Page 423
An.1687
Deep Seas near high Lands.
ground to be, more or less deep or steep ; there- fore we came nearer the shore, or anchor farther off, as we see convenient ; for there is no Coast in the World, that I know, or have heard of, where the Land is of a continual heighth, without some small Valleys or declivities, which lye inter- mixt with the high Land. They are these subsi- dings of Valleys or low Lands, that make dents in the shore, and Creeks, small Bays, and Harbours, or little Coves, &c. which afford good anchoring, the surface of the Earth being there lodged deep under Water. Thus we find many good Harbours on such Coasts, where the Land bounds the Sea with steep Cliffs, by reason of the Declivities, or subsiding of the Land between these Cliffs: But where the Declension from the Hills, or Cliffs, is not within Land, between Hill and Hill, but, as on the Coast of Chili and Peru, the Declivity is to- ward the Main Sea, or into it, the Coast being perpendicular, or very steep from the neighbouring Hills, as in those Countries from the Andes, that run along the shore, there is a deep Sea, and [few or no Harbours, or Creeks. All that Coast is too steep for anchoring, and hath the fewest Roads fit for Ships of any Coast I know. The Coasts of Gallicia, Portugal, Norway, and Newfoundland, &c. are Coasts like the Peruvian, and the high Islands of the Archipelago; but yet not so scanty of good Harbours ; for where there are short Ridges of Land, there are good Bays at the extremities of those Ridges, where they plunge into the Sea ; as on the Coast of Caraccos, &c. The Island of John Fernando, and the Island St. Helena, &c. are such high Land with deep shore : and in general, the plunging of any Land under Water, seems to be in proportion to the rising of its continuous part above Water, more or less steep ; and it must be a bottom almost level, or very gently declining, that