THE COASTS OF SAINTONGE. 295 



Biscay presents us with a curious example of these 

 erosions, but in cases analogous to those to which 

 we have referred the modifying action of rivers or of 

 the ocean is always exerted in one and the same 

 directiop, whether in the creation or the destruction 

 of deposits. In Saintonge, owing to the structure 

 of the continent and the mineralogical nature of the 

 soil, these two effects are being simultaneously pro- 

 duced. Everywhere the ocean attacks and demo- 

 lishes piece by piece the salient points of the coast, 

 everywhere it fills up the receding portions ; and the 

 final results of this double action will be to fill up 

 gulfs no less than to wear away advancing promon- 

 tories. Sooner or later the coast line to the north of 

 La Gironde, from Point la Coubre as far as Longue- 

 ville, which was formerly so deeply indented, will be 

 almost as uniform as that which extends southward 

 from the Point de Grave as far as Saint- Jean- de- 

 Luz ; or at most a few slight curves, formed by the 

 alternation of flat beaches and headlands, will be all 

 that remains to our descendants of the deeply in- 

 dented bays, the advanced capes and peninsulas, of 

 former days. 



Whether in respect to ancient or to modern times, 

 the formation of new land is confirmed both by direct 

 observation and by historical evidence, but tradition 

 has almost always been the only authority in reference 

 to the encroachments of the sea, and this species of 

 proof is often of a very inconclusive kind. The for- 

 mation, since the Roman epoch, of the bay of Mount 

 Saint Michael, the separation, not earlier than the 

 middle agey, of the island of Sesambre, which is now 



