2 6 THE SOUTHERN CLIFFS 



rotten ice covers the sweet waters hour by hour as they 

 trickle through the drying sand. In all other respects 

 the shore remains unchanged, except for the greater 

 symmetry and order worked by winter storms. The 

 waves are the rakes and sieves and rollers which the 

 sea sets to work to arrange the gravel-walks and borders 

 of the great public garden which surrounds the island. 

 They work, as Frank Buckland showed, on a uniform 

 plan, and the storm, far from leaving confusion and 

 disorder on the fringe of ocean, is merely an effort of 

 Nature to work " overtime " and get things straight in 

 a hurry. Doubtless many of the more fragile ornaments 

 are broken in the process ; but the order of the strand 

 is never so perfect as when seen in the bright, calm 

 weather which follows a December gale. The onward 

 rush of the breakers carries the shingle with it in what 

 would seem the reverse of the natural process. The 

 largest and heaviest boulders, and the light and floating 

 sea-weed are carried furthest, to the very base of the 

 cliff, and are there sorted and piled, the boulders below, 

 and the sea-weed above them in large level banks which 

 steam and swelter in the winter sun. Next to this, in 

 long escalloped bays, lies the pebble-bank. This, 

 again, is lined by the shingle-layers, which are fringed 

 in turn by the finest debris of the storm, the siftings 

 and dust of the sea-wash, a yard of which will give 

 delight for hours to the eye, and days of discovery with 

 the microscope. Beyond this lies the finest layer of all 

 the irreducible and innumerable sands. The sea- 

 siftings are the strangest medley in little of the com- 



