But it is probable, that the great philofopher alluded to the partial destruction of the Atlantica infula, mentioned by Plato as a diftant tradition of his days. It was effected by an earthquake and a deluge, which might have rent asunder the narrow ifthmus in queftion, and left Britain, large as it feems at prefent, the mere wreck of its original fize. The Scilly ifles, the Hebrides, Orknies, Schetland, and perhaps the Feroe islands, may poffibly be no more than fragments of the once farextended region. I have no quarrel about the word island. The little ifthmus, compared to the whole, might have been a junction never attended to in the limited navigations of very early times. The peninfula had never been wholly explored, and it paffed with the antients for a genuine island. The correfpondency of ftrata on part of the oppofite fhores of Britain and France, leaves no room to doubt but that they were once united. The chalky cliffs of Blancnez, between Calais and Bologne, and those to the weftward of Dover, exactly tally: the last are vaft and continued; the former fhort, and the termination of the immenfe bed. Between Bologne and Folkftone (about fix miles from the latter) is another memorial of the junction of the two countries; a narrow fubmarine hill, called the Rip-raps, about a quarter of a mile broad, and ten miles long, exrending eastwards towards the Goodwin Sands. Its materials are boulder-ftones, adventitious to many ftrata. The depth of water on it, in very low fpring tides, is only fourteen feet. The fishermen from Folkftone have often touched it with a fifteen feet oar; fo that it is juftly the dread of navigators. Many a tall ship has perifhed on it, and funk inftantly into twenty-one fathoms water. In July 1782, the Bellifle of fixtyfour guns ftruck, and lay on it during three hours; but by ftarting her beer and water, got clear off."

If we furvey the fituation of England and Ireland, we shall find vaft bays on the western fide, trending weft and northwest. The chain of islands from Ireland to Iceland, including the western islands of Scotland and the ifles of Feroe, are obviously the remains of a vaft continent, partly overwhelmed, and of which the higheft lands are only visible. This is the opinion of our author; and it is fo obvious from infpection only, that it could not efcape a philofophical geographer: it is confirmed by the enquiries of the mineralogift, who generally finds the fides abrupt and craggy, and the ftrata frequently correfponding to thofe of the neighbouring ifland. We have already remarked, that there feems to have been a continued motion of the fea, from the equator to the poles; and, from the fituation of our island, this motion must increase the impetus of the fea on its western coast; for, whether by increafing the bulk, and confequently the momentum of the northern Atlantic, it acts directly on the fhore, or reverberating

R 2.

berating from the folid barrier of the frozen ocean, it indirectly increases the impetus; yet in either way, it must produce the fame effect. In this view then, we must confider the British Channel as a vast bay, in which the fea has followed its ufual course. In every part of the English fhore we find marks of an incroaching tide; and the rocks of Guernsey confist of primæval granite, which compofes fo large a fhare of the adjoining continent. The German Ocean was another bay, in a contrary direction, derived from the reverberated current; and the old ifthmus, as Mr. Pennant obferves, was broken through by the united force of thofe oppofite tides. But we cannot think that it was chiefly effected by the northern current, though the tides at prefent meet in the English channel, for we are informed by Dr. Wallis, that they formerly met in the German Ocean, and, by their concourse, formed the Dogger Banks, off the coaft of Zealand. To allege that the reverberated current was not fo ftrong as the direct, might be an unfair argument, because it depends on our own opinion; bat there are better proofs of its inferior power, viz. the want of harbours on the eastern coaft, which Mr. Pennant has properly noticed, without any view towards an hypothefis; and the existence of confiderable flat grounds on the fame coaft, now for faken by the fea. Mr. Pennant has mentioned, that the deftruction of the ifthmus must have occafioned the fea to

