9 



up by the sea ; or if such a change, as is exhibited at 

 Cape Henry, could have been effected within a cen- 

 tury, it will appear obvious to every thinking mind, 

 that there must have been a total suspension of this 

 cause, or of its operations, for nearly a century be- 

 fore ; and from the following circumstances. 



The trees which he mentions, are mostly slow in 

 their growth, particularly the cypress and the gum, 

 (L. Styraciflua) ; if the increase or extension of the 

 alluvial formation or district, depends on the cause 

 which Mr. La Trobe has assigned, and this increase 

 has been as great as is alleged ; these trees, and this 

 forest could never have been brought into existence ; 

 for as fast as the trees had sprouted from the ground, 

 they would have been buried by the sand thrown up 

 by the unceasing agitation of the sea, and operations 

 of the winds. 



Nay more, if the trees had obtained half their pre- 

 sent growth or height, before any inroads of the sand 

 had been made on them, the result would have been 

 nearly the same ; for as the sand gradually climbed 

 " up their trunks," their verdant foliage would have 

 withered and died ; and such is the case by Mr. La 

 Trobe's own account ; for he says, " By gradual ac- 

 cumulation the hill climbs up their trunks, they wither 

 slowly, and before they are entirely buried, they die. 

 Most of them lose all their branches, and nothing but 

 the trunk remains to be covered with sand ; but some 

 of the cypress retains life to the last." 



