Book III. 1. As it is the most falubrious, of great Ufe to the Prefervation or Reftoration of the Health of Man. Some Conflitutions are indeed of fo happy a Strength, and fo confirmed an Health, as to be indifferent to almoft any Place or Temperature of the Air: But then others are fo weakly and feeble, as not to be able to bear one, but can live comfortably in another Place. With fome, the finer and more fubtile Air of the Hills doth beft agree, who are languifhing and dying in the feculent and groffer Air of great Towns, or even the warmer, and vaporous Air of the Valleys and Waters: But contrarywife others languifh on the Hills, and grow lufty and ftrong in the warmer Air of the Valleys,

So that this Opportunity of fhifting our Abode from the warmer and more vaporous Air of the Valleys, to the colder and more fubtile Air of the Hills, or from the Hills to the Vales, is an admirable Easement, Refreshment, and great Benefit to the valetudinarian, feeble part of Mankind, affording thofe an eafy and comfortable Life, who would otherwife live miferably, languifh, and pine away,

2. To this falutary Conformation of the Earth, we may add another great Convenience of the Hills, and that is in affording commodious Places for Habitation Serving (as an eminent Author (b) wordeth it)" as Skreens to keep off the cold and

nipping Blafts of the Northerly and Easterly "Winds, and reflecting the benign and cherishing "Sun-beams, and fo rendering our Habitations "both more comfortable and more chearly in "Winter; and promoting the Growth of Herbs and Fruit-Trees, and the Maturation of the "Fruits in Summer.

3. Another Benefit of the Hills is, that they serve for the Production of great Varieties of Herbs and

(b) Ray's Wifdem of God, &c. p. 251. Diffolution of the World, p. 35:

Trees

Trees (c). And as there was not a better Judge of thofe Matters, fo I cannot give a better Account of this Convenience, than in the Words of the last cited famous Author, the late moft eminent and learned Mr. Ray (d), (who hath fo fully difcuffed this Subject I am upon, that it is scarce poffible to tread out of his Steps therein.) His Obfervation is, "That the Mountains do especially abound with different Species of Vegetables, because of the great Diversity of Soils that are found there, every Vertex, or Eminence almoft, affording new "Kinds. Now these Plants (faith he) serve partly, " for the Food and Suftenance of such Animals as "are proper to the Mountains, partly for medicinal "Ufes; the chief Phyfick, Herbs and Roots, and "the best in their Kinds growing there: It being "remarkable, that the greatest and most luxurious Species in moft Genera of Plants are natives of the "Mountains.

4. Another Convenience which my last named learned Friend observes (e) is, "That the Moun"tains ferve for the Harbour, Entertainment, and * Maintenance of various Animals, Birds, Beafts "and Infects, that breed, feed, and frequent there. "For, (faith he,) the higheft Tops and Pikes of "the Alpes themselves are not deftitute of their In"habitants, the Ibex or Stein-buck, the Rubicapra "or Chamois, among Quadrupeds; the Lagopus among Birds. And I my felf (faith he) have ob

(c) Theophraftus having reckoned up the Trees that delight most in the Hills, and others in the Valleys, obferveth, “Απαλα δὲ ὅσα κοινὰ τῶν ἐρῶν καὶ τῶν πεδίων, μείζω μὲν καὶ παλλίω τῇ ὄψει τὰ ἐν τοῖς πεδίοις γίνεται κρείτω δὲ τῇτε χρήσει τῶν ξύλων καὶ τῶν иxpπwv, τà opεsvά. Theoph. Hift. Pl. lib. iii. cap. 4. "Aπava d ἐν τοῖς οἰκείοις τόποις καλλίω γίνεται, καὶ μᾶλλον εὐσθενεῖ. · Τὰ μὲν γὰρ φίλει τῆς ἐφύρες καὶ ἐλώδεις. - Τὰ δὲ, τὰς εὐσκεπεῖς καὶ εὐηλίες. Ibid. lib. iv. cap. I.

(d) Wijdom of God, p. 252.

(e) Ubi fupra.

e

"ferved

"served beautiful Papilio's, and Store of other In"fects upon the Tops of fome of the Alpine Moun"tains. Nay, the highest Ridges of many of these "Mountains, ferve for the Maintenance of Cattle, for the Service of the Inhabitants of the Valleys."

5. Another Thing he obferves is, "That those long Ridges and Chains of lofty and topping "Mountains, which run through whole Continents "Eaft and Weft (f), ferve to stop the Evagation of the Vapours to the North and South in hot Countries, condenfing them like Alembick-Heads into Water, and fo (according to his Opinion) by a kind of external Diftillation giving Original to *Springs and Rivers; and likewife by amaffing, "cooling and conftipating of them, turn them into "Rain, by thofe Means rendering the fervid Regi*ons of the torrid Zone habitable."

