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. . . . a kind ^H 



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-.:nby 





HUTTONIAN THEORY. 



433 



ecefTary to bal 



The wa 



of rifing to the height i 

 great undulations which are without 

 ter runs, therefore, as it were, from a higher to 

 a lower level, fpreading itfelf towards the land 

 ;. This produces the breakers on our fhores, 



fide. 



and the furf of 



fand-bank coming with 



pical feas 



A rock or a 

 diftance of 



the furface, is fufficient, in any part of the ocean, 

 to obllruca the natural fucceffion of undulations ; 

 and, by deftroying the mutual readion of the 

 waves, to give them a progreilive inflead of a 

 reciprocating motion. 



381. It is, however, but from a fmall diftance, 

 that the waves are impelled againft the fliorc 

 with a progreffive motion. The border of break- 

 ers that furrounds any coaft is narrow, compa- 

 red with the diftance to which the detritus from 

 the land is confeiTedly carried ; the water, while 

 it advances at the furface. flows back at the bot- 



tom : and thefe contrary motions are fo 



ly 



qual 



but a very momentary 



I 



lation of the water that is ever produced on any 

 fhore. 



If it were otherwife, and if it were true that 

 the fea throws out every thing, and carries av/ay ^ 

 nothing, we fhould have a conftant accumula- 

 tion of earth and fand along all fhores whatfo- 

 ?Yer, at leaft wherever a ftream ran into the fea, 



Ee . This, 





¥' 



