THE wave's tooth 



147 



Fate of the 

 bowlderi. 



ter storm comes the waves lift them and drive 

 them landward with great force. Countless 

 smaller bowlders carrying their modicum of 

 fronds that hang down like fringes, are driven 

 against them, the sands sweep around and over 

 them, sea shells cut them, the shock against the 

 cliff walls breaks them. After a time the pro- 

 tecting sea weed is torn from them, they gi'ow 

 rounder, smaller, and are more easily driven 

 with the waves. Finally they are all ground 

 down to gravel and sand and flung along the 

 beaches in a shower or carried seaward by the 

 undertow. 



Not one but millions of bowlder blocks along 

 the rocky shores are, year by year, going through 

 this process of disintegration. If the block 

 happens to be a hard piece of stone it will last 

 for a long time, and, while being slowly ground 

 to sand, will work destruction to the things that 

 grind. With a semi-human instinct it turns its 

 flint edge against the softest piece of the op- 

 posing rock and works on that first — or at least 

 it so appears judging from results. For every- 

 where on bowlder and cliff the wear is uneven. 

 The wall presents a gnawed appearance, is hol- 

 lowed out in spots, scooped in segments and 

 half-circles, eaten through at the back, probed 

 along seams and ledges, scoured smooth in ba- 



Soft parts of 

 cliff worn 

 first. 



