Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/325

 the rail on one side and the roadstead on the other, and not see the difficulties of transporting the enormous traffic that must soon pass between them? Who can look at the present barbarous mode of transit through the surf and not feel humiliated, that all our national skill at sea is superseded by native ingenuity; Britannia does not rule the wave at Madras! but is glad to give up her Trident to primitive bare-bottomed natives, and place herself under their command!!

"Numerous plans for overcoming the surf have long been debated. A stone breakwater is totally out of the question; a harbour of any sort is equally impracticable; unless we could contract with those most skiful architects,the coral insects, and even they would take a few thousand years to do it well.

"A floating breakwater of carpentry appears more feasible, but as I will shew,it would be of very little service;for the surf though broken in passing through the carpentry, would speedily be formed again, as the wave rolled in shore, and nearly as high as at first.

"But it appears that all local attempts to master the surf have been despaired of; as two of our most scientific men are at present advocating a harbour being constructed, ten or fifteen miles distant from Madras. As a place of shelter for ships this harbour may be very desirable, but I