TIDES AND OCEANIC HIGHWAYS. 351 



placing of the enormous blocks which form the upper part of the breakwater ; the diffi 

 culties conquered by the dexterity and ingenuity of the workmen ; the transport of the 

 blocks, and, above all, their extraction from the quarries. When we visit the workshops 

 of the artificers and the operations of the quarry-men," he continues, " it is admirable to 

 observe man, so weak and so feeble, manage at his will the enormous masses he has 

 detached from their beds, in order to precipitate them into the ocean, to form other hills. 

 The roads formed in the air for the transport of the useless earth and broken fragments ; 

 the lines of cranes and their combined labour ; the movements of the carriages ; the 

 arrival, the loading, and the departure of the vessels present to the eye of an admirer 

 of great works and of the mechanical arts, one of the most pleasing and imposing spec 

 tacles it is possible to contemplate." The artificial barrier has answered the purpose 

 for which it was constructed, as admirably as if a natural rampart of rock occupied its 

 site ; and Plymouth Sound is now a safe and convenient roadstead for the largest men- 

 of-war. 



The effect attributed to "a soft answer," the moderation of wrath, has frequently 

 been illustrated by a reference to the action of oil upon waves. From the time of Plu 

 tarch and Pliny, who relate, that the mariners of their day were accustomed to still waves 

 in a storm by pouring oil into the sea, it has passed current in popular speech, that this 

 effect by such means may be produced, and though treated with discredit in modern 

 times, experiment proves that there is some truth in the statement. Among the facts 

 reported in favour of it, the following occurs in a letter to Count Bentinck from M. Ten- 

 gragel, dated Batavia, Jan. 5th, 1770: "Near the islands Paul and Amsterdam we 

 met with a storm, which had nothing particular in it worthy of being communicated to 

 you, except that the captain found himself obliged, for greater safety, in wearing the 

 ship, to pour oil into the sea, to prevent the waves breaking over her ; which had an 

 excellent effect, and succeeded in preserving us. As he poured out but a little at a time, 

 the East India Company owes perhaps its ship to only six demi-aumes of olive oil. I was 

 present upon deck when this was done, and I should not have mentioned this circum 

 stance to you, but that we have found people here so prejudiced against the experiment, 

 as to make it necessary for the officers on board, and myself, to give a certificate of the 

 truth on this head, of which we made no difficulty." It was the practice of the fishermen 

 of Lisbon, when about to return into the river, if they saw before them too great a surf 

 upon the bar, which they apprehended might fill their boats in passing, to empty a bottle 

 of oil into the sea, to suppress the breakers. Previous to the time of Franklin, no man 

 of science made experiments upon the subject ; but his attention was called to it by a 

 circumstance which he thus narrates: "In 1757, being at sea in a fleet of ninety-six 

 sail bound for Louisbourg, I observed the wakes of two of the ships to be remarkably 

 smooth, while all the others were ruffled by the wind, which blew fresh. Being puzzled 

 with the differing appearance, I at last pointed it out to our captain, and asked him the 

 meaning of it. 'The cooks,' said he, 'have, I suppose, been just emptying their greasy 

 water through the scuppers, which has greased the sides of those ships a little ;' and this 

 answer he gave me with an air of some little contempt, as to a person ignorant of what 

 everybody else knew. In my own mind I at first slighted his solution, though I was 'not 

 able to think of another." The issue of one of Franklin's experiments upon a pond on 

 Clapham Common, is detailed in a volume of the Philosophical Transactions. After 

 dropping a little oil into the water, he states : " I saw it spread itself with surprising 

 swiftness upon the surface, but the effect of smoothing the waves was not produced ; for 

 I had applied it first upon the leeward side of the pond, where the waves were largest, 

 and the wind drove my oil back upon the shore. I then went to the windward side, 

 where they began to form ; and there the oil, though not more than a tea-spoonful, pro- 



