THE EARTH. 



approaches ; or to burst in at once, and over- 

 whelm all things in undistinguished destruc- 

 tion; 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 

 continually bringing its sediment to one place, 

 and by the accumulation of its sands in ano- 

 ther, is easily conceived. We have had ma- 

 ny 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, conti- 

 nually in danger of being overflown by the ri- 

 ver 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 inundations, 

 and the other is deep enough to admit ships 

 of considerable burthen. The like also may 

 be seen at that bank called the Dogger-sands, 

 where two tides meet, and which thus re- 

 ceives new increase every day, so that in 

 time the place seems to promise fair for be- 

 ing habitable earth. On many parts of the 

 coasts of France, England, Holland, Germa- 

 ny, and Prussia, the sea has been sensibly 

 known to retire. 8 Hubert Thomas asserts, 

 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 asser- 

 tion he supports 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 gained at the 

 mouth of the river Arno; and Ravenna, that 

 once stood by the sea side, is now consider- 

 ably removed from it. But we need scarce- 

 ly mention these, when we find that the whole 

 republic 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 



* BufTon, vol. vi. p. 424. 



upon il by the sea, the Rhine, and the Meuse ; 

 and those parts which formerly admitted 

 large men of war, are now known to be too 

 shallow to receive ships of very moderate 

 burthen. b The province of Jucatan, a penin- 

 sula in the gulf of Mexico, was formerly a 

 part of the sea ; this tract, which stretches 

 out into the ocean, a hundred leagues, and 

 which is above thirty broad, is every where, 

 at a moderate depth below the surface, com- 

 posed 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. All along the coasts of Nor- 

 folk, I am very well assured, that in the mr- 

 mory of man, the sea has gained fifty yards 

 in some places, and has lost as much in 

 others. 



Thus numerous, therefore, are the instan- 

 ces of new lands having been produced from 

 the sea, which, as we see, is brought about 

 two different ways : first, by the waters rais- 

 ing banks of sand and mud where their sedi- 

 ment is deposited : and secondly, by their 

 relinquishing the shore entirely, and leaving 

 it unoccupied to the industry of man. 



But as the sea has been thus known to re- 

 cede from some lands, so has it, by fatal ex- 

 perience,been found to encroach upon others; 

 and, probably, these depredations on one 

 part of the shore, may account for their de- 

 reliction from another ; for the current which 

 rested upon some certain bank, having got 

 an egress in some other place, it no longer 

 presses upon its former bed, but pours all its 

 stream into the new entrance, so that every 

 inundation of the sea may be attended with 

 some correspondent dereliction of another 

 shore. 



However this be, we have numerous his- 

 tories of the sea's inundations, and its bury- 

 ing whole provinces in its bosom. Many 

 countries that have been thus destroyed bear 

 melancholy witness to the truth of history ; 

 and show the tops of their houses, and the 

 spires of their steeples, still standing at the 



b Burton, vol. vi. p. 424 



