In this manner, the sand bank was formed which extends obliquely from the coast of Norfolk to that of Zealand. This bank forms that part where the tides of the German and French sea meet, since the isthmus has been broken, and where the earth and sand are deposited which are washed away from the coasts; nor is it by any means improbable but that in the course of time this bank may become an isthmus.[AR] [AR] See Abridgment of Philosophical Transactions, vol. II. page 227. There is a great appearance, says Ray, that the island of Great Britain was formerly joined to France, and formed part of that continent: but it is not known whether its separation was caused by an earthquake, an eruption of the ocean, or by the labour of man; but that this island formed part of the continent is evident, from the rocks and coasts of both being of the same nature, composed of the same matters, and exactly of the same height; the length of the rocks, along these coasts, are also nearly the same, about six miles on either side. The little breadth of the channel, which in this part is not more than twenty-four English miles, and its shallowness, comparatively with the neighbouring sea, is another reason to suppose that England has been divided from France by accident. We may add to these proofs, that there were formerly wolves and bears in this island; it is not to be presumed that they could swim over, nor that men transported such destructive animals; for in general we find the noxious animals of the continent in the adjacent islands, and never in those which are separated from them by a great distance; as the Spaniards remarked when they landed in America.[AS] [AS] See Ray's Discourses, page 208. In the reign of Henry I. King of England, a great inundation happened by an eruption of the sea in part of Flanders. In 1446 by a like eruption 10,000 persons were drowned in the territory of Dordrecht, and more than 100,000 round Dullart, Friezeland, and in Zealand. In these last two provinces upwards of 300 villages were overflowed; the tops of their towers and steeples are still to be seen rising out of the water.