To thefe might be added fome other Ufes and Conveniences (g); as that the Hills ferve to the Genera

(f) Many have taken Notice, that fome of the greatest Eminences of the World run generally Eaft and Weft, of which, take the late ingenious and learned Dr. Nichols's Account, [Confer. with a Theift, Part ii. p. 191.] To go no farther than our own Country, all our great Ridges of Hills in England run Eaft and Weft; fo do the Alps in Italy, and in fome Measure the Pyrenees; jo do the Mountains of the Moon in Africk, and fo da Mount Taurus and Caucafus. This (he faith) is a wife Contriv ance to prevent the Vapours, which would all run Northwards, and leave no Rains in the Mediterranean Countries.

(g) That the Generation of many of the Clouds is owing to the Hills, appears from the Obfervations of the ingenious and learned Dr. Joh. Jam. Scheuchzer of Zurich, and Mr. Jeach. Frid. Creitlovius cited by him. They obferved at Sun-rifing, divers Clouds detached by the Heat of the Sun, from fome of the Tops of the Alpes, &c. upon all which their Obfervations, the Conclufion is, Mirati fummam Creatoris fapientiam, qui & id quod paulò antè nulli nobis ufui effe videbatur, maximis rebus deftinaverat, adeòque ex illo tempore dubitare cæpi, num Nubes eflent future, fi iftiufmodi Montes & Petræ non darentur. Hypo. thefi bác ftante, elucefceret permagna utiltas, imò neceffitas, quam Helvitica

1

Generation of Minerals and Metals (b), and that in them principally are the most useful Foffiles found; or if not found and generated only in them, yet at leaft all thefe fubterraneous Treasures are most easily come at in them: Alfo their Ufe to feveral Nations of the Earth, in being Boundaries and Bulwarks to them. But there is only one Ufe more that I fhall infift on; and that is,

6. And lastly, That it is to the Hills that the Fountains owe their Rife, and the Rivers their Conveyance. As it is not proper, so neither shall I here enter into any Difpute about the Origin of Springs, commonly affigned by curious and learned Philofophers. But whether their Origin be from condenfed Vapours, as fome think (i); or from Rains falling, as others; or whether they are derived from the Sea by way of Attraction, Percolation, or Distillation; or whether all these Caufes concur, or only fome, ftill the Hills are the grand Agent in this prodigious Benefit to all the Earth: Those vaft Maffes and Ridges of Earth ferving as fo many huge Alembicks or Cola in this noble Work

of Nature.

But be the Modus, or the Method Nature takes in this great Work as it will, it is fufficient to my Purpofe, that the Hills are a grand Agent in this fo no

Helvitica Alpes non nobis tantùm accolis fed & vicinis aliis regionibus præftant, dispensando, quas gignunt Nubes, Ventos, Aquas, Scheuch. Iter. Alpin. 2. p. 20.

(b) Let us take here Ol. Mag. Obfervation of his Northern Mountains; Montes excelfi funt, fed pro majori parte fteriles, & aridi; in quibus ferè nil aliud pro incolarum commoditate & confervatione gignitur, quam inexhaufta pretioforum Metallorum uber tas, quá Jatis opulenti, fertilefque funt in omnibus vitæ neceffariis, forfitan & fuperfluis aliunde fi libet conquirendis, unanimique robore, ac viribus, ubi vis contra hæc naturæ dona intentata fuerit, defendendis. Acre enim genus hominum eft, &c. Ol. Mag. Hift. lib. vi. Præf. See alfo Sir Robert Sibbald's Prodr. Nat. Hift. Scot. p. 47.

(i) Book 1. Chap. iii. Note (b).

ble

Book III. ble and neceffary a Work: And confequently, that thofe vaft Maffes, and lofty Piles, are not, as they are charged, fuch rude and useless Excrefcences of our ill-formed Globe; but the admirable Tools of Nature, contrived and ordered by the infinite Creator, to do one of its most useful Works, and to dispense this great Bleffing to all Parts of the Earth; without which neither Animals could live, nor Vegetables fcarcely grow, nor perhaps Minerals, Metals, or Foffiles receive any Increafe. For was the Surface of the Earth even and level, and the Middle Parts of its Iflands and Continents not mountainous and high (as now it is) it is moft certain there could be no Defcent for the Rivers, no Conveyance for the Waters; but instead of gliding along thofe gentle Declivities which the Higher Lands now afford them quite down to the Sea, they would ftagnate, and perhaps ftink, and alfo drown large Tracts of Land.

But indeed, without Hills, as there could be no Rivers, fo neither could there be any Fountains, or Springs about the Earth; because, if we could fuppofe a Land could be well watered (which I think not poffible) without the higher Lands, the Waters could find no Defcent, no Paffage through any commodious Out-lets, by Virtue of their own Gravity; and therefore could not break out into those Commodious Paffages and Currents, which we every where almoft find in, or near the Hills, and feldom or never, in large and fpacious Plains; and when we do find them in them, it is generally at great and inconvenient Depths of the Earth; nay, thofe very fubterraneous Waters, that are any where met with by digging in these Plains, are in all Probability owing to the Hills, either near or far diftant: As among other Inftances may be made out, from the forcible Eruption of the fubterraneous Waters in digging Wells, in the Lower Auftria, and the Territories of Modena, and Bologna in Italy, mentioned by my fore

named