154 THE OCEAN 



former limits. You marvel how this can be, 

 how the sea can grow smaller in one spot and 

 can grow larger and deeper in another, but in 

 reality this is not what has taken place. When 

 we say the sea recedes it does not mean that 

 the water actually becomes less in the ocean, 

 and when we say the sea encroaches on the 

 land we do not mean that the ocean really 

 grows larger, for when it is extending shore- 

 ward in one spot it may be backing away from 

 the land in another and whether it does one 

 or the other depends a great deal upon the 

 character and situation of the land, and the 

 wind. 



If the shore is flat, low and sandy a heavy 

 storm may cut far into it in a single day or 

 a night and the breaking waves and undertow 

 may carry enormous masses of material into 

 deep water. In this way the coast line, where 

 sandy, may be wonderfully altered in a few 

 hours and a cape may disappear or a penin- 

 sula be cut in two in a short time. The sand, 

 washed away from the shore, may be carried 

 far out to sea and scattered over the bottom in 

 deep water or it may travel but a short dis- 



