Its author had sufficient diffidence as to the merits of
this chapter to describe it as "a digression; ad mentem Mr. R. Hook,
R.S.S."; and his friend Ray, in a letter already quoted, observes,
after commending other portions of the present work, "I find but one
thing that may give any just offence; and that is, the Hypothesis of
the Terraqueous Globe; wherewith I must confess myself not to be
satisfied: but that is but a digression, and aliene from your subject;
and so may very well be left out". Ray's work on "Chaos and Creation"
published in 1692, a year after the date of this letter, was a
valuable contribution to the geological knowledge of the time. Some
notes by Evelyn, on Aubrey's original MS., shew that he was at least
equally credulous with the author.
Aubrey concludes that the universal occurrence of "petrified fishes'
shells gives clear evidence that the earth hath been all covered over
with water". He assumes that the irregularities and changes in the
earth's surface were occasioned by earthquakes; and has inserted in
his manuscript, from the London Gazette, accounts of three
earthquakes, in different parts of Italy, in the years 1688 and 1690.
A small 4to pamphlet, being "A true relation of the terrible
Earthquake which happened at Ragusa, and several other cities in
Dalmatia and Albania, the 6th of April 1667", is also inserted in the
MS. Aubrey observes: "As the world was torne by earthquakes, as also
the vaulture by time foundred and fell in, so the water subsided and
the dry land appeared.
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