Telliamed, or, The world explain'd : containing discourses between an Indian philospher and a missionary, on the diminution of the sea, the formation of the earth, the origin of men & animals : and other singular subjects, relating to natural history & philosphy ; a very curious work.

Maillet, Benoît de, 1656-1738. Telliamed. English

Date:: 1797

Credit: Telliamed, or, The world explain'd : containing discourses between an Indian philospher and a missionary, on the diminution of the sea, the formation of the earth, the origin of men & animals : and other singular subjects, relating to natural history & philosphy ; a very curious work. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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$C *5° ] ' Thefe canals were certainly deftined either to intro- duce the waters of the feainto thefe edifices, or to convey water from them to the fea. There is, however, a great probability, that they were rather made to admit the water of the fea into baths, the forms of which are as yet diftinguifhed tnere, than to ferve as difcharges for other waters conveyed to thefe baths. I form this judgment, becaufe they rather decline from the fea to the land, than from the land to the fea, or at leafl, there was no inclination towards the latter. The loweft of thefe canals, which was yet pretty entire, and which might be two feet in height and fifteen or fixteen inches broad, was at the time I faw it, covered with the fea-water to the height of two or three fingers- breadth ; but the wind which then agitated the waves raifed them at leaft the whole height of the water, which that canal contained. The fuperior canals were abfolutely dry. I faw others of the fame kind at St. John d*Acre^ formerly called the Ptokmaide ; they were dug in that fmooth and pretty large rock, which is before this fortrefs, and which being formerly covered with free-ftone, ferved as a plat-form and a mole to its harbour. Thefe canals were numerous, and almoft as high and broad as thofe of Alexandria ; fome of them were like the former, dry, and others of them filled with the fea-water to the height of O two or three inches. They were not only horizon- tal, and without a declivity to the fea, but there were alfo one or two of them in which thofe extre- mities, which were next the fea, were not opened, but fhut up by the ftone of the rock itfelf. Hence it is obvious, that they were deftined to receive the water of the fea, and to convey it into the city > and that the fea was <:onfequently fuperior to thefe ranals. In a woi\J, without this lhe could not$