The Haven or Harbour is capacious, but the entrance to it is accounted somewhat difficult, and even dangerous, owing to the numerous sandbanks, and the frequent shiftings of the channel, occasioned by the loose and light nature of the sandy and silty soil at the bottom. On which account it is not deemed safe for ships to go in or out without pilots, who are, or ought always to be well acquainted with the variations and actual state of the channel. In the ages proceeding the 13th century this harbour, compared with its present width, is said to have been very narrow, being only a few perches over, though its depth of water was then, probably, no less, if not greater than it is at present. The Ouse over against the town, is reckoned about as wide as the Thames above London Bridge. Its name is evidently of British origin, {2} and corresponds with those of several others of our rivers; such as the _Usk_, _Esk_, _Ex_, _Isis_, _&c._ The word signifies, a _stream_, or _the river_, by way of eminence. It is called the _great Ouse_, to distinguish it from that called the _little_ or _lesser Ouse_, which is now one of its tributary streams, and joins it some way below _Ely_, though it had formerly no connection with it. It is also called the _eastern Ouse_, to distinguish it from the _northern_, or Yorkshire river of the same name. As Lynn owes most of its consequence to this river, which forms its communication with the sea, and gives it so great an extent of inland navigation, and consequently such a vast commercial intercourse with the interior parts of the country, it will not be improper here to give some account of it, together with its principal branches, or those tributary streams which render it so considerable among the British navigable rivers.