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UNCLE IN ENGLAND, 237 



and for many leagues from their mouths the 

 country exhibits the singular spectacle of having 

 its largest rivers held up by dykes at the height 

 of twenty or thirty feet above the level of the 

 land. The alluvial depositions on the north 

 coasts of Friesland and Groningen, and the in- 

 crease of land which they have effected, are very 

 considerable : the first dykes were formed in 

 1570; and in only one hundred years after- 

 wards, the deposits had accumulated to the ex- 

 tent of nearly three miles on the outside of the 

 dykes. A large part of the United Provinces 

 has thus been actually formed by materials 

 washed down from the interior of Germany ; and 

 many populous cities now stand where the sea 

 once rolled its waves. 



Sth. Of the various buds which are beginning 

 to open, none advance so rapidly as those of the 

 peach blossoms. On the 14th of February I 

 first observed a little streak of red at the tops of 

 a few ; they are now quite opened, and looked 

 very pretty last week, when the ground was 

 slightly covered with snow. 



I must tell you a curious thing about buds. 

 Early in January we had some little branches 

 and twigs of several trees brought in, that we 

 might see the state of the buds ; and I put a few 

 into a jug of water in my room, that I might 

 examine them at leisure. Very soon after- 



