The coast 
wave. 
CHAPTER VII 
ALONG SHORE 
Tue restlessness of the sea shows itself no- 
where more positively than where its waves 
encounter the opposition of the shore. The 
foam-backed rollers may jostle and rasp each 
other in the open and still drive on compara- 
tively unscathed ; but on the reef, the cliff, and 
the beach they fret and dash themselves to 
pieces. Almost every second they are breaking 
and falling, but their number seems not to 
lessen. New ranks replace the broken van- 
guard ; the breakers are never quiet, never at 
rest. On sand and beach and promontory the 
rub of the water is always felt, the wash of 
the wave is always heard. 
In calm weather the gentle, smooth-tongued 
swells seem quite harmless as they play in and 
out of rock-fissures and gravel-pens, or fall 
lightly on the white sand of the beach; but it 
is quite a different tale when the storm waves 
break, booming and crashing, on the coast. The 
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