118 



THE OCEAX. 



We must not think that it is the force alone of the breakers that 

 demolishes the cliffs along the shore. The sea would be almost power- 

 less against the hard rocks, if, on approaching the shore, it was not 

 charged with all kinds of cUhris, blocks and pebbles, sand and shells, 

 projectiles which are hurled by every wave against the cliffs which 

 oppose them. Using thus the stones that have fallen as so many 

 battering-rams, the billows roll them over the strand to the foot of 

 the cliffs, dash them against the projecting points, and finally break 



6'Ai>'ofraris 



C»i5 \V of Pans 



Fig. 57. — Map of Abervrac'h. 



off masses and reduce them to sand. The sand itself, incessantly 

 washed against the rocks, wears away the most solid layers little by 

 little, and thus continues the work of destruction commenced by the 

 shingle ; it is in great part the fragments of the promontory itself 

 which serve to further its destruction. On all the rocky coasts of 

 Scandinavia, Scotland, Ireland, and Brittany, the multitude of reefs 



