than those of small dimensions, and being
usually found upon the surface, they offer
nearly the whole of their bulk to the action
of the waves. Whereas the latter being
more uniform and closer packed
together, expose little more than their upper
surfaces, over which the waves have a
tendency to travel, rather than to lift them
from their bed. Thus the larger pebbles
are rolled about by every wave, whilst the
smaller pebbles are only moved in a mass.
Tliis seems to account for the position of
the largest shingles being always to
leeward, and to a certain extent explains the
diminishing process observable in this bar ;
but we confess it does not clear up the
mystery altogether: for why is not this
singular arrangement found upon other beaches?
For here it is so clearly marked, that a Portland
fisherman is said to be able to distinguish,
in the darkest night, any precise spot
on the beach by the size of the pebbles.

It has been further noticed, that the action
of the north-west wind clears away the
pebbles in parts of this bar, and that the
south-west wind restores them again. But
how is it that the same sized stones are
returned to their proper places, so as not to
interfere in a perceptible degree with the
diminishing process the shingles here are
subject to? Nature never seems to make a
blunder in returning the stolen shingle.
She never mixes her swans' eggs with her
pigeons' eggs or with blown sand. And it
must be borne in mind, that these incessant
changes and adjusting of particles is carried
on during a zig-zag movement of the whole
mass, without sensibly interfering with the
proportions of an intense thin strip of
shingles seventeen miles long, which still
retains, indefiance of these operations, a
gradation in the size of its pebbles from one
end to the other.

If this singular bar is cut in a transverse
direction in any part of its length, one general
slope exists. Thus from the summit
down to a depth of from three and a-half to
four and a-half fathoms below low water,
the rate of inclination varies from one in
five and a-half to one in seven. In the next
depth of two fathoms, the slope is one in
eight to one in eleven. Outside this the
slope is one in thirty, varying from six to
eight fathoms; at which depth below low-
water mark the shingle ceases entirely, and
is succeeded by fine sand. These angles of
inclination are very instructive to engineers,
in the forrmation of long-slope breakwaters
such as Cherbourg, Plymouth, Ardglass,
Donaghadee, &c.; and as the long slope
system was not fully carried out at any of
these works, their history is a history of
disasters. We read of hundreds of thousands
of tons of huge blocks of stone being carried
away by a single gale at Plymouth and
Cherbourg during their construction, and
even now a large staff of engineers and work-
men are constantly employed in repairs; but
Indeed, it seems that it belongs exclusively to
the variable and capricious effects of the
sea, when allowed to spend itself upon a long
slope, to fix not only the angle of repose, but
the very shape of the slope.

An attentive examination of the accumulative
and destructive action of the waves
upon shingle beaches has produced a rule,
so far as one can be formed upon this subject.
It has been observed that when seven, or
any less number of waves fall upon the
shore per minute, that then a destructive
action is going on—or, in other words, that
the shingle is disappearing. But that when
nine or any greater number of waves beat
upon the shore in the same time, then an
accumulative action is going on—or the
beach is increasing. This rule, however,
must be received with caution, for it has
been remarked that shingle generally
accumulates with off-shore winds, and is scoured
off during on-shore winds, and we believe
that, however acute and scientific observations
may be conducted upon the action of
the sea at particular localities, that it would
not be prudent to receive such conclusions as
applicable to beaches in general. There was
an instance of this last winter, when a heavy
ground-swell, brought on by a gale of five
hours' duration, scoured away, in fourteen
hours, three million nine hundred thousand
tons of pebbles from the coast near Dover.
But in three days, without any shift of wind,
upwards of three million tons were thrown
back again. It should be mentioned that
these figures are, to a certain extent, conjectural,
but they approximate to the truth;
the quantities having been derived from careful
measurement of the profile of the beach.

A JOURNEY DUE NORTH.

I LAND AT CRONSTADT.

WE had no sooner cast anchor in the
harbour of Cronstadt (it needed something to
divert my attention, for I had been staring
at the forts and their embrasures, especially
at one circular one shelving from the top,
like a Stilton cheese in tolerably advanced
cut, till the whole sky swarmed before me, a
vast plain of black dots) than we were
invaded by the Russians. If the naval forces
of his imperial majesty Alexander the Second
display half as much alacrity in boarding the
enemies' ships in the next naval engagement
as did this agile boarding-party of policemen
and custom-house officers, no British captain
need trouble himself to nail his colours to the
mast. The best thing he can do is to strike
them at once, or put them in his pocket,
and so save time and bloodshed. On they
came like cats, a most piratical-looking
crew to be sure. There were big men with
red moustaches,  Yellow moustaches, drab
moustaches, grey moustaches, fawn-coloured
moustaches, and white moustaches. Some