C. Lloyd Morgan — Physiographtj. 243 



showed that since they were left in their present position, they 

 had not suffered for long the attacks of rain and wind. Great 

 cracks at the surface, here and there, showed that destructive action 

 was still in progress ; and when I looked at the lately fallen blocks 

 of earth below, I felt that it was possible that the grass tufts, on 

 which I stood, might be the next to fall amidst the ruins beneath 

 me. But though the action of the weather was thus clear, the 

 sea-waves, which alone permitted that action to continue, were 

 not idle. The brown colour of the sea for some distance from 

 the shore gave evidence of this, and while I stood upon the beach, 

 I saw several projecting blocks of clay wasted by more than half. 



In Scotland and Western England, where the rocks are hard, 

 the advance of the sea upon the land is quite imperceptible. All 

 the beauties of our coast scenery, our bold headlands and sweeping 

 bays, result from this unequal action of the sea upon the harder and 

 softer rocks of which our island is built up. But little observation 

 is necessary to make it clear that, along any coast-line, the pro- 

 montories are composed of hard rock, the bays of a softer material. 

 Sea-side scenery is, therefore, a joint product of wave action and 

 the geological structure of the coast. We must not forget, however, 

 that it is only along its margin, where it beats upon the shore-line, 

 that the sea is an agent of denudation. Throughout its great extent 

 the ocean is the area of deposit and construction, just as the land 

 is the area of destruction and waste. Beneath the sea the products 

 of that waste come to rest. Strange as it sounds, the sea is the 

 cradle of the land. Beneath the waters of the ocean are formed 

 those layers of sediment which will some day be raised above the 

 waters to form the framework of new continents. 



From the answer to our first question, then, we learn that the 

 waves are advancing upon the land, and thus producing our coast 

 scenery, and that they are caused by the winds. 



Let us next consider the streamlet at our feet. What is it doing, 

 and how comes it here ? That little streamlet, if we will but listen 

 to it, can tell us much about what the great rivers of the earth 

 are doing. Let us learn from it. In the first place, then, we see 

 that this miniature river ^ is gradually changing its course. The 

 main current strikes against one bank more than the other. The 

 result is that this bank is forced to recede. Its tiny cliffs are 

 undermined by the action of the stream, and the upper portions, 

 now and again, topple over with a little splash into the water. 

 Here we have in miniature that which may be seen on an enormous 

 scale on the Mississippi and the Amazons. Large vessels may there 

 be made to rock by the waves created by the fall of great masses 

 of the concave bank, the river having in this way advanced upon 

 the land hundreds of yards, and, in some cases, even, several miles, 

 within the memory of living men. 



This shows how a stream cuts its way sideivays into the land. 

 This is not, however, the most important part of what a river does. 

 If we follow our stream a little way inland, we shall discover that 

 1 Miniature Physical Geology, Nature, March 8, 1877. 



