DIVISIONS OF SIIORE-IINE 



39 



and currents are strongest, while the sand often travels in 

 the deeper water at some distance from the shore-line. They 

 both commonly arrive in the end at some characteristic beach 

 where they enter on another chapter in their singular history. 

 In beginning our study of beaches, it will be well to 

 choose some part of the shore where the cliff district has an 



f 





The Isles of the Cyclops, near Catania, Sicily 



Showing the extremity ot a lava stream much carved by the sea. The bowlders in the foreground and 

 middle distance constitute a natural sand factory. 



irregular front, exposing bold headlands to the free assault 

 of the waves, while near by there are embayed recesses into 

 which the detritus, in the form of pebbles, can be impounded, 

 like the balls in the pockets of the old-fashioned billiard table. 

 An ideal e.xhibition of these conditions is given in the illus- 

 trations of this chapter. It will be seen that the waves and 



