THE EARTH. 23? 



by many strong reasons ; and among others, by 

 the iron rings fixed in the walls of the town, for 

 fastening the ships that came into the port. In 

 Italy there is a considerable piece of ground gain- 

 ed at the mouth of the river Arno ; and Raven- 

 na, that once stood by the sea side, is now consi- 

 derably removed from it. But we need scarcely 

 mention these, when we find that the whole re- 

 public of Holland seems to be a conquest upon 

 the sea, and in a manner rescued from its bosom. 

 The surface of the earth, in this country, is below 

 the level of the bed of the sea ; and I remember, 

 upon approaching the coast, to have looked down 

 upon it from the sea as into a valley ; however, 

 it is every day rising higher by the depositions 

 made upon it by the sea, the Rhine, and the 

 Meuse ; and those parts which formerly admitted 

 large men of war, are now known to be too shal- 

 low to receive ships of very moderate burden.* 

 The province of Jucatan, a peninsula in the Gulf 

 of Mexico, was formerly a part of the sea : this 

 tract, which stretches out into the ocean a hun- 

 dred leagues, and which is above thirty broad, is 

 every-where, at a moderate depth below the sur- 

 face, composed of shells, which evince that its 

 land once formed the bed of the sea. In France, 

 the town of Aigues Mortes was a port in the 

 times of St Louis, which is now removed more 

 than four miles from the sea. Psalmodi, in the 

 same kingdom, was an island in the year 815, but 

 is now more than six miles from the shore. AH 



* Buflbn, vol. vi. p. 424. 



