THE SEA-SHORE AT RYDE. 99 



at or near high water, as the tide on its recession 

 left a vast breadth of mud, which was too soft to 

 bear the lightest weight. But this mud-bank is 

 now almost covered by a layer of fine white sand, 

 which has formed a surface smooth and firm 

 enough to bear wheel-carriages, and which renders 

 bathing at all times safe and agreeable. This bed 

 of sand reaches to Binstead, having, during the 

 last fifty years, covered two miles of the shore ; 

 and it is said to be still extending to the west- 

 ward. To what cause this change is owing it is 

 difficult to explain ; but it is an example of an 

 alternation of deposits from the action of the sea 

 in circumstances apparently unchanged." 



