50 
Mr Stevenson on the Bed the 
to these facts, as the sad experience of the removal of buildings, 
and the inundation of extensive tracks of land by the encroach- 
ment of the sea. 
Indeed, by a closer inquiry into this department of the sub- 
ject, we .shall, perhaps, find ourselves . rather at a loss to account 
for tlie smtdlness of the quantity of this deposition, consider- 
ing the waste which is constantly going forward in the process of 
nature, and even be led to seek for its wider distribution over 
the whole expanse of the bed of the ocean, as has been sup- 
posed in that theory of the globe, so beautifully and so ably 
defended by our late illustrious countryman Professor Play- 
fair. , 
One of the most striking and general examples of this kind 
may perhaps be found in the abrupt and precipitous headlands 
and shores which we every where observe along the coast, and 
which we suppose to have once been of the same sloping form 
and declining aspect with the contiguous land. In the production 
of these effects alone, an immense quantity of debris must have 
been thrown into the bed of the ocean. The channels which 
are cut by the sea in the separation of parts of the mainland, 
and the formation of islands, no doubt make way for a conside- 
rable portion of the displaced fluid ; but still these channels, 
when filled with water, come far short, in point of bulk, when 
compared with the portions of the elevated land which are thus^ 
removed. Now, it has been alleged by some, that while the 
land is wasting at certain points, it is also gaining in others ; 
and this is a state of things which is freely admitted to take 
place in various 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 extensive sand-banks, and the ac- 
cumulation of the debris, of which they are formed, are not to be 
made ih 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 ex- 
tend 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. 
