THESE Sand-Banks lie either in the Chanels of Rivers, as frequently in the Elbe, and the Wolga; or at the Mouths of Rivers, as is alfo frequent in the two Rivers juft mentioned; or on the Sea Shores, or in the middle of the Sea. The manner of their Generation is the fame as in the foregoing Propofitions we obferved of the drying up the Courfe of Rivers, and the Shores of the Sea. For it generally happens, that the Ocean, before it leaves any part of the Land for good, first produces these Sand-Banks near the Shore; then recedes by degrees, and leaves the Sand-Banks a part of the Continent. And after the fame manner it happens in the Chanels of Rivers, before they dry up, and are totally forfaken by the Waters. The most common Caufe is the increafing of the Rivers with Rain, or melted Snow, fo that they rush down violently, and wash off their Banks, where they are narrow, Slime and Mud; which is carried down a great way from their Fountains, till 'tis brought to fome wide Place, where the Motion is not fo violent; and here it fubfides and forms a Bank of Sand, or Mud.

NOR can any greater Evil happen to the most rich and flourishing trading Towns, whofe loaded Ships have been ruined by them; not to mention Towns, that thro' Time are quite forgot, there are the Cities Stavoren in Friefland; Arnemude, or Armugen, in Zeeland; and Dordracum in Holland; Antwerp in Brabant; and Stada, in the Bishopric of Bremen ; all which have had this Fate.

NOR is there scarce any trading Sea-Port free from the Danger. These Sand Banks in the Elbe, have loft a great many Ships to the Hamburghers, which had escaped many Dangers on the Ocean; and in other Places, especially the Texel, and the Ulie at Amfterdam.

MANY of these Banks are seen on the SeaShore of Flanders, and Friesland, and at low Water feem to be parts of the Continent, having fo little Water above them at high Tide, as not to admit of Ships. The Sand-Banks that are famous or infamous among Sailors for Shipwrecks, are 1. Thofe found all in one Place, at the Shore of Brafil, extending in a Tract of feventy Miles, which they that go to the Indies, ought carefully to beware of, when they are failing that way to avoid being becalmed on the Guinea Shore, tho' they come as near them as they can, to get the more Wind; but ought to take Care they do not fall in between thofe Banks, and the Shore.

2.

Thofe of St Ann, not far from Guinea in Africa, in fix Degrees of North Latitude: the Ships once carried among them, are not brought easily from them; but detained for feveral Days, when the Seamen think they have got rid of them; for they do not lie close together, but are parted by Gulphs and deep Places; fo that when they are in ten Yards Water, they on a fudden fhall found but three Yards. 3. Thofe between Madagascar, and Arabia, and Africa, called the Baixas of Judæa: they are fharp, ragged Rocks of Coral, of various Colours. 4. Thofe about China. 5. Thofe towards Flanders; and feveral others that may be seen in Sea Charts.

WE have shown one Way how they are formed, viz. by the fubfiding of the Matter which the Sea carries with it; we may add a second Way, and that is, by the Sea's coming in upon Land, that hath heaps of Sand on it, which, being covered, are Sand-Banks under the Surface of the Water. Thus at the Shores of Gelderland, and Holland, there are feveral fuch, which they call Dunen; they are in a long Tract raised above the Land, on the Shore;

Shore; and if the Sea break in, then these Hills become Sand-Banks.

THEY are frequently at the Mouths of Rivers where they are broadeft, and where their Motion is not fo rapid but the Matter can fubfide, and the Waves of the Sea beat back the River-Water, which stops it's Force. It is worth while to distinguish and confider thefe two ways.

PROPOSITION XI.

To judge whether the Sand-Banks not far from the Shore will become a part of the Continent.

WE fhowed, in the preceding Propofition, that they are formed two ways; one by the fubfiding of Matter, and the other by Heaps of Sand that are overflowed: if they happen in the first way, and they be found to increase ftill, it is likely they will be joined to the Continent; but if in the fecond way, and they are not increased, then it is not likely they will be joined, but rather that the Sea will come further: but this we only guefs.

PROPOSITION XII.

Ilands are formed in the Sea and Rivers, the fame way that Sand-Banks are (which may become Islands) and also another way.

FOR if there be gathered in any part of the Sea, Sand, Gravel, Slime, or Clay, it will in time become an Island; and if the Sea break in upon the Land, and furround Hills, they become Islands ; and thus 'tis likely thofe were formed which are very high, as St Helena, the Ifle of Afcenfion, &c. especially if they be rocky and stony.

SECT. V. AND to these belong thofe which the Sea cuts off from the Land that juts out into it; thus antient Writers tell us, that Sicily was cut off from Italy, by the breaking in of the Sea violently; and the Verfes of the Poet on this Subject are well known.

BY the first way, viz. by fubfiding and gathering of a great many earthy Particles, were formed the Iflands of Zeeland, Denmark, and Japan; and alfo the Ifles of Molucca: for there were found, by thofe that dug the Ground there a little way down, a great quantity of Sand and Shells.

THE Inhabitants of the Island of Ceylon fay their Ifland was feparated from India, and it is very likely. Thus the Island of Sumatra is thought to have joined Malacca; and it is probable, because of the feveral Banks and Quick-Sands there. It is certainly believed it was the golden Cherfonefus, and was counted to be a Peninfula, for it appears fo at a distance, and to be joined to Malacca.

The

THE Indians, on the Malabar Shore, tell us, that the Ifles of Maldives, were of old joined to India, in one Continent, and are now a great way from it, and divided into eleven thousand Ilands; and it is probable they will all in time be joined in one Ifland, they being not diftant in fome Places above four or five Yards. narrow Seas will become narrower, and so join one to another. And indeed all the oriental Islands, between the Continent of Afia and Magellan, feem to arife from the Sea's breaking in violently on the Land, and feparating one part from another; for the Pacific Sea moves with a continual force to the Eaft from America to these Ifles, and the Wind blowing conftantly that way increases the force; it is not therefore unlikely that, feeing all thefe Islands are in the Torrid Zone, Afia did of

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old join the Magellanic, or South Land, the Earth being broke off here and there by the Sea, 'till at last it made it's way to the Indian Ocean, and formed many Islands ftrangely fituated clofe together, as Java, the Celebes, Borneo, Madura, Amboyna, &c.

WE may judge the fame of the Islands in the Gulf of Mexico, and at the Streight of Magellan.

IT is uncertain whether the Islands of the Ægean Sea were broke off the Land by the Sea, the Waves from the Euxine and Mediterranean Sea meeting one another, or by the fubfiding of the Matter which was brought from the Euxine to the Propontis; tho' the former is more probable: and perhaps this was the famous Deluge of Deucalion. It is certain the Ifle of Eubea, or Negroponte, joined Greece, as famous Writers relate; for the Sea between them is so narrow as to have a Bridge over it.

WE have several Inftances of Islands made by Sand-Banks. Thus thofe in the Nile, and in the River of St Lawrence in North America, were SandBanks. The Rivers make Islands also when they discharge a Branch in one Place, and receive it in another, as in the Tanais, and Wolga, and others; which no doubt is done by the Industry of Men. The Oby does the fame. The two Rivers, Rengo and Coauza, produced the Ifle of Loanda, on the Shore of fouthern Africa, where they exonerate themselves into the Sea, because they bring down from the high Places a great quantity of Slime and Gravel with great Violence, which they depofited still in the Mouths of the Rivers, and fo made the Isle of Loanda; which at firft was but a Sand-Bank, and now it is a fruitful Island, abounding with Inhabitants and fertile Land. We believe a great many Islands on the Shore were formerly Sand-Banks, or Clay-Banks, tho'

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