Q 



ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE 



329. The mouths by which rivers on bold 

 rocky coafls difcharge their waters into the fea 

 afford a very ftriking confirmation of the con- 

 clufions concerning the general fyftem of wafte 

 and degradation which have been drawn above. 

 At thefe mouths we ufually fee, not only the 

 bed of the river, but frequently a confiderable 

 valley, cut out of the folidrock, while that rock 

 perferves its elevation, and its precipitous afped:, 

 wherever it is not interfeded by a run of water. 

 No convullion that can have torn afunder the 



e 



r 



rocks ; no breach that can have been made in 



t 



m 



will 



antecedent to the running of the wati 

 count for the circumftance of every 



finding a correfponding opening, by which 



way to the fea • for that opening 



it makes its 

 being fo nes 



f th 



river. 



\y proportional to th( 

 and for fuch breach 



lagnitudi 

 never oc 



curring but where fl:reams of water are found. 



I 



330. The adual furvey of any bold and rocky 

 coaft, will make this clearer than any general 

 Itatement can poflibly do. Let us take, for an 

 example, the coaft of the Britifh Channel, from 

 Torbay to the Land's End, which is faced by a 

 continued rampart of high cliffs, formed of 

 much indurated and primeval rock. If we con- 

 ^der the breaches in this rampart, at the mouths 



V 



