292 



NOTICES OF aTJTHORS, 



most abundant at the windward shore, or where 

 there is least surf, and among the tall gramina and 

 other vegetation where there is least undulation and 

 current ; the deposition which occurs at this time^ 

 some distance below high water level, is floated away 

 by the current of the following flux and reflux, 

 unless some object afford a nucleus of formation. 

 Hence deltas or carses usually form near the shore 

 of firths, generally soon rise to high-water level, 

 and have often steep, or even abrupt, banks, collect- 

 ing at one place, and giving way before the waves 

 and undermining current at another. There is a de- 

 position of another kind than river diluvium, which 

 also takes place at the bottom, or further end, of bays 

 and firths, and is sometimes mixed with the preced- 

 ing : This consists, as mentioned above, of the 

 abrasion of the rocks, or shores of the bay and neigh- 

 bouring coast, and also of molluscous exuvise, borne 

 along by the motion of the waters ; but this is ge- 

 nerally rather an accumulation than a deposition, 

 occurring in greatest quantity where a heavy swell 

 rolls dead in. 



Although we have pretty accurate proof that the 

 present elevation of the German Sea has remained 

 nearly steady for several hundred years, yet our new 

 formation of carse, at the present high-water level, 



