THE OCEAN, 



Vated and peopled, at one time ; or by leaving its bed to be 

 appropriated to the purposes of vegetation, and to supply a new 

 theatre for human industry at another. 



In this struggk* between the earth and the sea for dominion, the 

 greatest number oour shores seem to defy the whole rage of the 

 waves, both by their height and the rocky materials of which they 

 are composed. The coasts of Italy, for instance, are bordered 

 with rocks of marble of different kinds, the quarries of which, may 

 easilv be distinguished at a distance from sea, and appear like per- 

 pendicular columns, of the most beautiful kinds of marble, ranged 

 along the shore. In general, the coasts of France, from Brest to 

 Bourdeaux, are composed of rocks ; as are also those of Spain and 

 England, which defend the land* and only are interrupted, here 

 and there, to give an egress to rivers,, and to allow the conveni- 

 ences of bays and harbours to our shipping. It may be in general 

 remarked, that wherever the sea is most violent and furious, there 

 the boldest shores, and of the most compact materials, are found 

 to oppose it. There are many shores several hundred feet perpen- 

 dicular, against which the sea, when swollen with tides or storms, 

 rises and beats with inconceivable fury. In the Orkneys, where 

 the shores are thus formed, it sometimes, when agitated by a 

 storm, rises two hundred feet perpendicular, and dashes up it* 

 apray, together with sand, and other substances that compose its 

 bottom, upon land, like showers of rain. 



Hence, therefore, we may conceive liow the violence of the sea, 

 and the boldness of the shore, may be said to have made each other. 

 Where the sea meets no obstacles, it spreads its waters with a gen. 

 tie intumescence, till all its power is destroyed, by wanting depth 

 to aid the motion. But when its progress is checked in the midst, 

 by the prominence of rocks, or the abrupt elevation of the land, it 

 dashes with all the force of its depth against the obstacle, and 

 forms by its repeated violence, that abruptness of the shore which 

 confines its impetuosity. Where the sea is extremely deep, or very 

 much vexed by tempests, it is no small obstacle that can confine 

 its rage and for this reason we see the boldest sliores projected 

 against the deepest waters ; all less impediments having long before 

 been surmounted and washed away. 



In places where the force of the sea is less violent, or its tides less 

 rapid, the shores are generally seen to descend with a more gradual 



