202 



touring and colouring the Admiralty chart of the North Sea, he 

 traces the course of the tide-wave among the Orkney and Shetland 

 Islands along the eastern shores of Scotland and England to the 

 Straits of Dover, and along the western shores of Norway, Denmark 

 and the Netherlands, to the same point. He then remarks that the 

 detritus arising from the continued M^asting away of nearly the 

 whole line of the eastern coasts of Scotland and England, caused by 

 the action of the flood-tide, is carried by'it, and at the present day 

 finds a resting-place in the North Sea ; and that this filling process 

 is increased by the sand, shingle, and other matter brought through 

 the Straits of Dover by the other branch of the Atlantic flood-tide. 

 Hence, he remarks, the gradual shoaling of this sea, and the forma- 

 tion of its numerous sand-banks ; the silting up the mouths of the 

 Rhine, the Meuse, and the Scheldt ; the formation of the numerous 

 islands on the coast of Holland, that country itself, and much of 

 Belgium ; the deposits at the mouth of the Baltic, the islands in the 

 Cattegat, and indeed the whole country of Sleswig, Denmark and 

 Jutland. 



The author then takes a view of the tides, and their eff'ects upon 

 the Baltic and its shores before the course of the tide- wave was 

 checked by these shoals and low lands. He considers that, previous 

 to these great changes, the flood-tide entering the North Sea between 

 Norway and Scotland, would make directly towards the German 

 coast, and necessarily heap up the waters in the Baltic considerably 

 above their present level, and that a great part of Finland, Russia, 

 and Prussia bordering upon that sea, would thus every twelve hours 

 be under water, in the same way as the waters now rise in the Bay 

 of Fundy, at Chepstow, and other places, much above their ordinary 

 level in the open sea; that the current outward, on the receding 

 of the tide which these accumulated waters would occasion, com- 

 bined with the rivers which fall into the Baltic, when checked by 

 the following flood-tide, would cause deposits in the form of a bar 

 tailing tov/ards Sweden ; and that an increase to these deposits 

 would form shoals, drifts and islands, and eventually a long sand- 

 bank in outline, like the country of Denmark. He further considers 

 that the tide being by these means prevented from entering the 

 Baltic, may account for the subsidence of the waters of the Gulf of 

 Bothnia better than can the upheaval of the northern part of Scan- 

 dinavia. 



The author then remarks that the great shoal of the North Sea is 

 the Dogger Bank, and that its peculiar form is produced by the 

 meeting of the cotidal waves, of which he traces the course. After 

 bearing testimony to the value of the Admiralty chart of the southern 

 portion of the North Sea, made under the direction of the late Cap- 

 tain Hewitt, he reverts to the importance of contouring such maps, 

 in order to obtain something like a correct notion of the bottom of 

 the sea ; and in conclusion expresses a hope that the Admiralty will 

 be induced to continue the survey of the North Sea, so well begun 

 by Captain Hewitt. 



