GERMAN OCEAN, OR NORTH SEA. 



327 



things which is freely admitted to take place in va- 

 rious quarters ; yet these apparent acquisitions are 

 no more to be compared with the waste alluded to, 

 than the drop is to the water of the bucket. But 

 accurate observations regarding the formation of ex- 

 tensive sand-banks, and the accumulation of the de- 

 bris, of which they are formed, are not to be made 

 in a few years, perhaps not in a century, nor indeed 

 in several centuries ; for although the short period 

 of the life of man is sufficient to afford the most 

 incontrovertible proofs of the waste of the land 

 where we become observers, yet when we extend our 

 views to the depths of the ocean, and speak of the 

 events and changes which are there going forward, 

 we must not be supposed to set limits to time. 



We have many convincing proofs in the natural 

 history of the globe, that the sea has at one time 

 occupied a much higher elevation than at present. 

 On the banks of the Frith of Forth* near Eorrow- 

 stounness, for example, I have seen a bed of marine 

 shells, which is several feet in thickness, and has 

 been found to extend about three miles in length, 

 and which is now situate many feet above the pre- 

 sent level of the waters of the Forth. A recent 

 illustration of this subject occurred also in the re- 

 markable discovery of the skeleton of a large whale, 

 found on the lands of Airthrey, near Stirling. The 

 present surface of the ground where the remains of 

 this huge animal were deposited, having been as- 

 certained (by uiy assistants, when lately in that 