have retired from thofe flat grounds which it had occupied before that event; but we think the confequences must have been more extenfive. On the flat parts of the western coast we find marine bodies, and are confequently led to fufpect, that the formation of the British Channel muft have contributed to drain them, though it would not affect the deeper harbours. Again, it is highly probable, that the fame convulfion must have leffened the force with which the tide was driven up the Baltic, and contributed to draw off the waters reverberated from the icy barrier, fo as to leffen the White Sea. By thefe united caufes, the gulfs of Bothnia and Finland were produced, which had been before ftreights, and formed a marine communication between the German and Arctic Oceans, to the Eaft of the north cape. On the coafts of Kent, the changes we have mentioned are evident; and the fluxes and the refluxes of the tide feem to have raised the land very confiderably. In our late review of the Philofophical Tranfactions, we mentioned the vaft depth at which the water was at laft found in Languard fort. The fuperincumbent parts were fand and clay; and that the water was preffed and confined by additional weight, is evident from the fact, that

when

when the workmen arrived at the fpring, it foon arofe to the level of the present surface.

This feparation certainly happened beyond the reach of hiftorical records, though Dr. Wallis is willing to believe that it gave occafion to Plato's account of the fubmerfion of his famous Atlantica. We readily believe that this history is not entirely fabulous; and that a vast peninfula, feparated from the continent, may at a diftant period, and in other countries, have been exaggerated into an event, fimilar to that which he has related; but there are fome circumstances in the history which do not properly fuit with this event. Plato exprefly fays, that his Atlantica was five days fail from the British ifland; and that the fun did not fet there for thirty days together. These two diftinctions feem to point out fome country far north of the extremes of Britain.

This enquiry has led us fo far, that we can only remark in general on the other parts of our author's imaginary voyage. If his obfervations refpecting the extenfive woods of the northern islands are well founded, we must fuppofe that they were once a part of the main land, or that fome fpecies of trees, which are now extinct, but which were capable of bearing both the spray from the billows, and the great cold, then exifted. Either of thefe circumftances are highly probable; but we have known fome instances where foffils have been mistaken for wood; and would recommend a farther examination of thefe apparent trees.

Mr. Pennant still adheres to the former opinion, that America was peopled from the eastern coast of Afia; and his authority has induced us again to examine the queftion, with all the neceffary attention. But we fee not the leaft reason to change our fentiments. Naturalifts must at last decide. It is fufficient to allege, that the prefent inhabitants of the oppofite continents are very different from each other. The Americans in that part refemble the Greenlanders; and this race at Nootka Sound joins another different from it, and from all the inhabitants of Afia. Mr. Pennant has elected those customs which are fimilar; but they are fo general, as to destroy even the probability that one nation is derived from the other.

There is another fubject, on which we differ from Mr. Pennant and fome other philofophers of confiderable judgment, viz. the former fituation of the adjoining continents of Afia and America. He thinks that they were once nearer to each other; but, in the ninety-firft page of the volume before referred to, we flated the reafons which we thought supported the oppofite opinion. If our author wishes to establish by this

R 3

means

means, his fentiments refpecting the population of America, he must be aware, that this distance is not too great to confine the inhabitants; but that even a lefs would prevent the paffage of many animals. If we examine these, and their feveral natures, we fhall find the fource of population still more obfcure than before. We need not again allege the reafons for our opinion, and we have little to add to them. It is probable, that the general effect of volcanos is to raise the land above its ordinary level, and confequently to gain upon the fea; if this be the cafe, we fhall find on the fores of both continents, marks of thefe operations. It is equally certain, that they fometimes contribute, by altering the ballance, to produce the oppofite effect; but, fo far as we can perceive, they gain on the land in those spots on which their ravages are exerted, and the inundations are in more diftant places.

