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Description of a number of marine objects never mentioned by any
traveller before--Rocks seen in this passage equal to the Alps in
magnitude; lobsters, crabs, &c., of an extraordinary magnitude--A
woman's life saved--The cause of her falling into the sea--Dr. Hawes'
directions followed with success._

I omitted several very material parts in my father's journey across the
English Channel to Holland, which, that they may not be totally lost
I will now faithfully give you in his own words, as I heard him relate
them to his friends several times.

"On my arrival," says my father, "at Helvoetsluys, I was observed to
breathe with some difficulty; upon the inhabitants inquiring into the
cause, I informed them that the animal upon whose back I rode from
Harwich across to their shore did not swim! Such is their peculiar form
and disposition, that they cannot float or move upon the surface of the
water; he ran with incredible swiftness upon the sands from the shore,
driving fish in millions before him, many of which were quite different
from any I had yet seen, carrying their heads at the extremity of their
tails. I crossed," continued he, "one prodigious range of rocks,
equal in height to the Alps (the tops or highest parts of these marine
mountains are said to be upwards of one hundred fathoms below the
surface of the sea), on the sides of which there was a great variety of
tall, noble trees, loaded with marine fruit, such as lobsters, crabs,
oysters, scollops, mussels, cockles, &c. &c.; some of which were a
cart-load singly! and none less than a porter's! All those which are
brought on shore and sold in our markets are of an inferior dwarf kind,
or, properly, waterfalls, _i.e._, fruit shook off the branches of the
tree it grows upon by the motion of the water, as those in our gardens
are by that of the wind! The lobster-trees appeared the richest, but the
crab and oysters were the tallest. The periwinkle is a kind of shrub;
it grows at the foot of the oyster-tree, and twines round it as the ivy
does the oak. I observed the effect of several accidents by shipwreck,
&c., particularly a ship that had been wrecked by striking against
a mountain or rock, the top of which lay within three fathoms of the
surface. As she sank she fell upon her side, and forced a very large
lobster-tree out of its place. It was in the spring, when the lobsters
were very young, and many of them being separated by the violence of
the shock, they fel