april— june, 1857.] Breakwater for Madras. 149 



ing Piers might be constructed to any extent at a very small ex- 

 pense, and even carried out to where ships might be along side of 

 them. In fact for all the great desiderata of a port ; for conveni- 

 ence of access, for smallness of risk in and going out, for cheap- 

 ness, and for security no port in the world would be superior to it. 



Of course under the shelter of such a work, every thing in the 

 way of wet-docks or other conveniencies of a port might be con- 

 structed as in any other harbour and any length of wharf of any 

 kind might be constructed at a moderate expense. 



I must however speak also of its " effects" upon the line of 

 Coast. When lately in London, a Merchant Mr. Robertson the 

 member for Hastings asked me about the possible improvement of 

 the port of Madras, and when I suggested a breakwater, he put to 

 me what I consider the most pertinent question in the matter, viz ; 

 would not the sand gradually extend out from the shore till it 

 joined the breakwater. My reply is this ; we need not theorize 

 when we have facts ; North of Madras we have two natural break- 

 waters, the Pulicat and the Armegon shoals, and these are both to 

 this day unconnected with the coast at either end; this seems to 

 me perfectly conclusive. These reefs differ indeed from the pro- 

 posed breakwater in that they do not come above the surface of 

 the water ; but they are sufficiently near the surface for the main 

 force of the swell of the sea to be expended on them instead of 

 breaking on the shore and this I consider to be just the same, so 

 far as the effect on the beach is concerned, as if they were above 

 water. 



As it is of importance that this paper should be as short as possi- 

 ble, I had better not go into detail about the motion of the sand 

 on the beach. I will only say that it is caused by the surf strik- 

 ing the beach a little obliquely, so that the sand that is stirred up 

 is always deposited a little to leaward of where it was taken up, 

 and hence there is always a stream of sand moving along the coast, 

 and if the surf were prevented by a breakwater, there would 

 certainly be an accumulation of sand to windward of the point 

 where the action of the surf ceased; this accumulation I believe 



