HALF AN HOUR WITH THE WAVES. 11 



than two hundred tons. Can we wonder, when a 

 projectile of this character dashes against the solid 

 rocks, that we should feel the ground literally, and 

 not figuratively, tremble beneath our feet ? Along 

 the Norfolk coasts, a north-west gale will strip off, 

 in a single night, a deposit, twenty feet thick, of 

 sand which has been accumulating for months. So 

 much for the mechanical force of the waves, borrowed 

 in the open sea, far away from land, from the gales 

 which are perpetually pressing unevenly upon its 

 surface, and piling the salt water into miniature 

 mountains. But the pretty ripples which curl over 

 in green, graceful curves, and gently run along the 

 absorbing sands, owe that particular form to the 

 friction in the shallow water. As the tide comes 

 up, and gradually gains on the beach, the force with 

 which it comes in is more or less retarded by the 

 friction of the water on the sand. Thus the upper 

 portion of the water being freer from this drawback, 

 tends to run in more rapidly, and in doing so curls 

 over and breaks in the manner we have men- 

 tioned. 



We cannot do more, in the brief limits of our 

 " Half-hour," than notice those marine phenomena 

 to which allusion has already been made the oceanic 

 currents. We can hardly conceive the dreary, life- 

 less deserts of water our oceans and seas would be 

 without this simple and beneficent arrangement. 

 We know it for a fact that great bodies of water 

 constantly move in different directions, and, in doing 



