ALONG SHORE 
147 
spreads, and it may stir romantic thoughts in 
the minds of lovers; but from a picturesque 
point of view one is at some loss to discover 
anything remarkable about its looks. 
Not so with the ebb-tide, when the water goes 
out and leaves great beds of rock and sand and 
reef exposed to view. It is not merely that the 
exposed places are curious for their wealth of 
sea-weed and barnacle and stranded ocean-life, 
but they are often extremely interesting as 
form and color. The great bowlders covered 
with clinging fringes of sea-weed are graceful in 
outline, and quite charming in such tones as dull 
yellow and sage-green. The pools left in the 
rocks and the gravel-pens are marvellous studies 
in different hues, and the dark, water-worn rock- 
bases offer a strong contrast to the light-gray 
tops bathed in the sunlight. Even the black 
spots of sunken ledges, hulks, or broken piers 
that peep above the water at low tide have a 
picturesque quality about them, lending accent 
to the scene ; and the sweeping indentations of 
the coast, the bridges, pulpits, and rugged prom- 
ontories all seem so much more powerful and 
massive in form when the tide is out. 
The curves and lines along a coast are 
an unending study. Not merely the smooth 
The ebb- 
tide. 
