PREVENTING THE INROAD OF WAVES. 209 



dioular, and the waves break suddenly and with full 

 Fig. 176. force, like the blows 



of a sledge against 

 them. A better form 

 is shown in Fig. 

 176, where a slope 

 is first presented to weaken their force without impos- 

 ing a full resistance, and their strength is gradually 

 spent as they rise in a curve. A more gradual slope 

 than the figure represents would be still better. It is 

 on this principle that the stabihty of the world-renown- 

 ed Eddystone light-house depends. The base spreads 

 out in every direction, like the trunk of a tree at the 

 roots; and although the spray is sometimes dashed 

 over its lofty summit by the violence of the storm, it 

 has stood unshaken on its rocky base far out in the sea, 

 against the billows and tempests, for nearly a century. 

 An instance occurred many years ago in England, 

 where the superiority of knowledge over power and 

 capital without it was strongly exemplified. The sea 

 was making enormous breaches on the Norfolk and 

 Suffolk coast, and inundated thousands of acres. The 

 government commissioners endeavored to keep it out 

 by strong walls of masonry and breakwaters of timber, 

 built at great expense ; but they were swept away by 

 the fury of the billows as fast as they were erected. 

 A skillful engineer visited the place, and with much 

 difficulty persuaded them to adopt his simple plan. 

 Observing the slope of the beach on a neighboring 

 shore, he directed that successive rows of fagots or 

 brush be deposited for retaining the sand, which was 

 carted from the hills, forming an embankment with a 



