against the GermaJi Ocemi on the Norfolk and Suffolk Coast. 299 



the north, towards the south. At Lowestoft, the sand hil- 

 locks gradually decline from the Corton extremity towards the 

 Ness, from nearly twenty feet in height at first, to a few inches 

 over the shingle. The same at Yarmouth, where the high 

 sand-hills decrease from Caister southward, and cover (as the 

 engraving exhibits) scarcely one half the entire bank. With 

 regard, therefore, to the origin of one large portion of the 

 blown sand, it is perfectly obvious that it has travelled south- 

 wards from the great depositories in the cliffs and hills, situ- 

 ated to the north of these points; other portions are continually 

 added by that which is drifted by the wind from the beach, 

 and is retained by the plants which appear to be designed to 

 perform that particular office. It is also obvious that these 

 embankments commence at their northern extremities. 



The process which has been detailed, is not hypothetical, 

 nor has it been coloured for the sake of harmonizing with a 

 favourite theory ; it is the result of some years attention to the 

 circumstances which, requiring very little of the assistance of 

 man, have formed those bulwarks around our coast that rival 

 in stability many of his boasted works. 



One word as to the source whence the materials are derived, 

 which Mr. Robberds conceives inadequate " to produce an 

 average elevation even of one inch," over the peninsula of 

 Yarmouth. 



It is impossible, when considering attentively the ever-shift- 

 ing bed of the German Ocean; the enormous extent of its 

 shoals ; the multitude of its sand-banks ; the powerful tendency 

 of the north-east winds, and the great tidal current from the 

 same quarter, towards this part of our coast, not to feel as- 

 sured that ample means for the formation of other banks and 

 alluvial headlands are readily at hand, wherever and when- 

 ever local causes give direction to powers of such prodigious 

 magnitude. To elucidate this opinion more fully, we are en- 

 abled to refer to the estimates made by Mr. Stevenson, (a civil 

 engineer of great eminence and accuracy,) from a vast number 

 of observations and comparisons on the dimensions of the sand- 

 banks in the German Ocean. The result of this computation 

 is, that their average height is about 78 feet ; and the aggre- 

 gate cubical contents of these immense collections of debris is 

 equal to about l-l- feet in depth of the whole North Sea; or 

 to 28 feet ia elevation, over the entire area of Great Britain ! 

 Let it not be asked then, whence is the material to be derived 

 sufficient to raise a bank of a couple of s(j[uare miles in area, 

 on an exposed part of the shore of the same ocean, half-a- 

 dozcii feet above its level? 



In a former article I accounted for the gradual exclusion 



of marine waters from the icstuaries, and for the silting up of 



2 il 2 the 



