N THE SAND FLOOP. 205 



of it which consists in covering them solidly with straw, 

 has become common to all the marsches ; and the Dutch 

 families, w r hich have contributed to this fortunate change, 

 continue to inhabit the same island, and to enjoy the 

 free exercise of their religion. 



NOTE G. 11. p. 48. 



On the Sand Flood. 



In different parts of Scotland, as in Aberdeenshire, 

 Morayshire, Hebrides, and Shetland Islands, there are 

 examples of the natural chronometer, mentioned in the 

 text. One of the most striking examples I at present 

 recollect of this phenomenon in foreign countries, is that 

 described by M. De Luc's brother, in the Mercure de 

 France, for September, 180T* 



The sands of the Lybian desert, he says, driven by 

 the west winds, have left no lands capable of tillage 

 on any parts of the western banks of the Nile not shel- 

 tered by mountains. The encroachment of these sands 

 on soils which were formerly inhabited and cultivated is 

 evidently seen. M. Denon informs us, in the account 

 of his Travels in Lower and Upper Egypt, that summits 

 of the ruins of ancient cities buried under these sands still 

 appear externally; and that, but for a ridge of moun- 

 tains called the Lybian chain, which borders the left 

 bank of the Nile, and forms, in the parts where it rises, 

 a barrier against the invasion of these sands, the shores 

 of the river, on that side, would long since have ceased 

 to be habitable. Nothing can be more melancholy, 

 says this traveller, than to walk over villages swallow- 

 ed up by the sand of the desert, to trample under foot 

 their roofs, to strike against the summits of their mina- 

 rets, to reflect that yonder were cultivated fields, that 



