GERMAN OCEAN, Oil NORTH SEA. 329 



wegian coast, and the other between Dover and 

 Calais, which is of the width of 7 leagues. The 

 aggregate water-way of these two passages forms 

 the track for the tidal waters, and also for the sur- 

 plus waters produced during storms which affect 

 the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. It is also obvious 

 that this water-way must remain nearly the same, 

 and admit a constant quantity ; or, to speak more 

 correctly, by allowing these inlets to follow the ge- 

 neral law, they must be enlarged by the waste or 

 wearing of their sides, in a ratio perhaps greater 

 than the silting up of the bottom in those particu- 

 lar parts, while the anterior and central portions of 

 the German Ocean are continually acquiring ad- 

 ditional quantities of debris, along with the drain- 

 age water of the widely surrounding countries. 

 If therefore the same, or a greater quantity of tidal 

 and surplus waters continue to be admitted from 

 the Atlantic and Arctic Seas into this great basin, 

 where the deposition is constantly going forward, it 

 is evident that the surface of the German Ocean 

 must be elevated in a temporary and proportionate 

 degree, and hence the production of those wasting 

 and destructive effects which are every where ob- 

 servable upon its shores. 



This reasoning is also applicable, in a greater or 

 less degree, to all parts of the world ; for as the 

 same cause every where exists, the same effects, 

 when narrowly examined, must every where be 

 produced. In the Southern or Pacific Ocean, we 



