SYMMETRY OF SEA-BEACHES 4 1 



after a storm, which, however well we may enjoy the tempest, 

 is the more grateful to our senses. We may visit the rude 

 scenes of the besieged clifTs with the grim pleasure with 

 which one may behold a battle-field, but that is not the 

 place where one would dwell if he seeks harmonies and 

 the peace which comes with them. If one would al)ide by the 

 sea, it is better to seek a home by the beaches. 



At first sight even the most beautiful beach is likely to 

 seem, to those who are uneducated in the study of the shore, 

 to be rather monotonous and devoid of interesting features. 

 The smooth outlines of the scene suggest in themselves a 

 simplicity in the conditions which, we shall hnd, does not 

 exist. In fact, these even shores present a greater array of 

 actions, and afford the student a larger field of profitable 

 inquiry, than he has found in the apparently more varied 

 rock coast. It is because all the conditions of the eeoloeic 

 lite which lead to their growth and maintenance are per- 

 fectly adjusted to each other, that the w^ell-organized beaches 

 appear so simple. They are like the living forms of animals 

 and plants, where the shapely exterior hides the complicated 

 anatomy and the marvellously delicate adjustment of varying 

 and interesting functions, so that the creature seems to need 

 no explanation. This is not a vain analogy, for, as we quickly 

 see when we make a detailed study of any beach, it is in 

 many ways a highly organized structure. 



The best way to begin the study of these portions of the 

 strand is to select some small and pebbly pocket-beach near 

 a cliff section whence comes a plentiful supply of debris worn 

 from the bed-rocks by the action of the waves. At the horn 

 or extremity of the beach, next these cliffs, we may often 

 find bowlders roughly rounded by the rude mill of the surf 



