236 BERTHA'S VISIT TO HER 



that lo-morrow, when we are quietly seated on 

 the deck as neither of us intend to be sea- 

 sick he will endeavour to make me comprehend 

 the manner in which the moon acts upon the 

 ocean, so as to raise the waters in one part of 

 the globe white they are depressed in another. 



He then joined in a conversation that had 

 been going on between Wentworth and Caroline, 

 about the bottom of the sea. He said they were 

 both greatly mistaken, if they supposed it to be 

 everywhere a flat, even surface ; on the contrary, 

 like all other parts of the crust which surrounds 

 the globe, it consists of sloping hills and plains, 

 rocks and mountains. When these approach 

 nearly to the surface of the water, they are called 

 shoals and banks ; and when their summits rise 

 above it, they become islands. The different 

 strata that compose the coast, may be often 

 traced to some island at a considerable distance ; 

 the shores of France and England exactly cor- 

 respond in some places ; and to shew the con- 

 tinuity of the strata, he says it is well known that 

 many springs of fresh water, which must pro- 

 ceed from the land, rise through the sea from its 

 bottom. He gave several instances of this, but 

 I recollect only Bridlington Bay in Yorkshire ; 

 and the gulf of Naples, where there is a spring of 

 hot-water, that bubbles as it comes to the sur- 

 face. Bituminous and mineral waters are also 

 found rising through the sea ; and near Cumana, 



