ALTERATIONS OF COAST LINE. 401 



along the shore, the downs make no progress towards the interior, but are extended 

 coastwise. From Calais to Dunkirk the coast trends in the direction of the wind, and 

 there the sand cast up by the ocean is formed into chains or hills parallel to the shore ; 

 but in various parts of the globe, where the conditions are different, it is perpetually 

 drifting inwards, and by this means the cultivable soil has been largely invaded, fertile 

 plains have been covered with sterile particles, and rendered unfit for the habitation of 

 mankind, and whole villages have been swallowed up by the sand floods. Indurated or 

 hardened downs, which occur extensively upon the coast of New Holland, are formed of 

 sand mixed with various marine substances, by which it becomes consolidated. Several 

 points of the Lancashire coast exhibit these formations from the ocean, particularly the 

 neighbourhood of Southport, a town which lies between parallel ranges of sand-hills. 

 The loose particles subject to the action of a gale of wind are shifted, and sometimes in 

 enormous quantities, so as to produce serious effects, covering the gardens to a consider- 

 able depth, and overtopping the lower apartments of the houses. After a heavy shower 

 of rain, the sand-hills, which are almost impassable in a dry state, bind instantaneously, 

 conceding free leave and licence to the pedestrian to range over these mimic mountains, 

 and affording ready means of visiting spots, which just before were all but inaccessible. 

 The intervals between the hills present recesses where nothing but the sky is seen, and 

 which seem as wild and solitary as the heart of an eastern desert. Some progress has here 

 been made by the industry of man to convert into cultivable tracts these waste places, by 

 the application of " sea-sluch" to the pure sand of the ocean, a kind of marl dug below 

 high water-mark, which has the double advantage of preventing drift, and conquering 

 sterility. To accomplish the former object, small parcels of Arnndo arenaria, sand-reed, 

 have been planted with success along several parts of the Scottish coast ; by which 

 means, also, the inhabitants of the Bouillonnais have almost wholly arrested* the advance 

 of their downs. 



If Holland is subject to the encroachment of the ocean, the latter supplies its coast at 

 other points with huge masses of sandy downs, which effectually defend it from inva- 

 sion there. These formations, the result of the natural process which is still going on, 

 are in some places so high as to shut out the view of the sea even from the tops of the 

 spires ; but during the prevalence of sea-winds, clouds of sand are raised from the beach 

 into the air, and showered down upon the inland country, giving it an air of painful 

 desolation. The materials of the following statement occur in Professor Jameson's edition 

 of Cuvier's Theory, and give a striking example of the sand-flood on the coast of Elgin, 

 or Morayshire, in Scotland, as well as of the folly of the inhabitants of the district. 

 West of the mouth of the Findhorn, a district of more than ten square miles in area, 

 chiefly included in the barony of Coubine, was once termed the granary of Moray, on 

 account of its extreme fertility. This has been rendered unproductive and depopulated 

 by the shifting of the sand-hills. The first irruption commenced about the year 1677, 

 and twenty years afterwards, in 1697, not a vestige remained of the manor-place, 

 orchards, and offices of Coubine, and two-thirds of the barony were reduced to ruin. 

 The irruption came from the shore at Mavieston, about seven miles west from the mouth 

 of the Findhorn, where, from time immemorial, large heaps of sand had been accumu- 

 lated. The sand-hills there had been till then fixed, by being covered with vegetation, 

 but were set at liberty, by the inhabitants inconsiderately pulling up the bent and juniper 

 for various uses, when a drifting immediately commenced to the north-east. A high 

 wind has been known to carry the finer particles of the sand across the whole bay of the 

 Findhorn. In the winter of 1816, a large portion of the only remaining farm, on the 

 west side of the river, situated in the line of the progress of the sand, was overwhelmed, 



and a marked change has been produced upon the river itself. Many years ago, its 



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