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mixed with innumerable little shell-fish. This ever 

 has been, and continues to be the same, from the time 

 our seas were first navigated to the present day. 



It is the same off Block Island channel, so called, 

 gome degrees to the southward and westward, and con- 

 tinues, with some variations, at a similar depth through- 

 out a great portion of the Atlantic coast. 



From whence then comes the sand, by way of the 

 sea, to form our great alluvial district or even the 

 smallest part of it ? 



George's banks comprize a very great extent of a 

 pure sandy bottom, and in some places, at low water, 

 to the very great injury of navigation, not more than 

 from three to five fathoms in depth, and subject, during 

 a gale from the southward, to be dreadfully agitated 

 and torn by the billows of the ocean ; yet not a bushel 

 of this sand has ever been washed upon the coast due 

 north, and west of it ; if there has, no alluvial forma- 

 tion or accession to the coast is perceivable in those 

 parts. 



It may be said that George's banks are to the north- 

 ward of the gulf stream, and consequently, beyond its 

 influence. This is admitted ; but the Bahama banks, as 

 well known as the latter, are constantly subject to cur- 

 rents, and the agitation of the sea ; yet they remain, 

 and ever have been, the same. Capt. Hiley says, 

 " The water in this great bank, (the Bahama) in most 

 places, appears as white as milk, owing to the white 

 sand at the bottom gleaming through it, and is so clear, 

 that an object, the size of a dollar, can easily be seen, 



