174 STUDIES OF NATURE. 



ceediiigly well in Britain, mud, of neceflity, have 

 been found growing there in the time of JuHus 

 Cefar, efpecially as they would not have changed 

 their Latitude, and being, as we (hall fee, in 

 the proper place, of the genus of fluviatic trees, 

 the feeds of which refow themfelves, through the 

 afliftance of the waters. Befides, from whence 

 could the Seine, the Rhine, the Thames, and fo 

 many other rivers, whofe currents are fupplied 

 from the emanations of the Channel, from whence, 

 I fay, could they have been fed with water ? The 

 Thames, then, muft have flowed through France^, 

 or the Seine through England ; or, to fpeak more 

 conformably to truth and nature, the countries 

 now watered by thefe rivers, would have been 

 completely dry. 



By our geographical charts, as by mofl other 

 inftruments of Science, we are milled. Obferving 

 in thefe fo many retreatings and projetions along 

 the coafts of the Continent, we have been induced 

 to imagine, that thefe irregularities muft have been 

 occafioned by violent Currents of the Sea. It has 

 jufb been demonftrated, that this effed was not 

 thus produced ; I now proceed to fliew, that it 

 could not pojjibly have been the cafe. 



The Englifh Dampier, who is not the firft Na- 

 vigator that failed round the Globe, but who is, 



in 



