BOOK OF NATURE LAID OPEN. 101 



lies; and has. said to the fluctuating and unstable 

 mass, " Hitherto shalt thou come, and no farther ' 

 and here shall thy proud waves be stayed." There 

 are, however, some shores on which the sea has 

 made temporary depredations ; where it has over- 

 flowed, and after remaining, perhaps, some ages, 

 has again retired of its own accord, or been driven 

 back by the industry of man ; but we have an in- 

 stance of one of a very considerable and lasting na- 

 ture, which happened in the reign of Henry I. in 

 which the sea overflowed the estates of Ikirl God- 

 win, in Kent, and formed that celebrated bank now 

 called the Godwin Sands. In the reign of Augus- 

 tus, the Isle of Wight also made a part of Britain, 

 so that the English crossed over to it at low water 

 with cartloads of tin; and in the bay of Baise, near 

 Naples, there are remains of houses and streets still 

 visible below the present level of the sea. These, 

 however, may have been occasioned by some earth- 

 quake, or other internal convulsion of the earth, in 

 which case such tracts would no doubt have sunk, 

 although they had been situated more inland; or if 

 these facts must really be 'considered as evidences-of 

 the encroachment of the sea upon the land, as the 

 advocates for that theory insist, we must bring in 

 the testimony of the Norway fishermen to balance 

 them, who affirm, that the sea upon that coast has 

 become much shallower in many places than it had 

 been ; that rocks, formerly covered with water, were 

 now several feet above the surface of the sea. and 

 that loaded vessels used formerly to ride where pin- 



K2 



