O'Ebilly — On the Waste of the Coast of Ireland, S^-c. 121 



from the Atlantic, produced by gales of wind on some part of it, not 

 too distant, to allow the waves so caused entirely to subside before 

 they meet the land, rolling in upon the shores, and often breaking 

 with a heavy crash on them, causing, probably, as much abrasion as 

 the waves at any other time. These are technically known as ' ground 

 swells,' as they tear up the beaches exposed to them, hold abundance 

 of pebbles or sand, as the case may be, in mechanical suspension, and 

 even seem, as it were, to rise from the bottom of the sea, hurling 

 the mechanically-suspended substances upon the beach or against the 

 cliffs with a heavy gi'inding noise, frequently heard far inland. As 

 these ' ground swells ' very often roll in from the westward, the 

 coast from Morte Point to the Land's End is much exposed to it, 

 particularly towards the latter place. When, as it often does, the 

 Atlantic or ground-swell rolls from the south-westward, a large 

 portion of the southern coast, otherwise protected, is exposed to it ; 

 generally the formidable breakers caused by the swell, even in calm 

 weather, do not extend beyond the Prawle and Start-Points." 



(p. 439.) — " The ordinary breakers are well known to be the 

 crash of the waves produced by winds blowing on the coast, and 

 according to the exposui-e of the coast to open sea, other things being 

 equal, are their magnitude and destructive powers. 



" In many situations common atmospheric influences so combine 

 with the action of the breakers to produce the destruction of the 

 cliffs, that it may be difficult to say whether the loss of land may not 

 be more due to the one than the other ; in most places, however, the 

 breakers nearly cause the whole loss, leaving isolated rocks to show, 

 to a certain extent, the destruction they have caused. The cliffs, 

 from Trevose Head to new quay, may be selected as affording a 

 good example of the destruction of a coast by the action of heavy 

 breakers." 



(p. 440.) — " The rocks between Teignmouth and Lyme Eegis suffer 

 much loss from the action of the breakers upon them to an extent 

 that, if the latter possessed the average force of those which wear 

 away the coast last mentioned, very considerable inroads would be 

 made upon them, and the bay would be much enlarged northwards in 

 the course of a few thousand years. Independently, however, of the 

 loss by landslips, the Lias cliffs near Lyme Eegis are readily seen to 

 be washed away by the breakers, as may easily be observed between 

 Charmouth and that town, as also to the eastward of it. Consider- 

 able waste of this coast has thus been occasioned within the memory 

 of persons now living — a waste first recorded, we believe, by Do Luc, 



