232 HISTORY OF 



tion ; besides these agitations, the currents act their 

 part in a smaller sphere, being generally greatest 

 where the other motions of the sea are least; 

 namely, nearest the shore : the winds also contri- 

 bute their share in this universal fluctuation ; so 

 that scarcely any part of the sea is wholly seen 

 to stagnate. 



Nil enim quiescit, undis impellitur unda, 

 Et spiritus et calor toto se corpora miscent. 



As this great element is thus changed, and con- 

 tinually labouring internally, it may be readily sup- 

 posed that it produces correspondent changes upon 

 its shores, and those parts of the earth subject to 

 its influence. In fact, it is every day making consi- 

 derable alterations, either by overflowing its shores 

 in one place, or deserting them in others ; by co- 

 vering over whole tracts of country, that were at 

 one time cultivated and peopled, or by leaving its 

 bed to be appropriated to the purposes of vegeta- 

 tion, and to supply a new theatre for human in- 

 dustry at another. 



In this struggle between the earth and the sea 

 for dominion, the greatest number of our shores 

 seem to defy the whole rage of the waves, both 

 by their height, and the rocky materials of which 

 they are composed. The coasts of Italy, for in- 

 stance,* are bordered with rocks of marble of dif- 

 ferent kinds, the quarries of which may easily be 

 distinguished at a distance from sea, and appear 

 like perpendicular columns of the most beautiful 

 kinds of marble, ranged along the shore. In 



* Buffon, voL ii. p. 199. 



