PLAN DERS (AN D FFOLL AND 
this ifland in their annual migrations from the north, and for a fhort fpace fill 
every bay. Poverty and want of falt make thefe riches of other nations a 
tantalizing appearance to the unfortunate natives. This is the moft northern 
place in which the Herring is feen: they are not found in the fhallow water of 
Spitzbergen; neither is it probable that they double Green/and, and retire to the 
frozen ocean, equally wanting in depth of water ;—are they not rather loft in the 
vaft profundity of thefe very feas, in the depth of fix hundred and eighty-three 
fathoms, in lat. 65, between this ifland and the north of Norway; or in the un- 
fathomable depths a little farther north, where the water was found bottomlefs with 
feven hundred and eighty fathoms *? The other fifhes of Jce/and are in general 
common to Greenland: my remarks refpecting them fhall be deferred till 1 treat 
of that icy region. 
In order to view the correfpondent fhores of the tra@ I have paffed over, I fhall 
return to the ftreights of Dover. Calais is feated ina low wet tract; and the whole 
coaft, from thence to the extremity of Helland, is fandy, and fronted with fand-hills ; 
providentially higheft in that loweft of countries, in which the ftrongeft proteCtion 
againft the fury of the fea is neceflary. The coaft of Flanders, the rich bait of ambi- 
tion, ftained with blood, is dangerous by reafon of frequent narrow fand-banks, 
difpofed in parallel rows, according to the direction of the land. The coafts of 
Holland are alfo greatly infefted with fands ; but between them and the land is a 
clear channel. From between Duntir& and Calais,even to the Scar, at the extremity 
of Futland, is low land, not to be {cen but at a fmall diftance, unlefs at Camperden 
in Holland; Heilegeland, off the mouths of the Elbe and Wefer; and Robfnout, and 
Harifbal, in Futland. While the oppofite coafts of England are comparatively high, 
and the channel deep, thefe are univerfally obftructed with fand : the great German 
rivers bring down by their foods amazing quantities of fand and mud, the courfe 
of which is impeded at fea by the violence of the winds, blowing at fouth and weft 
two-thirds of the year t. Theie, with the help of the tides, arreft the progrefs of 
the fand into the open fea, and form the numerous banks which, fatal as they may 
be to mariners, are the fecurity of Holdand, in particular, from naval invafions. 
The fpring-tides at Ca/ais rife twenty feet; at the pier head at Dover, to twenty- 
five; the caufe of the variation is fuppofed, by Mr. Cowley, to be the different dif- 
tances of the two piers from low-water mark, the firft being half a mile, the laft 
only a hundred yards; at Offend it rifes to eighteen; at Flu/bing, fixteen and a 
half ; at Helvsetfluys and the Texel, twelve ; and on the coafts of Hol/fein and Fut- 
Jand, where the fea expands to a more confiderable breadth, the tides grow more 
irregular, and weaken both in height and ftrength; at the Elbe they do not ex- 
* Lord Mulgrave’s Voy. towards the North Pole. + Yarranton’s England's Improvement, 4, 5- 
g4 ceed 
LV 
VAST DEPTHS oF 
WATER. 
STREIGHTS OF 
Dover. 
SAND-BANKS OFF 
FLANDERS AND 
Houuanb. 
Tipe: 
