Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/97

 CHAP. in. 8, 9. INTRODUCTION. 83 8. These river deposits are prevented from advancing fur- ther into the sea by the regularity of the ebb and flow, which continually drive them back. For after the manner of living creatures, which go on inhaling and exhaling their breath con- tinually, so the sea in a like way keeps up a constant motion in and out of itself. Any one may observe who stands on the sea-shore when the waves are in motion, the regularity with which they cover, then leave bare, and then again cover up his feet. This agitation of the sea produces a continual move- ment on its surface, which even when it is most tranquil has considerable force, and so throws all extraneous matters on to the land, and " Flings forth the salt weed on the shore." l This effect is certainly most considerable when the wind is on the water, but it continues when all is hushed, and even when it blows from land the swell is still carried to the shore against the wind, as if by a peculiar motion of the sea itself. To this the verses refer " O'er the rocks that breast the flood Borne turgid, scatter far the showery spray," 2 and, " Loud sounds the roar of waves ejected wide." 3 9. The wave, as it advances, possesses a kind of power, which some call the purging of the sea, to eject all foreign substances. It is by this force that dead bodies and wrecks are cast on shore. But on retiring it does not possess suffi- cient power to carry back into the sea either dead bodies, wood, or even the lightest substances, such as cork, which may have been cast out by the waves. And by this means when places next the sea fall down, being undermined by the wave, the earth and the water charged with it are cast "back again ; and the weight [of the mud] working at the same time in conjunction with the force of the advancing tide, it is the sooner brought to settle at the bottom, instead of being 1 Iliad ix. 7. 1 Being swollen it rises high around the projecting points, and spits from it the foam of the sea. Iliad iv. 4'25. 3 The lofty shores resound, the wave being ejected [upon the beach]. Iliad xvii. 265. G 2