69 



Mount's Bay, and laid under water a great part of the 

 low-lands then woody, there being now ten feet water, 

 so that the shores in Sciliy and the shores in Cornwall 

 are equal proofs of such an inundation. When this 

 inundation happened we know riot, but two pieces of 

 history possibly may lead us near the time. In the 

 time of Straho and Diodorus Siculus, their commerce 

 was in full vigour. " Abundance of tin was carried in 

 carts," says Diodorus Siculus; "but ten islands in all 

 (says Strabo), and nine of those inhabited." The de- 

 struction therefore of Scilly must be placed after the 

 time of these authors ; that is, after the Augustan age. 

 Now Plutarch hints that the islands round Britain were 

 generally unpeopled in his time. If he includes Scilry 

 among them, then this desolation must have happened 

 between the reign of Trajan, and that of Augustus. 



15. At the mouth of the river Ness, near Burgespu, 

 in Flanders, at the depth of fifty feet, are found great 

 quantities of trees, lying as close to each other as they 

 do in a wood ; the trunks, the branches, and the leaves 

 are in such perfect preservation, that the particular kind 

 of each tree may be known. About five hundred years 

 ago this very ground was known to have been covered 

 with the sea : nor is there any history of its having been 

 dry ground, which no doubt must have been the case.- 

 Thus we see a country flourishing in verdure, producing 

 large forests, and trees of various kinds, overwhelmed 

 by the sea. We see this element depositing its sediment 

 to a height of fifty feet ; and its waters must therefore 

 have risen much higher. We see the .same alter it has 

 thus overwhelmed, and sunk the land so deep beneath 

 its slime, capriciously retiring from the same coasts, and 

 leaving it habitable once more. All this is wonderful, 

 and perhaps* instead of attempting to enquire after the 

 cause, it will best become us to rest satisfied with ad- 

 miration. 



At the city of Modena, in Italy, and about four miles 

 round it, whenever they dig, when the workmen arrive 

 at the depth of sixty-three feet they come to a bed oif 



