Gents Mag 1813 part 1 p.111

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	Gentleman's Magazine 1813 part 1 p.111 shore. On further observation, I remarked other large meadows extending a long way into the Lake, and terminating almost in a point, which had evidently been formed by the floods of insignificant brooks, and which in some cases had cut and torn up the sides of the mountains to a degree of astonishment. So that the Lakes are filling up to a certainty, and faster than we seem to be aware of; I think in two or three thousand years they will be all flat meadows, with a river or main drain in the middle. Such meadows in the valleys frequently occur, and it is more than probable they once were lakes. If we go upon a larger scale, we find a variety of substances continually pouring into the sea by the great rivers, and never returning, at least beyond the reach of a high tide, from which one would naturally suspect, exclusive of the help of minor causes, that the sea in process of time would be so filled up, as to deluge the whole earth. Those violent efforts of Nature, volcanos and earthquakes, may, indeed, at any time, in an instant, make the sea land, and the land sea; but what is there in the regular course of Nature to prevent the drowning of the earth; unless, to help us over the difficulty, we have recourse to an imperceptible increase in bulk of such strata, as lie below the reach of man, whose intrusion may destroy, or at least check their growth? - And that the earth rises more or less by the organization of strata of different degrees of strength and vigour, and shrinks in a state of decay or decomposition, I have no doubt: hence other lakes and seas, by a greater or less extension or depression of the bowels of the earth, will of course be formed; and the sea thus keep its distance for a time exceeding the calculation of man. But one word more on the subject of the Lakes. The proprietors of lands are bounded by the lakes on one side: the fisheries have also their bounds and marks; and are generally the property of others, and totally distinct. Now, Mr. Urban, should the Lake be quite filled in, by dreadful and unusual torrents and inundations, in three years instead of three thousand, in point of law how will the matter stand? will the proprietor of five acres become the proprietor of fifty, as his writings will shew his field is bounded on one side by water; or must the fisherman lose his all, or he in exchange become a landed proprietor also, whose writings point him out as a proprietor of water only? or will the lord of the manor cut the matter short, and settle the difference between them? And as the counties of Westmoreland and Cumberland are bounded by the Lake for the whole length of it nearly, - does the Lake itself form no part of either county? or is the real boundary of the counties an imaginary line running in a sort of zig-zag direction in the centre of the Lake, to correspond with the windings of the shores - in cases of arrest, or some other legal process which requires a tolerable degree of certainty? W.M.
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