THE workings of Nature itself, under the control of an Allwise and Omnipotent Being, ever exhibit a restorative as well as a destructive power. Its laws and constitution being no where directly revealed to us, are only to be inferred from the inspection of particular facts, obtained from observation and experiment, the only trust-worthy guides to the knowledge of Nature. Let us inquire—first, the cause of the German Ocean gaining upon the Norfolk coast? secondly, whether every portion is the subject of such visitation, attended with similar results? and thirdly, whether art can arrest its progress? The German Ocean, from its being intersected with numerous shoals of sand, some of immense length and breadth, presents a greater variation in the tides and currents than probably any other ocean in the world; and from its exposure to variable and violent winds, renders the navigation extremely dangerous. Its extent in area is about two millions of square miles, and is confined within its narrowest limits between England and Holland, and there in consequence the tides rise highest. It opens into the Atlantic on the north, and communicates with the English Channel by the Straits of Dover, and with the Baltic Sea by the Scaggerac and Cattegat. It may be considered as divided into two parts by the Dogger Bank, which traverses it in almost all its width, and a strong tide runs from north to south, {32} which is much increased by north and north-west winds. From the earliest records to the present time, that portion of the coast extending from Cromer to Winterton-ness has been most subjected to the ravages of the ocean; lands have been swept away, buildings of considerable value have been swallowed up, and notwithstanding every effort hitherto made, the sea continues to advance in the interior as little satiated as before. The line of coast is extremely favourable to its rapacity, presenting, as it does, the appearance of a cape, and the different strata composing the cliffs are generally of too yielding a nature to resist its influence, even under ordinary circumstances.—The Hasborough Sands, extending from Winterton, to or a little beyond Bacton, must, from their dimensions and abrupt elevation, be a source of considerable mischief, confining a vast body of water within a narrow limit, which, when increased and disturbed by gales of wind from the north-west, upon a spring tide, urges the waves against the cliffs with a greater or less velocity, and with a force not only sufficient to sweep away large quantities of the earth, which, from the perpendicularity of the cliffs, is deposited at their base, but actually to undermine them to a considerable extent.