ondens'd, at
last overpower, with their _elastick_ properties, the resistence of the
incompassing Earth, and lifting it up, or cleaving it, and so shattering of
the parts of the Earth above it, do at length, where they find the parts of
the Earth above them more loose, make their way upwards, and carrying a
great part of the Earth before them, not only raise a small brim round
about the place, out of which they break, but for the most part
considerable high Hills and Mountains, and when they break from under the
Sea, divers times, mountainous Islands; this seems confirm'd by the
_Vulcans_ in several places of the Earth, the mouths of which, for the most
part, are incompassed with a Hill of a considerable height, and the tops of
those Hills, or Mountains, are usually shap'd very much like these pits, or
dishes, of the Moon: Instances of this we have in the descriptions of
_AEtna_ in _Sicily_, of _Hecla_ in _Iceland_, of _Tenerif_ in the
_Canaries_, of the several _Vulcans_ in _New-Spain_, describ'd by _Gage_,
and more especially in the eruption of late years in one of the _Canary_
Islands. In all of which there is not only a considerable high Hill raised
about the mouth of the _Vulcan_, but, like the spots of the Moon, the top
of those Hills are like a dish, or bason. And indeed, if one attentively
consider the nature of the thing, one may find sufficient reason to judge,
that it cannot be otherwise; for these eruptions, whether of fire, or
smoak, alwayes raysing great quantities of Earth before them, must
necessarily, by the fall of those parts on either side, raise very
considerable heaps.

Now, both from the figures of them, and from several other circumstances;
these pits in the Moon seem to have been generated much after the same
manner that the holes in Alabaster, and the _Vulcans_ of the Earth are
made. For first, it is not improbable, but that the substance of the Moon
may be very much like that of our Earth, that is, may consist of an earthy,
sandy, or rocky substance, in several of its superficial parts, which parts
being agitated, undermin'd, or heav'd up, by eruptions of vapours, may
naturally be thrown into the same kind of figured holes, as the small dust,
or powder of Alabaster. Next, it is not improbable, but that there may be
generated, within the body of the Moon, divers such kind of internal fires
and heats, as may produce such Exhalations; for since we can plainly enough
discover with a _Telescope_, th