236 HISTORY or 



to obtain the superiority by slow and certain ap- 

 proaches, or to burst in at once, and overwhelm 

 all things in undistinguished destruction ; in other 

 places it departs from its shores, and where its 

 waters have been known to rage, it leaves fields 

 covered with the most beautiful verdure. 



The formation of new lands, by the sea's con- 

 tinually bringing its sediment to one place, and 

 by the accumulation of its sands in another, is 

 easily conceived. We have had many instances 

 of this in England. The island of Oxney, which 

 is adjacent to Romney-marsh, was produced in 

 this manner. This had for a long time been a 

 low level, continually in danger of being over- 

 flown by the river Rother ; but the sea, by its 

 depositions, has gradually raised the bottom of 

 the river, while it has hollowed the mouth ; so 

 that the one is sufficiently secured from inunda- 

 tions, and the other is deep enough to admit ships 

 of considerable burden. .The like also may be 

 seen at that bank called the Dogger-sands, where 

 two tides meet, and which thus receives new in- 

 crease every day, so that in time the place seems 

 to promise fair for being habitable earth. On 

 many parts of the coast of France, England, Hol- 

 land, Germany, and Prussia, the sea has been 

 sensibly known to retire.* Hubert Thomas as- 

 serts, in his Description of the Country of Liege, 

 that the sea formerly encompassed the city of 

 Tongres, which, however, is at present thirty-five 

 leagues distant from it : this assertion he supports 



* Buffon, vol. vi. p. 424. 



