1. People
tend to think of land and water on the
earth as if they were fixed in one changeless form. As if every
continent and every
island were of exactly the same
shape and size now that it always has been and always will be.
3. The work may go on slowly, but it does go on. The sea is always fighting against the land, beating down her cliffs, eating into her shores, swallowing bit by bit of
solid earth. Rain and frost and streams are always busily at work. They help the ocean in her work of
destruction. Year by year and
century by
century it continues. Not one country in the world, which is bordered by the sea, has the same coastline that it had one hundred years ago. Every land loses a part of its
material every
century. It is washed away, bit by bit, into the ocean.
4. Is this hard to believe? Look at the crumbling cliffs around old England’s shores. See the
effect upon the beach of one night’s
fierce storm. Mark the pathway on the
cliff, how it seems to have crept so near the
edge that here and there it is
scarcely safe to walk upon. Very soon, such a path will become
impassable. Just from a
mere accident, of course, the breaking away of some of the
earth, loosened by rain and frost and wind. But, this is an
accident that happens daily in hundreds of places around the world.
5. Leaving the ocean, look now at the river near your own
neighborhood. See the
slight muddiness which seems to color its waters. Why is that? Only a little
earth and sand is carried off from the banks as it flowed. It is very unimportant and small in
quantity,
doubtless, just at this
moment and just at this spot. But what of that little going on week after week, and
century after
century,
throughout the whole course of the river, and
throughout the whole course of every river in our whole country and in every other country? A
vast amount of
material must every year be torn from the land and given to the ocean. And the land’s loss here is the ocean’s.