SURF AROUND HEADLANDS 165 



if ever, possible to land small craft under these circumstances, if the 

 waves are more than 3 or 4 feet high or so. But there are many rocky 

 headlands, close in to which the water is several feet or fathoms deep, 

 even at low tide. And in such cases waves, advancing directly, may be 

 refracted so little that the breakers are not apt to be as heavy on the 

 tip of the headland as along its flanks. In extreme cases of this sort, 

 the inshore ends of waves that are low and short may not be visibly 

 refracted at all, as they rim in by the flanks of the headland, either 

 breaking along the latter, if the shoreline is a broken one, or simply 

 rising and falling along it, if the rocks are both smooth and steep. In 

 such circumstances, there may be no regular breakers at all on either 

 flank of a rocky promontory, though a low sea may be producing a 

 surf of moderate size on a beach nearby. But a heavy surf may be 

 expected, not only on the beach, but on both its headlands as well, in 

 stormy weather, because the waves are then so much higher and so 

 much longer that they break in much deeper water. It chances 

 that we are personally familiar with a location of this sort, where we 

 have long watched the varying state of the sea and of the surf with 

 much interest. We should point out, however, that mere absence of 

 surf along a rocky shore does not necessarily mean easy landing there, 

 for it may need only the rise and fall of the water level of only a few 

 feet, with the passage of successive crests and troughs, to render it 

 difficult to embark or to disembark from a small boat — especially since 

 these conditions are apt to exist only when the rocks are both so steep 

 and so smooth that it is not easy to find foothold. If the rocks are more 

 broken, the waves are sure to be breaking there, more or less violently, 

 according to their sizes and according to their direction of advance. 

 The degree to which the one side of a promontory will be protected, 

 when the waves are coming in against its other side, depends chiefly 

 on how abrupt the alteration is, in the direction of the coast, from the 

 more exposed side to the more sheltered. The inshore ends of the 

 waves may be refracted right around a short headland with broadly 

 rounded tip, no matter from what direction they come, if it fronts 

 on a sloping bottom, and may thus be directed up a bay or harbor, 

 where better shelter might be expected, if one were to judge from 

 the direction of the wind alone. Marblehead Harbor, Mass.. affords 

 an illustration of this for it sometimes suffers from swells from the 

 east through southeast to south in this way, although it actually faces 

 about northeast. And Gloucester Harbor, facing a little west of 

 south, was plagued similarly during storms from northeast, east, and 

 southeast, until a breakwater was built for its protection. Rollers 

 may even follow around the shore line until the breakers resulting 

 from them may run directly against the wind, if the coast gradually 

 falls back far enough to bring the wind offshore, a phenomenon de- 



