THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



513 



tors just as they come down to the dead 

 line of No Man's Land and succeed in 

 saving themselves from the prison camps 

 of the sea bottom. 



In such cases they form themselves 

 into river deltas, like those of the Missis- 

 sippi, the Po, the Euphrates, and the 

 Ganges, although our own seaboard cap- 

 tives are not so fortunate, since deltas 

 are conspicuously absent from the river 

 mouths of the North American Atlantic 

 and Pacific coasts. 



In the attacks of the sea upon the land 

 via the air, it is the constant endeavor of 

 the water forces to bring the whole dry 

 land area under its liquid fist. If the 

 sea ever succeeded in its program of 

 world dominion, which includes dragging 

 every mountain down and filling up every 

 ocean trench with the material graded 

 from the. land in a leveling process, there 

 would be a universal ocean nearly two 

 miles deep over the face of the globe. 



water's allies in its air attacks 



The water has as allies ice and atmos- 

 phere in its air attacks upon the land. 

 Seeking out the fissures in a cliff and fill- 

 ing them, the water waits until the frost 

 comes and forms ice. 



No giant of any age, no superman, 

 imagined or real, ever put his shoulders 

 against an object with such smashing in- 

 vincibility as is evidenced in the forming 

 crystals of a piece of ice, while the air, elu- 

 sive, unsubstantial, as it may seem when 

 compared with water, is yet no mean con- 

 federate, because with its power to attack 

 through chemical transformation and its 

 extreme mobility, it can work important 

 results even in a brief campaign. 



Yet more to the immediate point of 

 this discussion is the frontal attack of 

 the sea against the land. With wave and 

 tide and wind and undertow, with coast- 

 wise current and ground swell, the sea 

 pounds perpetually at the gates of the 

 land fortifications. 



Starting at Eastport, Maine, let us take 

 a mental journey along the battle- front 

 and watch the great drive of the sea and 

 the defensive tactics of the land. On 

 the northwestern shore of Campobello 

 Island, that beautiful bit of British 

 ground which forms the seaward wall 

 of Eastport harbor, stands "Old Friar," 



a remarkable rock, isolated and solitary, 

 alone with its memories of a bygone day. 



It is but a different version of the 

 "battle" rocks that dot the granite forti- 

 fications for many weary miles on this 

 coast. These sturdy sentinels are isolated 

 forces which have withstood the buffeting 

 of the foe's advance and are the outposts 

 of the land legionaries in their mortal 

 combat with the wave army that sweeps 

 the coast in relentless fury. Their sup- 

 porting forces have fallen back, the 

 watery foe has entirely surrounded them, 

 yet boldly they defy his onrush and pre- 

 sent an inspirational picture of adaman- 

 tine resistance, as they break up the as- 

 sault of the succeeding waves that rush 

 against the main defenses. 



Enduring, inflexible, they continue to 

 hold where their weaker brethren yield 

 territory inch by inch. No Ten Thou- 

 sand Immortals, no Guard Regiments, no 

 Macedonian phalanx, ever stood their 

 ground more nobly than do the pulpit 

 rocks of the Maine coast. 



THE BATTLEMENTS OF THE MAINE COAST 



We have not traveled far when we dis- 

 cover that the Maine coast is an unbroken 

 series of steep battlements. Without 

 power to advance, without mobility to 

 shift their positions, these cliffs are des- 

 tined to a defensive plan of campaign, 

 while the waves possess initiative, and 

 their generalship is of no mean order. 



Breaking relentlessly upon the eternal 

 rocks, the waters might still wage a vain 

 war, did they not succeed in capturing 

 from the cliffs stones and boulders which 

 they use as projectiles when they return 

 to the attack. Here hard, ungrained 

 granite armor-plate stands in the path of 

 the onrushing waves, with such un- 

 daunted and unconquerable strength that, 

 smash as they will, hammer as they may, 

 the waves retreat after their attack, 

 powerless to entirely reduce the defenses. 



Farther along is another great mass of 

 similar material, and it stands with cor- 

 responding might against the sea. But 

 between them there is a series of cliffs 

 made up of softer rock — the old men and 

 the young boys of the land forces. Their 

 morale is not high, their strength is not 

 great, and so they give ground. 



The flanks hold, but the center yields, 



