CHAPTER VII 



On the 

 beach. 



The coast 



ALONG SHORE 



THE restlessness of the sea shows itself no- 

 where more positively than where its waves 

 encounter the opposition of the shore. The 

 foam-backed rollers may jostle and rasp each 

 other in the open and still drive on compara- 

 tively unscathed ; but on the reef, the cliff, and 

 the beach they fret and dash themselves to 

 pieces. Almost every second they are breaking 

 and falling, but their number seems not to 

 lessen. New ranks replace the broken van- 

 guard ; the breakers are never quiet, never at 

 rest. On sand and beach and promontory the 

 rub of the water is always felt, the wash of 

 the wave is always heard. 



In calm weather the gentle, smooth-tongued 

 swells seem quite harmless as they play in and 

 out of rock-fissures and gravel-pens, or fall 

 lightly on the white sand of the beach ; but it 

 is quite a different tale when the storm waves 

 break, booming and crashing, on the coast. The 

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