THEORY OP THE EARTH. 141 



Queen of England. The same phenomenon is as 

 distinctly observable all along the coasts of East 

 Friesland, and the countries of Bremen and Hoi- 

 stein, as the period at which the new grounds were 

 enclosed by dikes for the first time is perfectly 

 well known, and the extent that has been gained 

 since can be easily measured. These new alluvial 

 lands, left by the sea and the rivers, are of asto- 

 nishing fertility, and are so much the more valuable 

 as the ancient soil of these countries, being mostly 

 covered by barren heaths and peat-mosses, is 

 almost incapable of cultivation ; so that the alluvial 

 lands alone produce subsistence for the many po- 

 pulous cities that have been built along these 

 coasts since the middle age, and which probably 

 might not have reached their present flourishing 

 condition, without the aid of these rich grounds, 

 which have been, as it were, created by the rivers, 

 and to which they are continually making ad- 

 ditions. 



If the size which Herodotus attributed to the 

 sea of Asoph, which he says was equal to the 

 Euxine,* had been less vaguely indicated, and if 

 w r e could certainly ascertain what ne understood 

 to be the Gerrhusrf we should there find strong ad- 

 ditional proofs of the great changes produced by 

 the rivers, and of the rapidity with which these 



* Melpomene, LXXXVI. f Ibid. LVI, 



