PLYMOUTH SOUND: ITS TIDAL CURRENTS. 289 
tide rises, increasing quantity of water flowing over the Bridge 
soon deflects at any rate a top layer, thus preventing a violent 
impact of the stream against the steep face of the channel. 
I cannot help thinking, however, that a small breakwater on the 
rocks at the western end of Drake’s Island, some two hundred yards 
long, or in fact till the deep water is reached from the main island 
in a westerly direction, would be of very great advantage to the 
Sound in producing a larger and safer anchoring ground for smal! 
vessels nearer shore, and less exposed than in the outer anchoring 
ground. It would also somewhat protect Millbay during a south- 
west gale, to which it is rather exposed. A similar breakwater on 
the eastern end of the island would be equally advantageous as a 
protection from southerly or south-easterly gales; but these have 
not the same effect on the Sound as a south-west gale. No serious 
deflection of current need be apprehended from these, as being only 
in shallow water, a very small quantity of water is deflected. 
The wash has a great influence on the extent and quality of 
beach on the coasts. Plymouth has no exception from these 
fluctuations, but, like other places, its small beaches vary with the 
weather. Kingsand beach, one of the best in the Sound, is more 
exposed than any of the others to easterly winds, and consequently 
to heavy seas from the open Channel. After a storm the beach will 
be raised two or three feet; the surface will be covered with fine 
sand, and a few small pebbles. Day by day this sudden accumula- 
tion is carried back during calm weather to its original position 
under low-water, till at the end of a long spell of fine weather the 
beach is very much excavated out, and its surface and body com- 
posed of rough shingle. 
At Kingsand, then, a sandy beach is evidence of rough weather, 
and a rough one of fine. A storm raises the beach, and a 
continuation of calm lowers it. The extent of the fluctuation is 
about five feet. The small beaches under the Hoe behave in a 
precisely similar manner. On the beach at the steps we have 
measured a general raising during a night of six inches on an 
ordinary storm, and the sand appears, as at Kingsand. 
