Old Ocean as a Builder 



better. Before the coming in of the next tide 

 the surface hardened, like the sand-ridges already 

 described, and so, being covered over by new 

 layers of sand and gradually transformed into 

 rock, it was later uplifted above the sea, and 

 the holes have lasted intact until now. 



It may be objected that the time between one 

 high tide and another is hardly long enough for 

 any such hardening process — even on the hottest 

 and driest of summer days. 



Then the hardening may have taken place only 

 on that slender belt of sand, which is covered for 

 a day or tw^o by the spring tides, and is not again 

 reached by ocean-waves for nearly a fortnight. 



In earlier chapters it was shown — first, how the 

 Ocean is ever striving to keep a level surface ; 

 and secondly, how the object sought is never 

 attained to. 



Not only are the waters in ceaseless motion, 

 heaving to and fro under the influence of every 

 passing breeze, borne hither and thither by mighty 

 streams, disturbed by innumerable storms. But 

 also the powerful attraction of the land, par- 

 ticularly of great mountain ranges, lifts the sea- 

 surface in some reorions hundreds of feet hioher 



o o 



than in others. So that a ship, passing from 

 the neighbourhood of a mountainous coast to 



127 



