THE EARTH'S SURFACE SEA ACTION. 55 



especially if the bedding is nearly horizontal, it can 

 cut a plain ; but if the rocks are of different hard- 

 nesses, and are dipping at high angles, no such work 

 can be accomplished. In the first case the coast-line 

 ought to be in long gradual curves, but in the other 

 it must be quite irregular ; numerous headlands and 

 bays alternating ; the headlands indented by cooses 

 and guts ; while islands, carricks, carrigeens, and 

 skelligs lie off the coast and dot the bays, and the 

 soundings are quite irregular in some places being 

 deep, in others shallow. 



The deeps and shallows off a coast-line seem, in 

 a great measure, to depend on the dip of the rocks, 

 and appear to follow recognisable laws : rocks 

 dipping seaward at a low angle form low shore-lines 

 and shallow soundings; rocks dipping inland form 

 perpendicular or overhanging cliffs and deep sound- 

 ings ; while highly inclined or perpendicular strata 

 striking out to sea form most irregular coast- 

 lines, consisting of bays and headlands, with 

 numerous islands, rocks, and shallows lying off the 

 coast, according to the hard or soft nature of the 

 different beds of rock. These rules maybe altogether 

 modified by either jointing or cleavage; as one or 

 both of these structures may be more conspicuous 

 than the stratification, and direct the operations of 

 the denudant. 



Escarpments in general follow the basset or out- 



