E A R T H. m 
and the wind drives the fand along the Shore, a curious 
procefs takes place, which is, that in the parts where the 
tea-water does not reach, many plants which prefer 0 nd 
to other foils, as filix armaria, carix arenaria, lome 
ibiftles, &c. grow on that fand, and (top that which flies 
about along the fliore ; for it fuhfides between thofe 
plants which .impede the velocity of the wind. Thereby, 
on every fandy coajl of that kind, repeated ridges of fand- 
hills (dunes) have been formed ; and thofe natural dikes , 
which preferve the lowed lands agtjinft the fea, are, by 
the fame operation, condantly increaling in height and 
breadth. If the coad is inhabited, and then fome partial 
demolition is produced in the dunes by fome violent whirl¬ 
wind, it is fufficient to plant on the beach Small tufts of 
draw, for the wind itfelf to repair the damage, by the 
flying fand fubflding between the .tufts, and new plants 
growing in it. But when that lame fand happens to mix 
under water with the fediments of fome river, it then 
binds, and when brought out of the fa, it accumulates, 
and forms nevu land along the coajls. 
In order to exemplify the effects of thofe two. caufes, 
which I have obferved on many parts of the boundaries 
of our continent , I dtall fix on a well-known part of the 
Nortb-fea coajl 5 that of Holland, which is comprehended 
between the two nevu lands called Zealand, and Friefland, 
and lies between two branches of the Rhine. That river, 
at fome didance from the fea, divides Itfelf into three 
branches, two of which, the IJfel to the north, and the 
Waal, connected with the Meufe, to the fouth, include 
that fpace; in which alfo is comprehended the third 
branch, which, as it tended the mod direflly to the fea, 
retained the name of Rhine when the main river received 
it. Every nevu land, being laid horizontally, and compofed 
of various recent fediments, is always very didinft from 
the continental land, which rifes irregularly above that 
level, and is of a different nature. The continental land 
of the whole Nortb-fea coajl, confids of fand, variable in 
its nature, and varioufly mixed with fragments of flint 
and quartz, fometimes alfo with gravel and blocks of 
granite ; and it extends in that manner to a great didance 
from the fea, over hills and plains. The boundaries of 
that continental foil, which were the original coajls of that 
fea, are almod as didinct now as if the fea dill bordered 
them. In the fpace which I am now deferibing, their 
waving line comes down near the mouth of tire IJfel in 
the Zuydet fee, it paffes near Utrecht acrofs the channel 
called Rhine, and at Ifioerdyk, a Dutch village on the part 
of the original coafl where the Waal came fird to the fea, 
at a little didance from the ancient mouth of the MeuJ'e. 
Such then was evidently the original date of that part of 
the boundaries of our continents. It is to that determined 
part of the new-born continent, that Holland has been 
added ; and here we have one of the mod complete ex¬ 
amples of both operations by which our land lias received 
an increafe of extent. The bottom of the Nortb-fea con- 
fids entirely of the light fand above-mentioned, and the 
water is very (hallow at a great didance from the coajls ; 
which are the principal caufes of the great tradls of nevu 
lands that now border on that fea. In the fpace here 
fixed, a nevu land was foon formed in an extent of thirty- 
• five or forty miles forwards; confiding fird of clayeyfand- 
hanks, alternately formed of fea-Jand and of the fediments 
of the rivers-, which banks, by degrees, united with each 
other, and with the coajl ; while, from time to time, 
dreams of peat Aided over them from the Skirts of the 
continental land-, and when, by the aftion of tides and 
waves, thofe fediments had rifen above the mod ordinary 
level of the fea, peat-moors were formed on fome parts of 
their furface. That addition to the continent might have 
extended much farther, on account of the lhallownefs of 
the fea, if the quantity of fand there accumulating had 
not exceeded the power of the J'ediments of the rivers to 
bind it: but early in the courfe of thofe operations, a 
long ridge of fand-banks, which paffed on the fore-part 
of the growing nevj land % and extended much farther on 
Von. VI. No. 34 2. 
a line bending to the north-eaft, being arrived at the com-, 
mon level of the water, fand~bills, or dunes, rofe over 
them, forming a firing of new {[lands along that line. 
