296 THE OCEAN, 



unwholesome, and clogged with vapours ; and the small part of 

 the country that by being higher than the rest escaped the deluge, 

 was soon rendered uninhabitable from its noxious vapours. Thus 

 this country continued under water for some centuries; till, at last, 

 the sea, by the same caprice which had prompted its invasions, 

 began to abandon the earth in like manner. It has continued for 

 some ages to relinquish its former conquests ; and although the 

 inhabitants can neither boast the longevity nor the luxuries of their 

 former pre-occupants, yet they find ample means of subsistence ; 

 and if they happen to survive the first years of their residence there, 

 they are often known to arrive to a good old age. 



But although history be silent as to many other inundations of 

 the like kind, where the sea has overflowed the country, and after, 

 ward retired, vet we have numberless ; testimonies of anotherna- 

 ture, that prove it beyond the possibility of doubt: as for ex. 

 ample, those numerous trees that are found buried at considerable, 

 depths in places where either rivers or the sea has accidentally over, 

 flown. At the mouth of the river Ness, near Bruges, in Flanders, 

 at thr depth of fifty feet, are found great quantities of trees lying 

 as close to each o'her as they do in a wood : the trunks, liie 

 branches, and the leaves, are in such perfect preservation, that the 

 particular kind of each tree may instantly be known. And we have 

 already advened to similar facts in a preceding chapter. About 

 five hundred years ago, this very ground was known to have been 

 covered with the sea; nor is there any history or tradition of its 

 having been dry ground, which we can have no doubt roust have 

 been the case. Thus we see a country flourishing in verdure, pro. 

 ducing large forests, and trees of various kinds, overwhelmed by the 

 sea. We see this element depositing its sediment to an height o 

 fifty feet ; and its waters must, therefore, have risen much higher. 

 We see the same, after it has thus overwhelmed and sunk the land 

 so deep beneath its slime, capriciously retiring from the same coasts, 

 and leaving that habitable once more which it had formerly de- 

 stroyed. All this is wonderful ; and perhaps, instead of attempting 

 to enquire after ihe cause, which has hitherto been inscrutable, it 

 will best become us to rest satisfied with admiration. 



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

 wherever the soil is dug into, when the workmen arrive at the depth of 



