Shore Devclop)ncnt in the Bras d'Or Lakes. — Wood/nan. 333 
out onto the foreland. The individual particles become suc- 
cessively rounder and smaller away from the initial point, those 
nearest it being comparatively large and angular. It is un- 
reasonable to suppose that these masses were taken offshore 
by currents, by currents were transported alongshore, and then 
raised into their present position. The continuity of the line 
of progressively roimder fragments, and the fact that the pieces 
are too large for the action of an}^ observed currents, are con- 
clusive evidence against this. 
In the second place, the action of the waves can be observed 
directly. In heavy winds, waves of considerable strength are 
blown up on the larger parts of the lakes ; and even in the 
smaller arms they may be capable of doing much work, when 
the relation of the major axis of the ba\' to the direction of the 
wind is right. The form and-direction of these projections in- 
to the waters of bays, as Whycocomagh bay, where a through 
current is not possible, are such as winds would cause 
and are not such as currents would produce. In the high 
winds just mentioned, the travelling of particles alongshore at 
the water's edge can be observed by careful and continued 
watching, and it can be shown that masses above a small size 
frequently travel for some distance so close to the land that 
they can be kept in sight. Indeed, in places it has been pos- 
sible to trace the path of a pebble in this migration, under 
dififerent conditions of shoreline and wind. In his "Shoreline 
Topography" (p. 192) Dr. Gulliver says: "When iiiore waste 
is supplied than the sea can deposit offshore, transportation 
alongshore begins." Direct observation here and elsewhere 
shows that, on the contrary, transportation alongshore need 
not depend in any way upon current, nor wait until a consider- 
able shoal is formed in open water ; but will take place at any 
time when there is a 'longshore component of wave force, 
often, as I have observed on the New Jersey coast, in direct 
defiance of a steady current. 
The conclusions to which I have been led by observations 
on the shores of the Bras d'Or lakes, coupled with those on the 
ocean front of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia and northeastern 
United States, may be summed up as follows, (i) The fore- 
lands of the lakes, where not influenced by stream action, are 
formed bv waves, generallv not normal to the contact of land 
