in rcplij to Mr. R. C. Taylor. 201 



these sands, it would still have been incumbent upon him to 

 provide a foundation to receive them, constantly above the 

 highest level of the sea ; for by no means could they have per- 

 manently accumulated, while exposed to the action of the 

 waves. A striking proof of this has been already adduced in 

 the dispersion of the Scrotley Bank in the year 1582. But a 

 more familiar and more frequently recurring illustration of my 

 argument may be seen on flat beaches, where, when the tide 

 is out, a strong wind blowing along the shore drives the sand 

 before it, and forms numerous mounds and ridges ; but the 

 first ripple of the returning flood sweeps them all away, and 

 « the baseless fabrics— leave not a wreck behind." Mr. Tay- 

 lor's own theory, therefore, presupposes that his " heavy ma- 

 terials rolled by the sea," and his " oozy sediment from muddy 

 waters," must have been raised above the access of the swelling 

 tide and of the storm-driven surge, before his " external co- 

 vering of sand by the operation of the winds" can possibly 

 have found a resting-place upon them. Nature, ever unifonn 

 in all her laws and in all her operations, makes this an indis- 

 pensable preliminary to the commencement of such a pro- 

 cess. How then does Mr. Taylor elevate his marigenous 

 foundation to a secure altitude above the reach of the only 

 agent which he employs in its construction? With his ideas, 

 he cannot possibly explain this point : the instances to which 

 he has referred, of shores that are guarded by " defences of 

 sand accumulated by the waves," absolutely prove nothing ; 

 there is not one of them which contradicts my theory, or ra- 

 ther, by which it is not substantiated; for they all oppose to 

 his inference the same insuperable difficulty, by requiring him 

 to point out, how the alluvial base on which his ramparts 

 have been erected, first emerged from the waves which they 

 now repel. Thus the very agency to which Mr. Taylor has 

 had recourse assists to demonstrate, that in the natural course 

 of things, no beds of earth, brought together by the sea, can 

 rise above its level, but by the subsidence of the waters be- 

 neath which they were formed *. 



To show that I have estimated correctly the effect of the 

 winds in this instance, I might appeal to no less an authority 

 than that of Mr. Taylor himself, who concludes this part ot 

 the subject by owning " the comparatively insignificant /iciglif 

 to which the sand has hitherto been drifted on Yarmouth Denes" 



• I except of course tlie effects of volcanic expansion, tlic growth of 

 coral rocks, and the mechanical contrivances of hnnian skill, none of winch 

 are locally applicable in this inquiry. 



}^nv Series. Vol. 2. No. 9. Sept. 1827. 2 D If 



