xx 
GERMAN CR 
Nortu SEa. 
Tipes, THEIR 
Direction ; 
DeprTus. 
5 ¢:QO;?T LAN DD 
Tumns of fimilar materials, fome hollowed into arches; others, pillar-liks, afpire 
in heights equal to the land *.. Thefe are animated with birds. All their ceco- 
nomy may be viewed with eafe from the neighboring cliffs ; their loves, incuba~ 
tien, exclufion, and nutrition. 
Dung fby-head, the antient Beyubium, terminates the eaftern fide of this kingdom, 
as Far-out-head, the old Tarvedum, does the weftern. Strathy-head, the Verve- 
drum of Ptolemy, lies intermediate. The whole tract faces the north, and con- 
fits of various noted headlands, giving fhelter to numerous bays, many of which: 
penetrate deep into the country. Let me-make this general remark,—that nature 
hath, with a niggardly hand,. dealt out her harbours to the eaftern coafls of the 
Britife ifles ; but fhewn a profufion on their weftern fides. What numberlefs 
lochs, with great depth of water, wind into the weftern counties of Scotland, over~ 
fhadowed and fheltered by lofty mountains! and what multitudes of noble har-- 
bours do the weftern provinces of 7reland open into the immenfe Atlantic ocean ! 
The fea which wafhes the fhores of Britain, which have paffed under my re~ 
view, was originally called, by one of the antients +, Oceanus Britannicus, form- 
ing part of that vaft expanfe which furrounds our iflands. Pliny confined that 
title to the fpace between the mouth of the Rhine and that of the Sezve ; and be= 
ftowed on this fea the name of Septentrionalis. 5 and Prolemy called it Germa- 
nicus : both which it ftill retains. Its northern extremity lies between Dung /by- 
bead, in lat. 58, 35-north, and the fame latitude in the fouth of Norway, Be- 
fore the feparation of Britaix from Gaul it could only be confidered as a vaft 
bay ; but that period is beyond the commencement of record. The tides flow 
into it from the north-eaft to the fouth-weft, according to the direction of the 
coaft ; but in mid-fea the reflux fets to the north, to difcharge itfelf through. 
the great channel between the Schetland ifles and Norway §.. The depth of 
water, at higheft fpring-tides, in the ftreights of Dover, is twenty-five fathoms : 
it deepens.to thirty-one, between Low/fef and themouth of the Adaes: between 
the Wells-bank and Doggers-bank gains, in one place only, a few fathoms. Be- 
yond the Dogger it deepens from forty-eight to feventy-two: between Buchan-ne/s 
and Schutnefs in. Norway, within the Buchaw deeps, it has from eighty-fix to a 
hundred fathoms ; then decreafes, towards the Orkney and Schetland ifles, from 
feventy-five to forty ; but between the Schetlands and Bergen, the northern end 
of this fea, the depth is from a hundred and omens to a hundred and fifty 
fathoms. 
® See Mr. Cordiner’s beautiful view of a ftack of this kind, tab. xv. + Mela. t Plin. 
lib. iv. C. 19. § Mr, William Fergujon. 
The 
