Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/328

 together by chain cables, thus forming a line of a quarter of a mile parallel to the beach. To these cables add at distances of one or two or more feet, secured by a few links of light chain, a series of prepared electric telegraph wires; the wires to be long enough to meet the rise and fall of the tide and of the wave unstrained, the upper end to be linked to a light buoy. To these buoys attach one or more coir ropes, or the stems of the ratan (both very buoyant), stretching as far in shore as may be necessary, and along these ropes secure continuously a series of cocoa-nut or date leaves, stem to the Surf; or as these leaves are perishable, secure in their stead a certain number of fimbriated filaments of gutta percha or India rubber, made to resemble cocoa-nut leaves and equally flotile; and the same effects may be expected from them as from the bank of reeds on the Megna, or the sea-weed filaments on the coast of Africa. Instead of one line of chain and its attachments, it would probably be better to have two, three or more lines,each having its separate series of ropes and filaments. (As seen in the lithograph.) The extra cost of old anchors and chain cables would be trifling. This would be less liable to entanglement, would be much more manageable, would be less liable to rupture, and would be still more efficient as a breakwater.

"It may be stated in objection, that both wind