272 SUMMER 



is the devouring quicksand. Quicksands may be defined as 

 water holding sand, instead of sand holding water in the 

 ordinary way. The stuff is too liquid to support weight, and 

 yet too tenacious to allow the embedded man or animal 

 to extricate itself. Imitation quicksands can be made by 

 working the sand beneath the foot till the concentration 

 of water softens the mixture ; in some sands it is possible, 

 for experiment's sake, to embed one's leg nearly to the knee, 



and to drag it out with a difficulty which explains the clasp 

 of the genuine quicksand. 



The orderliness and cleanness of the sea find an exquisite 

 expression in the unspoiled air of freshness which is found in 

 every cove after the fall of the tide. The sands scrawled and 

 trampled six or eight hours before are spread as smooth 

 again as if man had never trodden them ; the rocks drip from 

 their new bath, and the water in all the pools is freed of the 

 light scum of fine sand and other impurities which settles on 

 them even in the fresh air of the shore. Where an eddy 

 sweeps round a cove as the tide falls, the sand will be left 

 standing smooth and convex, with little trenches on the lee- 

 side of all the rocks. But where there is a steady onward 

 ripple the sand in the shallows preserves the ripple-marks. 



