THE STORY THE SEA TOLD 153 



He may even relate how his grandfather or 

 great-grandfather was wrecked upon the coast 

 and was washed upon the strange-shaped pin- 

 nacle of rock and clung there all night long, 

 while the angry waves dashed about him and 

 almost tore him from his precarious foothold. 

 If you meet such an old man who can re- 

 member events and the location of objects for 

 sixty or seventy years back, you will be in luck, 

 for the book of the sea has been written under 

 his very eyes and although he may not know 

 it, he has seen many a page of the ocean's story 

 completed during his long life. The old tree 

 which formerly stood in the meadow and now 

 topples at the brink of the waves proves that 

 the sea has gradually eaten into the land and 

 that what was once the shore is now far be- 

 neath the waves. The dilapidated dock, high 

 and dry above the tide, shows that the sea has 

 receded and is forming a new shore from what 

 was once the bed of the ocean, while the 

 carved, rocky point, once worn and cut by 

 wind and waves, marks a former coast-line 

 and its height above the present sea proves 

 how far the waters have receded from their 



