GERMAN OCEAN, OR NORTH SEA. 



325 



quantity of debris, even for a single year, along such 

 an extent of coast, may bear some consideration in 

 respect to the bed of the German Ocean ; what, 

 then, must these effects amount to, in the lapse of 

 ages? 



Whatever be the cause, the fact is certain, that 

 on almost every part of the shores of Great Britain 

 and Ireland, and their connecting islands, from the 

 northmost of the Shetland to the southernmost of 

 the Scilly Islands, and also upon the shores of Hol- 

 land, and part of France, particularly in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Cherbourg, this wasting effect is going 

 forward. These shores I have myself examined. 

 But my inquiries have not been confined to the 

 coasts which I have personally visited, having also, 

 through the kind attention of some nautical friends* 

 been enabled to extend my investigations even to 

 the remotest parts of the globe. The general re- 

 sult has been, that, equally in the most sheltered 

 seas, such as the Baltic and Mediterranean, and on 

 the most exposed points and promontories of the 

 coasts of North and South America, and the West 

 India islands, abundant proofs occur, all tending to 

 shew the general waste of the land by the encroach- 

 ments of the sea- Such wasting effects are quite 

 familiar to those locally acquainted with particular 

 portions of the shores ; and I have often received 

 their testimony to these facts, as the sad experience 

 of the removal of buildings, and the inundation of 



