f43 



o 



ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE 



378. A remark which Major Renriell has made 

 concerning the mouths of rivers, in his Geogra- 

 phy of Herodotus, deferves Mr Kirwan's atten- 

 tion, though perhaps he may not be able to put 

 on it an interpretation quite fo favourable to his 

 fyftera. The remark is, that the .mouths of 

 great rivers are often formed on principles quite 

 oppoUte to one another, fo that fome of them 



■t 



have a real delta or triangle of flat land at their 

 mouths, while others have an efluary, or what 

 may not imiproperly be called a negative delta. 

 Of the latter kind are fome of the greateft rivers 

 in the world, the Plata, the Oroonoko and the 

 Maranon, and by far the greateil number of our 

 European rivers. Nobody can doubt, that the 

 three rivers jufl named carry with them as much 

 earth as the Nile, or the Euphrates, or any other 



world. All this they 



depofi 



ted in the fe 



d committed to th 



which fweep along the fhore of the American 



I 



continent, and by thefe they have been fpread 



out over the unlimited trads of the ocean. 



Indeed, 



mil 



L mud, mull be explained from 

 or local caufes, with which we 

 ;s againfl the depv^fition of 



mak 



r the Ihore, and in narrow feas 

 think, every body admits. 



^jr 



