30 ALONGSHORE i 



Runkum — sounds as If it is driving against the 

 beach in fighting order; whereas sou'westerly waves 

 seem to be driven ashore pell-mell, and, as it were, 

 against their wish. With easterly winds there is 

 more rattle of shingle, but a less confused roar 

 of water. A ground-swell with little wind thumps 

 the shore more heavily than the lop raised by 

 much wind, but there are quieter intervals between 

 the thumps. When a northerly wind blows fairly 

 true off land, there are either no waves at all, the 

 merest murmur along the beach, or else, if there 

 be a swell, it is utterly tired and lazy. Gusty 

 west or west-sou'westerly winds are accompanied 

 by the babble of little waves breaking sideways 

 against the beach, and very rapidly one after 

 another — such a sound as you may hear beside 

 an inland lake. But the swell that those winds send 

 in from the Channel, if they blow long enough, 

 contains great bodies of water which pile them- 

 selves up off-shore and seem to hesitate, gathering 

 together their forces before they break; then swirl 

 in, foam-crested, and run far up the beach with a 

 long scraping rattle. The progress of a gale 

 can likewise be gauged without opening one's 

 eyes to watch through the window the clouds 

 bundling across a rectangular murky patch of sky. 



