a Theory of the Earth. 
129 
CHAP, V. 
Observations to be made on the Borders of the Sea. 
1 . If the sea coast is steep ; if it forms steep hills, to 
observe their height, their nature, and the strata of which 
they consist.* 
2. To seek on these hills traces of the effects or abode 
of the waters at different heights above the present le- 
vel, and at different depths below, such as furrows, ca- 
verns, shells, pholades ; to search also for vestiges of the 
labours of man, such as excavations, rings for making 
vessels fast ; in a word, to endeavour to ascertain whe- 
ther the sea has the same level as it had in the remotest 
ages. 
3. In case the level has changed, to examine w hether 
that effect has been produced by a change in the sea it- 
self, or whether the shore rather has not been raised or 
depressed. 
4. If the sea coast is flat, to discover to what distance 
its acclivity is insensible ; and to examine the nature of 
the sand found on the shore. 
5. Whether the grains of that sand are round or an- 
gular, crystallised or not, quarizy or calcareous, or of 
any other kind of stone. 
6. To endeavour to discover its origin, whether it can 
he considered as produced by detrition from the neigh- 
bouring mountains or hills ; whether it may not have 
proceeded from some river which had its mouth in the 
neighbourhood, or whether it may not have been brought 
from the bottom of the sea itself by the tide and the 
waves ? 
* 1. A. To note down every thing that relates to the destruction, more or 
less rapid, of these hills, and the banks and accumulations formed chiefly at the 
mouths of rivers. Til. 
Yol. r. 
R 
