H SEA AND LAND 



out along the bottom of the sea from a beach on to which the 

 waves are rolHng. These movements of the water can, how- 

 ever, convey the detritus to only a little distance from the 

 coast-line. In fact, however, the waves rarely come squarely 

 down upon the coast, but strike it a little obliquely, and the 

 wind generally blows in the same direction in which the waves 

 run. The result is that there is almost always a strong cur- 

 rent made by the water which the waves heave and that which 

 the wind blows against the shores, which sets as a river in one 

 or the oth(;r direction along the coast. Moreover, the tidal 

 currents, more or less combining with these actions, add to the 

 stream. Those who are familiar with the shore and have 

 seen a number of shipwrecks, know that the wreckage and 

 the bodies of the drowned usually do not come ashore just 

 abreast of the stranded vessel, but drift in one direction, 

 often to the distance of miles from the place of the disaster. 

 Those who have escaped by swimming or floating on spars to 

 the shore, have had an even more impressive experience with 

 this swift storm-born river of the coast. 



These shore currents are strong enough to sweep away a 

 part of the detritus formed along the shore ; even materials 

 as coarse as small pebbles may be carried by it to the deeper 

 re-entrant angles, where it is accumulated in the beaches 

 which we are in time to study. The coarser pebbles, which 

 are too heavy to be borne along by these currents, journey 

 in the grasp of the waves more slowly, but ever as certainly, 

 to the beaches. The process by which they travel is this : 

 Each wave, as it sweej)s up and down the slope next the 

 cliff, in most cases runs a little obliquely to the face of the 

 shore, so that with the movement the fragment journeys a 

 little way from the point where it first became rounded 



