5 5 



INROADS OF THE SEA AT THE 



[Ch. 





^\-x 



111 



country thus circumscribed, as, for example, a part of Gelder- 

 land and Utrecht, consists of strata which, may have been 

 deposited in the sea before the Rhine existed. These older 

 tracts may either have been raised like the Ullah Bund in 

 Cutch, during the period when the sediment of the Rhine 

 was converting a part of the sea into land, or they may have 

 constituted islands previously. 



When the river divides north of Cleves, the left arm takes 

 the name of the Waal ; and the right, retaining that of the 

 Rhine, is connected, a little farther to the north, by an arti- 

 ficial canal with the river Yssel. The Ehine then flowing 



ain south-east of Utrecht, and from this 

 point it takes the name of the Leek, a name which was given 

 to distinguish it from the northern arm called the Old Rhine, 



which was sanded up until after 



the 



year 1825, when a 



channel was cut for it, by which it now enters the sea at 

 Catwyck. It is common, in all great deltas, that the principal 

 channels of discharge should shift from time to time, but in 

 Holland so many magnificent canals have been constructed, 

 and have so diverted, from time to time, the course of the 

 waters, that the geographical changes in this delta are end- 

 less, and their history, since the Roman era, forms a compli- 

 cated topic of antiquarian research. The present head of the 

 delta is about forty geographical miles from the nearest part 

 of the gulf called the Zuyder Zee, and more than twice that 

 distance from the general coast-line. The present head of 



90 geographical miles 



from the sea ; that of the Ganges, as before stated, 220 ; and 

 that of the Mississippi about 180, reckoning from the point 

 where the Atchafalaya branches off to the extremity of the 



But the com- 

 parative distance between the heads of deltas and the sea 

 affords no positive data for estimating the relative magnitude 

 of the alluvial tracts formed by their respective rivers, for the 

 ramifications depend on many varying and temporary circum- 

 stances, and the area over which they extend does not hold 

 any constant proportion to the volume of water in the river. 

 The Rhine therefore lias at present three mouths. About 



Nile 



gue of land in the Gulf of Mexico 











thrt 



V 







