes, which in animals, living in the air, is lenticular, and more flat.

As I have fhewed before, that the bodies of birds are nicely poifed to fwim in the air, fo are thofe of fishes for the water, every part of the body being duly balanced, and the centre of gravity, as I faid in nove e, p. 117. accurately fixed And to prevent vacillation, fome of the fins ferve, particularly thofe of the belly; as Borelli proved, by cutting off the belly-fins, which cause the fish to reel to the right and left hand, and rendered it unable to stand fteadily in an upright pofture.

To enable the fish to abide at the top, or bottom, or any other part of the waters, the air-bladder is given to moft fishes, which, as it is more full or empty, makes the body more or lefs buoyant.

The tail is the grand inftrument of the motion of the body; not the fins, as fome imagine. For which reafon, fishes are more muf culous and firong in that part, than in all the rest of their body, ac. cording

upwards and downwards with great readiness and agility, and all without feet and hands, and ten thousand things befides; all these things, I fay, do lay before us fo various, fo glorious, and withal fo inexhaustible a scene of the divine power, wifdom, and goodness, that it would be in vain to engage myfelf in fo large a province, without allotting as much time and pains to it, as the preceding furvey hath coft me. Paffing by therefore that part of our globe, I fhall only fay fomewhat very briefly concerning the infenfitive creatures, particularly thofe of the vegetable kingdom, and fo conclude this furvey.

cording as it is in the motive parts of all animals, in the pectoral mufcles of birds, the thighs of man, &c.

If the reader hath a mind to fee the admirable method, how fishes row themselves by their tail, and other curiofities relating to their fwimming; I hall refer him to Borelli de Mot. Animal par. 1. cap. 23. particularly to prop. 213.

HE vegetable kingdom, although an inferior branch of the creation, exhibits to us fuch. an ample scene of the Creator's contrivance, curiofity, and art, that I much rather chufe to fhew what might be faid, than engage too far in particulars. I might infift upon the great variety there is, both of trees and plants provided for all ages, and for every ufe and occafion of the world; fome for building, for tools and utenfils of every kind; fome hard, fome foft; fome tough and ftrong, fome brittle; fome long and tall, some short and low; fome thick and large,

m The fifth book of Theophraftus's Hiftory of Plants may be here confulted; where he gives ample inftances of the various conftitutions and ufes of trees, in various works, &c. See also before, book iv. chap. 13.