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HUTTONIAN THEORY. 



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line of the fhore has been determined by the 

 a(5tion of the fea. The naked and precipitous 

 cliffs which overhang the deep, the rocks hollow- 

 ed, perforated, as they are farther advanced in 



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the fea, and at lait infulated, lead to the fame 

 conclufion, and mark very clearly fo many dif- 

 ferent ftages of decay. It is true, we do not fee 

 the fucceffive fleps of this progrefs exemplified 

 in the ftates of the fame individual rock, but 

 we fee them clearly in different individuals ; and 

 the convidion thus produced, when the pheno- 

 mena are fufficiently mnltiplied and varied, is- 

 as irrefiflible, as if we faw the changes adually 

 effected in the moment of obfervation. 



On fuch Ihores, the fragments of rock once 

 detached, become inltruments of farther de- 

 llrudion, and make a part of the powerful 

 artillery with which the ocean aflails the bul- 

 warks of the land : they are impelled againft 

 the rocks, from which they break off other frag- 



ments, and th 

 one another : 



hoi 



J are thus ground againfl 

 whatever be their hardnefs, they 



educed to gr 

 d figure of 



the fmooth fur face 



d 



h, are the moft certain 



proofs of a detritus which nothing can refift 



98. Again, where the fea-coaft is f! 



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abund 



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land 



degradat 



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in the beaches of fand and fmall 



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the fand banks and flioals that are continually 



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