474 ON THE BED OF THE GERMAN OCEAN 



of Lapland and Norway. We are not, therefore^ 

 SO much surprised to find incisions made into the 

 hardest rocks, exhibiting such extraordinary ca- 

 vities as the Bullers of Buchan, and other striking 

 appearances on this coast near Peterhead, as to ob- 

 serve its destructive effects upon the more shelter- 

 ed shores of the Frith of Forth, formerly described, 

 or those of the Moray Frith, which we are now 

 approaching. 



Efein. After passing the river Spey, the rocks on the 

 shores belong to the sandstone or coal formation, 

 and here again the wasting effects of the sea be- 

 come more apparent. At the ancient town of 

 Burghhead, an old fort or establishment of the 

 Danes was built upon a sandstone cliff, which, 

 tradition says, had a very considerable tract of 

 land beyond it ; but it is now washed by the 

 waves, and literally overhangs the sea. Between 

 Burghhead and Fort George, a space of about 

 twenty-five miles, the coast is one continued bank 

 of sand, which has undergone very great changes 

 from the blowing of extensive sand-banks, that 

 has buried several hundred acres of the estate of 

 Cubin, and covered many houses ; nor have the 

 ravages of the sea been less felt than those of the 

 sand-ftood in this quarter^ as the old town of Find- 

 horn was destroyed by the sea, and the site of it 

 ^"Inr^* is now overflowed by every tide. At Fort George, 

 Cromarty, the cncroachmcnts of the sea are likely to produce 

 considerable damage upon the walls of tl^e fort, 



