29G THE BOTTOM OF TEE SEA. 



sary to study with care the phenomena by which we 

 are surrounded to dispel it for ever. 



Continual change is going on in the basins of 

 seas. These changes make, generally speaking, but 

 slow progress, and are therefore difficult to follow ; 

 but little by little they assume a character of the 

 greatest importance. Sometimes, however, they are 

 sudden, and accompanied by phenomena so terrible 

 as to strike mankind with horror, and apparently to 

 disturb the harmony of the universe. 



How shall we demonstrate the truth ot our state- 

 ment, that the bed of the Ocean is constantly chang- 

 ing? What we observe is that the sea rushes 

 furiously against the shore, and throws its foam over 

 the highest rocks. As the waves roll in, it would 

 almost seem as if nothing could oppose a barrier to 

 them : suddenly they are arrested, and the dreaded 

 power expends itself by diffusion, as it were, in an 

 inoffensive sheet of water. But another wave follows 

 the first. A third presses on, and almost overleaps 

 the former two. Nevertheless each succeeding column 

 of the invading army is vanquished at the same 

 point ; in a word, the sea has encountered its shore. 



Thus, day after day, the ocean seems to hurl 

 defiance against the earth ; and if it retires, it is to 

 renew the assault against the barriers which it seems 

 resolved to break through, with redoubled streno^th. 



