The daily Alaskan., 1916-07-27
WAR
TheN Ulending Struggle Between
 the Sea and the Shore.
VICTORIES ON BOTH SIDES.

of the world are waging against Its lands. John Oliver LaGorce, associate editor of the National Geographic so- ciety, has prepared for that instltu. ton study of this striking struggle between the earth and the sea with the shores lines of the world as the far flung theater of war.
 After calling attention to the fact that the processes which have trans. GOrmed the polar regions from dense jungles of tropical growth into lands of perpetual ice and snow, which have brought the tops of mountains to the bottom of the sea and the bottom of the sea to the tops of mountains, are still going on, although the hands upon the face of the clock of geology move so slowly that we cannot perceive their movement, Mir. LaGOrce con. Cinues:
 Along every coast line on the face of the earth there is perpetual warfare between the land and the sea. with the wind as the shifting line, now throw ing its weight into the balance on the one side and now on the other. Here the land is taking the offensive, driving the sea back foot by foot. always with the aid of the wind; there the sea mar shals a great drive and eats Its way landward slowly and laboriously, but none the less successfully.
 "The varying fortunes of this relent. less and age long war which neither truce nor treaty will ever bring to an end can be read in the shifting sands of the seashore. At many points along the coast of the northeastern states are found bold cliffs, and the charging sea attacks them with the shot and shell of loose shingle. Some of them, how, ever, are adamant and impregnable in their frontal Notifications and hold out against the SOrest siege, but between them have occurred stretches of softer rock which have been literally pound. ed to dust by the ocean's heavy artil. lery, thus permitting flank attacks on the hitherto uncOnquered defenses.
 Along the southeastern coust, how. ever the rock bound cliff is the excep- tion and the long stretches of glittering sand the rule. Here the sandy beach reaches out farther and farther into the sea, and the water is thus enabled to penetrate farther and farther into the land because the attack of the sea is usually frontal movement and that of the land frequently q wedge attack. Thus we can account for the long straight shore on the one hand and the split on the other.
 "The formation of the beach immedi' ately guarded by the Cape Henry light is not changing so rapidly as is the case only a few miles on either side be. cause of its somewhat protected posi- tion, due to the many sand bars or reefs far out from shore which, acting as the first trenches, serve to break the charge of the white horses of Father Neptune us they dash in from the ocean, and. because of this knowledge of defense, 1t is plain to be seen that a good Quar ter of a mile of beach has been added by the defender since the old light was erected.
 "ROckaway beach. Long Island. grows westward at the rate of nearly a mile every twenty years. At Nag Head, N. C., the land has extended into the sea at the rate of thirty-fve feet a year. In 1894 pr. Nathaniel Bowdltch prepared q chart of Salem and Marbehead harbOrs. giving the sOundings oyer various lodges of rock Ninety years later similar sOundings were taken, and In all cases the water was found to be considerably deeper, once again telling the tale of endless warnings.
 "On the shore of Cape Cod. near Chatham, the land is retreating at the rate.of foot q year, and on the south. ern shore of Murthas Vineyard 1t is giving up the fight to the enemy at the rate of three feet every twelve months. while on the southern face of Nan. tucket the retreat has been as much as six feet Il year. the records tell us.
 Tn its incessaut warfare against the land the sea literally takes its cap tured hosts and makes them do battle under it's command. The powders that are shattered from the face of cliff are dashed up against 1t again and again, hammering others loose, the while being worn round and smooth as the projectile of big guns must be. As the process goes on these huge shells are worn down and crumbled un. til there remains nothing to tell the story of forced fighting against their own stronghold save grains of sand on some distant beach or the soft carpet spread upon the floor of the sea many fathOms deep.
 How rapidly this process goes on is sometimes strikingly shown. A schoon- CT laden with bricks Is beaChed on some bare shore in storm. These bricks are rolled and tumbled a dis. tance of five miles or so in the course of a year, and by that time attritiOn has usually completed its work. Au. h. .1,- 70