Thus the extent of the new land, which was .afterwards 
to be pervaded by the prolonged three branches of the 
Rhine ant) the MeuJ’e, was fixed to the fpace there inclofed 
by the duties ; where cor.fufed fediments of clay from the 
rivers, of fand mixed with Jhcl/s from the fea, and of peat 
from the continental land, rofe fird up to the common 
.furface of the water : after which, every inundation 
adding new fediments over thofe m.arfhcs , their foil rofe fo 
as to be overflowed only in times when great floods of 
the rivers concurred with great tides of the fea. 
That circumdance, of the new land here in view being 
fo protected againd the J'ea on its fore-part, gave rife to 
the celebrated nation of the Belgi ; as, in order to enjoy 
quietly the land within the dunes, which was very fertile, 
and in a dtuation favourable for the communication be¬ 
tween the fea and the continent, it was fufficient to em¬ 
bank the rivers againd their temporary rlfings: which at 
that time was eafily executed; and this new land is pro¬ 
bably the fird that has been inclofed on thofe coajls: a cir¬ 
cumdance to which I fliall more particularly attend. The 
"middle branch of the Rhine, which retained .its name, 
continuing then to flow down to the fea, was confequent- 
ly embanked, and it became the mod direft communica¬ 
tion between the fea and the land. Such was the date 
of the Belgic coafl, when the Romans took poffeffion of it; 
and, confidering its favourable dtuation for trade, they 
raifed a toll on the veffels at their entrance into the Ji.ream 
called Rhine: for which purpofe they built there, on the 
fea-diore, a toll-houfe, the ruins of which dill remain, 
funk in the fand below the common level of the fea. 
Thofe ruins have been feen fometimes at very low water, 
and round them were found many old coins of various 
northern nations then trading with the Belgi, and fome le- 
gion-flones. Since thofe times, the feene has much changed 
on that coafl \ and to begin by the pretended ohjlrubtion 
of the Rhine, (as M. de Buffon calls it,) the fea-fand 
having continued to accumulate along the dunes, and 
thefe to extend, the mouth of the branch called Rhine 
was dopped, and the dunes united together over it. The 
communication of that branch with the fea being thus 
cut off, it was turned into an inland channel, by dopping 
the entrance of the water into it from the land ; and 
dnee that time th e.river Rhine difeharges wholly through 
its branches, the' IJfel and the Waal. 
The above is the main hi dory of the nevu land now 
called Holland, from its beginning, coeval with the origin 
of our continents, to the time when the middle branch of 
the Rhine was dopped; and before this lad epocha, the 
Romans had fettled on its fliore: what remains then to be 
determined in refpedl of chronology, is, what may be the 
length of the period anterior to that hijlurical event. A 
fa£t will lead us to that determination; and at the fame 
time will ferve to explain fome'other alterations which 
have happened on the Belgic coafl Since the ep'oeha of its 
conqueft by the Romans. The loil of that nevu land funk 
considerably after it was inclofed-, which made it necef- 
fary, at different times, to raife the dikes which were alio 
finking, and to increafe their breadth. Hence the fur¬ 
face of a great part of that rich peninfida has long lain 
below the level of low water in the rivers ; and the rain¬ 
water, which, at the beginning, was discharged through 
Jluices at every returning tide, mud now be all pumped 
out; and, in lome parts, from a depth of fifteen feet from 
the level of the lowed water in the rivets. This will 
fird account for fome events, which being little kno-t^i 
by a certain clafs of geologifls, they conceived that the 
fea, by its attacks on our continents, iscondantly encroach¬ 
ing on them. The mod famous of thofe events are three 
irruptions of the fea in the nevu land above deferibed; 
the fird of which, in the year 1222, invaded its north 
fide, and formed there the gulf Zuyder-fee, on the part 
where the IJfel had prolonged its courfe through the ac« 
• 3 E cumulated 
