OK the ^aji Coaji of England^ 295 



^er of proofs lefs equivocal than thofe which have hitherto 

 been urged in its favour^ even by the genius of a Lavoifier*. 



The ftratum of foil, fixteen feet thick, placed above the 

 decayed trees, feems to remove the epoch of their finking 

 and deftruAion, far beyond the reach of any hiftorical know- 

 ledge. In Csefar's time, the level of the North Sea appears 

 to have been the fame as in our days. He mentions the fe- 

 paration of the Wahal branch of the Rhine, and its junc- 

 tion to the Meufe; noticing the then exifting dillance from 

 that junftion to the fea, which agrees, according to D'An- 

 ville's inquiries t, with the a6lual diftance. Some of the 

 Roman roads, conftrufted, according to the order of Au- 

 guflus, under Agrippa's adminiftration, leading to the ma- 

 ritime town of Belgium, ftill exift, and reach the prefent 

 fliore|. The defcription which Roman authors have left 

 us, of the coafts, ports, and mouth of rivers on both fides of 

 the north fea, agree in general with their prefent ftate ; ex- 

 cept in the places ravaged by the inroads of this fea, more 

 apt, from its force, to deftroy the furrounding countries 

 than to increafe them. 



An exa6l refemblance exifts between Maritime Flanders 



and the oppofite coaft of England, both in point of elevation 



above the fea, and of the internal ftru61ure and arrangement 



of the foils. On both fides, ftrata of clay, filt, and fand, 



(often mixed with decayed vegetables), are found near the 



-^"urface ; and, in both, thefe fuperior materials cover a very 



deep ftratum of blueifh or dark-coloured clay, unmixed with 



extraneous bodies. ' On both fides they are the lowermoft 



part of the foil, exifting between two ridges of high lands ||, 



on 

 * Mem.dc la I'Acad. tie Paris, 1789, p. 351. 



t Notices d<;s Gaulcs, p. 461. 



t Nicholas Bcrgier, Hid. dcs Grands Cliciiiins dcs Romains, EfJ. de 

 Bruxellcs, vol. II. p. 101. 



II Thcfe ridges of higli land, boili on the Britirti and the Btigic fide, 



muft be very fimilar to each other, fince they both contain parts of tropical 



plants in a fulfil ftate. Cocoa-nuf^ and fruits of the Anca are found on 



U 4 th« 



