CHANGES IN OCEANIC REGIONS. 373 



In addition to the soil transported from inland regions into the heart of the ocean, the 

 plants and trees which fall into the river-channels through the undermining of their 

 banks, or which are uprooted by their agency in floods, undergo a similar transference, 

 and are finally imbedded in the sediment accumulating below the waters of the deep. 

 When we reflect upon the combined influence and constant action of innumerable streams 

 in this respect, we shall readily admit that, in the course of a few ages, a prodigious 

 quantity of animal and vegetable remains, derived from the existing continents, receives 

 a subaqueous deposition, similar remains of marine species contribute largely to augment 

 and diversify the formations in process at the bottom of the seas. We have referred to 

 huge fragments of rock borne by icebergs from the shores into the central parts of the 

 ocean, and there submerged upon the dissolution of their frozen vehicles ; and this single 

 operation must, in a century or two, work great changes, scattering isolated blocks upon 

 the sandy slopes and plains over which the North Atlantic rolls its waves, or piling them 

 upon each other in every variety of form. Shakespeare, in describing the dream of 

 Clarence, draws a vivid picture of other contributions which the occurrence of disaster 

 annually submerges, involving many of the human race, with the monuments of their 

 industry, and the signs of their opulence. 



Methought that I had broken from the Tower, 

 And was embarked to cross to Burgundy ; 

 And, in my company, my brother Gloster : 

 Who from my cabin tempted me to walk 

 Upon the hatches ; thence we look'd toward England, 

 And cited up a thousand heavy times, 

 During the wars of York and Lancaster, 

 That had befallen us. As we paced along 

 Upon the giddy footing of the hatches, 

 Methought that Gloster stumbled : and in falling, 

 Struck me, that thought to stay him, overboard, 

 Into the trembling billows of the main. 

 O Lord ! methought what pain it was to drown ! 

 What dreadful noise of water in mine ears ! 

 What sights of ugly death within mine eyes ! 

 Methought I saw a thousand fearful wrecks ; 

 A thousand men, that fishes gnawed upon, 

 Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl, 

 Inestimable stores, unvalued jewels, 



All scattered in the bottom of the sea. 



Some lay in dead men's skulls ; and in those holes 



Where eyes did once inhabit, there were crept, 



( As if in scorn of eyes) reflecting gems, 



That woo'd the slimy bottom of the deep, 



And mock'd the dead bones that lay scattered by." 



During the recent wars of this country, the navies of the continental powers, Spain, 

 France, and Denmark, were almost annihilated, and our own losses amounted to an enor- 

 mous aggregate, a large number of stately vessels being battered to pieces, and consigned 

 to the bottom of the deep. " In every one of these ships were batteries of cannon, con- 

 structed of iron or brass, whereof a great number had the dates and places of their 

 manufacture inscribed upon them in letters cast in metal. In each there were coins of 

 copper, silver, and often many of gold, capable of serving as valuable historical monu- 

 ments ; in each were an infinite variety of instruments of the arts of war and peace, 

 many formed of materials, such as glass and earthenware, capable of lasting for indefinite 

 ages, when once removed from the mechanical action of the waves, and buried under a 

 mass of matter which may exclude the corroding action of sea-water. But the reader 