It is with more reafon, that our author fuppofes a great part of North America to be gained from the fea; and this has been chiefly effected by the fea bursting through the land to the fouth of Florida, fo as to form the gulph of Mexico, leaving only the high grounds in the form of iflands, the greater and lefs Antilles, or, as we choose to call them, the Windward and Leeward Islands. This dereliction is particularly perceived on the neighbouring coafts of the Floridas and Carolinas; but is obvious in very diftant countries. We fufpect, with our author, that America is a new world, in more fenfes than is commonly underflood. The following defcription is highly curious; and the reader will perceive, that it may be employed to cftablifh fome very important questions.

I must here mention the adventitious fruits, fuch as nuts and other vegetable productions which are brought by the waves to these fhores, thofe of Feroe and the Orknies, from Jamaica and other neighbouring parts. We must have recourse to a caufe very remote from this place. Their vehicle is the gulphftream from the gulph of Mexico. The trade-winds force the great body of the ocean from the weftward through the Antilles into that gulph, when it is forced backward along the fhore from the mouth of the Miffiffipi to Cape Florida; doubles that Cape in the narrow fea between it and Cuba, and from Cape Florida to Cape Cannaveral runs nearly north, at the distance of from five to feven leagues from fhore, and extends in breadth from fifteen to eighteen leagues. There are regular foundings from the land to the edge of the ftream, where the depth is generally feventy fathoms; after that no bottom can be found. The foundings of Cape Cannaveral are very ileep and uncertain, as the water fhallows fo quick, that from forty fathoms it will immediately leffen to fifteen, and from that to four or less; fo that, without great care, a thip may be in a few minutes on

thore.

fhore. It must be observed, that notwithstanding the gulphftream in general is faid to begin where foundings end, yet its influence extends feveral leagues within the foundings; and veffels often find a confiderable current fetting to the northward all along the coaft, till they get into eight or ten fathom water, even where the foundings ftretch to twenty leagues from the hore; but their current is generally augmented or leffened by the prevailing winds, the force of which however, can but little affect the grand unfathomable ftream. From Cape Cannaveral to Cape Hatteras the foundings begin to widen in the extent of their run from the fhore to the inner edge of the ftream, the distance being generally near twenty leagues, and the foundings very regular to about feventy fathoms near the edge of the stream, where no bottom can be afterwards found, Abreaft of Savannah river, the current fets nearly north; after which, as if from a bay, it ftretches north-east to Cape Hatteras; and from thence it fets east-north-east, till it has loft its force. As Cape Hatteras runs a great way into the fea, the edge of the ftream is only from five to feven leagues diftant from the cape; and the force and rapidity of the main stream has fuch influence, within that distance, over thips bound to the fouthward, that in very high foul winds, or in calms, they have frequently been hurried back to the northward, which has often occafioned great difappointment both to merchant ships. and to men of war, as was often experienced in the late war. In December 1754, an exceeding good failing fhip, bound from Philadelphia to Charlestown, got abreaft of Cape Hatteras every day during thirteen days, fometimes even with the tide, and in a middle diftance between the cape and the inner edge of the ftream; yet the fhip was forced back regularly, and could only recover its loft way with the morning breeze, till the fourteenth day, when a brifk gale helped it to item the current, and get to the fouthward of the cape. This fhews the impoffibility of any thing which has fallen into the ftream returning or stopping in its course.

On the outfide of the ftream is a strong eddy or contrary current towards the ocean; and on the infide, next to America, a ftrong tide fets against it. When it fets off from Cape Hatteras, it takes a current nearly north-east; but in its courfe meets a great current that fets from the north, and probably comes from Hudfon's Bay, along the coaft of Labrador, till the island of Newfoundland divides it; part fetting along the coaft through the freights of Eelleide, and fweeping pat Cape Breton, runs obliquely against the gulph-ftream, and gives it a more eastern direction: the other part of the northern current is thought to join it on the eastern fide of Newfoundland. The influence of thefe joint currents must be far felt, yet poffibly its force is not fo great, nor contracted in fuch a pointed and circumfcribed direction as before they encountered. The prevailing winds all over this part of the ocean are the weft an

R 4

north