INTRODUCTION 



SIGNS ON THE BEACH 



THE sea-shore, with its stretches of sandy beach and rocks, 

 seems, at first sight, nothing but a barren and uninteresting 

 waste, merely the natural barrier of the ocean. But to the obser- 

 vant eye these apparently desolate reaches are not only teeming 

 with life ; they are also replete with suggestions of the past. 

 They are the pages of a history full of fascination for one who 

 has learned to read it. 



In this history even the grains of sand have a part. Though 

 so humble now, they once formed the rocky barriers of the shore. 

 They stood as do the rocks of to-day, defiant and seemingly ever- 

 lasting, but the fury of the sea, which knows no invincible adver- 

 sary, has laid them low. Every coast-line shows the destructive 

 effects of the sea, for the bays and coves, the caves at the bases 

 of the cliffs, the buttresses, stocks, needles, and skerries, are the 

 work of the waves. And this work is constantly going on. 



Even a blind man could not stand long upon a shingly beach 

 without knowing that the sea was busily at work. Every 

 wave that rolls in from the open ocean hurls the pebbles up 

 the slope of the beach, and then as soon as the wave has broken 

 and the water has dispersed, these pebbles come rattling down 

 with the currents that sweep back to the sea. The clatter of 

 the beach thus tells us plainly that as the stones are being 

 dragged up and down they are constantly knocked against 

 each other; and it is evident that by such rough usage all 

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