1208 ACTION OF THE SEA UPON COASTS. 



truth : That our continents are not of a more remote 

 antiquity than has been assigned to them by the sacred his- 

 torian in the book of Genesis, from the great era of the 

 Deluge. 



NOTE H. 12. p. 50. 



Action of the Sea upon Coasts. 



The ocean, in its action upon the cliffs and banki 

 situated on the coasts, break them down to a greater or 

 less extent, and either accumulates the debris at their 

 basis in the form of sea breaches of greater or less mag- 

 nitude, or by currents carries it away to be deposited 

 upon other shores, or to give rise to sand-banks near 

 the coast, which, in the course of time, became united to 

 the land, and thus secures it from the further action of 

 the sea. These destroying and forming effects of the 

 waters of the ocean are to be observed all around the 

 coasts of this island ; and beautiful examples of such ac- 

 tions are to be seen on the coasts of Ireland, and in 

 many of the islands that lie on the west and north of 

 Great Britain. In a paper read before the Wernerian 

 Natural History Society, Mr. Stevenson, engineer, men- 

 tions many facts illustrative of the destroying effects 

 of the ocean on our coasts. Thus he informs us that the 

 waters of the sea are wearing away the land upon both 

 sides of the Frith of Forth, not only in exposed, but also 

 in sheltered situations, and the solid strata, as well as the 

 looser alluvial formations, which owe their origin to the 

 destroying agency of the ocean at a former period, are 

 again yielding to its action. At Saint Andrews, the fa- 

 mous castle of Cardinal Beatoun, which is said originally 

 to have been some distance from the sea, now almost 

 overhangs it: From St. Andrews northward to Eden 

 water and the River Tay, the coast presents a sandy 

 beach, and is so liable to shift, that it is difficult to trace 



