connected with our Prairie region. 229 
sprung up the side of the huge bank, instead of having the North Sea 
directly at my feet, I saw before me what seemed as if it had been 
an ocean of fluid sand, (if I may use so unphilosophical a phrase,) 
arrested suddenly after a storm and set at rest. Having entered 
upon it, I was soon in as entire and dreary a solitude, as if I had 
been on the burning deserts of Africa. Not an insect crossed my 
path, and I wandered on from sand hill to sand hill till I grew weary 
of the labor. Only at one place was there any sign of vegetation. 
It was at a spot where, for some cause or other, a basin had been 
formed, capable of retaining moisture, and in this, some grass and a 
variety of bushes had grown up. All the rest was a succession of 
sand hills. I crossed this dyke transversely, but computed its di- 
rect breadth to be at least two miles. The hills of sand I judged 
to be from thirty to fifty feet in beight. 
As I walked on, the strong resemblance between the surface of this 
place and that of the wooded region in the “ barrens”’ of our prairies 
struck me repeatedly and forcibly. I had here also the commence- 
ment of a little lake or prairie, and they appear also to be both com- 
of the same material, a pure sand. I had often while out in 
Indiana, been puzzled in attempting to account for what I saw there, 
and now a theory flashed upon me, with which I amused myself 
while toiling over the sands. But | began this letter by saying that 
I was only going to state facts, not theories; and indeed I soon 
became glad to shorten my speculations and make for the nearest 
point of the coast, for I found the hills of loose sand sometimes ter- 
minating with a perpendicular face, down which, if I had happened 
to , [ should have brought a torrent of sand after me, suffi- 
cient sodaing my speculations and myself to an untimely end. J 
was really glad when the North Sea, covered with white caps, and 
studded with numberless sails, burst upon my sight. 
It is easy for a person walking along the shore to see how this 
broad belt of sand hills has been fompods The-coast is shoal and the 
waves wash up the light sand, which as soon as it is dry, is caught 
up by the wind and whirled into the piles which have been just de- 
scribed. 
Abreast of the Hague is an opening or cut through this bank, 
apparently partly natural, and partly artificial. It is about fifty feet 
wide, is level, and planted with an avenue of noble trees, and forms 
the communication between this city and its little sea-port Schefen- 
ingen, if sea-port that can be called, where port there is none, and 
Vou. XXXIII.—No. 2. 
