RESULTS OF WAVE-ACTION II 



where they have the effect we are describing, he will note 

 that, both to eyes and ears, the results are very different 

 from what he observed in the part of the shore where the 

 cliffs descended into deep water. Against the steep cliffs 

 there were no combing breakers, and the waves gave forth 

 only a muffled roar as they struck the steep ; here, however, 

 they rush up the stony beach in a confused white mass of 

 commingled water, air, and stones. As the mass strikes the 

 base of the cliff we hear the roar of the waters, and the keen 

 ear can detect also the crash of the stones as they strike 

 against the base of the cliff. 



If after the storm has ceased the observer will, at a time 

 of low tide, visit this strand which he could before see only 

 from a distance, he will be able to examine the result of the 

 wave-work. At the base of the cliff where the surofes have 

 beaten, he will generally find that the rocks have been rudely 

 cut out by the blows wdiich they have received, so that the 

 upper part of the steep somewhat overhangs its base ; he may 

 note where great masses of the stone deprived of support 

 have slipped away from their bed places, and fallen to the 

 strand. Some of these have been too large for the waves 

 to toss about, and they remain as angular fragments some- 

 w^hat rounded, it may be on the side toward the sea, by the 

 battering they have received from the pebbles which have been 

 hurled against them. Other and smaller pieces of the bed- 

 rocks which have fallen from the overhanging steep have been 

 worn against the base until they have had their sharp corners 

 beaten off; yet others have been ground into sj^heres by the 

 pounding they have received, looking like the stone cannon- 

 balls which in early times served in siege-guns. Putting 

 these facts tocrether so that their whole meaning is plain, the 



