299 ) 



ravaged thus by an inundation, is beautifully 

 defcribed by our great poet, 



pufhed by the horned flood, 



Of all it's verdure fpoiled, and trees adrift, 

 Down the great river to the opening gulph. 



On the coafts of Spain, and Portugal alfo, 

 drift-timber is frequently found. At the fiege 

 of Gibraltar, on the night of the 26th of 

 december 1779 (fays captain Drinkwater, in 

 his hiftory of that fiege) " we had a moft 

 violent rain, with dreadful thunder, and 

 lightening. The fucceeding morning a vaft 

 quantity of wood was floating under our walls. 

 The rain had warned it from the banks of the 

 Palmone, and Guardaranque ; and it was wafted 

 by the wind over to our fide of the bay. Fuel 

 had long been a fcarce article : this fupply was 

 therefore considered as a miraculous inftance 



of providence in our favour." In the Eaft- 



Indies we have accounts of the devaftation of 

 timber from the fame caufe ; and likewife in 

 the ftreights of Magellan. -This caufe how- 

 ever operates only on the banks of large rivers, 



or near the coafts of the fea*. 



Tho 



* See Crantz's hiftory of Greenland, v. i. p. 37. Evelin's 

 travels through Siberia, v. ii. p. 415. Millar's colleaion of 



Ruffian 



