

It into this sea, we might expect to find an increase of 

 alluvion upon its bottom ; yet the Abbe Fortis relates, 

 that " urns which were thrown into the Adriatic more 

 than 1400 years ago, instead of being covered with 

 mud, were found in the same situation, as they could 

 be supposed to have been, the first day of their fall to 

 the bottom."* 



Hence, and from a variety of other circumstances, we 

 may justly conclude that but a very small portion only 

 of our alluvial coast, was ever formed by sand thrown 

 upon the shores by the sea, for admitting that sand is 

 suspended and wafted along by the gulf stream, a cir- 

 cumstance which I am inclined to believe no man will 

 admit, who has ever crossed that stream in different 

 places, and given himself the trouble to notice the wa- 

 ter, as soon as it was carried beyond the influence of 

 that current, for instance to the northward of it, be- 

 tween the gulf stream and the coast, and where there 

 is no current, it immediately sinks to the bottom never 

 to rise again ; for sand, or silex, of which the sand of 

 our sea shores is formed, being specifically three times 

 heavier than water, it is both morally and physically 

 impossible, that it can be long suspended in that element, 

 unless where there is a current of no inconsiderable 

 force and rapidity to keep it suspended, and waft it 

 along with the stream. Of this any person may be 

 easily convinced, by examining the currents of our ri- 

 vers, in any part of our country, and perhaps those of 

 any other. 



* AbbeFortis'sTiavels, page 282. 



