ASPECT OF A BEACH, AND ITS PROBABLE ORIGIN.—TRUE NATURE OF THE PEBBLES WHICH COMPOSE IT. I know of few things more pleasant than to ramble for a mile along one of our southern beaches in the early days of autumn. We get the sniff of the sea-breeze; we see prismatic colours dappling the water, or curiously reflected from capes of wet sand; solemn, beetling cliffs, broken here and there by a green slope, rise on one side of us; while, on the other, we are enchanted by the wild music of the waves, as they dash noisily upon the shingle at our feet, and then trickle back with faint, lisping murmurs into the azure gulf. Alpine scenery is majestic, and river-lit landscapes are delicious; but they seem as pictures of still life compared with the stir and resonance of the shore and the ocean. The breeze which bends the standing corn does not impart so much pleasure as that which dimples the bay at the foot of our rustic garden; the thunder-cloud resting on a mountain is not so impressive as that huge wall of inky blackness, which seems as if it would choke the very light and air while it gathers on the horizon, but will presently rend asunder and purify the overcharged atmosphere by launching a tempest upon the face of the deep. There are few persons who, after spending one or two consecutive summers at Eastbourne, or in the Isle of Wight, can repress an ardent longing to visit similar scenes from time to time. The sea-side stroll has, however, been accused of monotony. But this is either by really incompetent judges, or by inveterate sportsmen, to whom the neighbourhood of the ocean suggests nothing more apposite than a meet with harriers on the downs, or a raid upon puzzled rabbits in some outlying warren, with the aid of a keeper, ferrets, and “varmint” dogs. To such, even a brief The delicate actiniÆ and the rarer sea-weeds cannot be obtained in winter; but the pebbles, which are intended to form the subject of this little book, may always be met with; and the changes induced by rough winds and surging tides, yield them in even greater abundance. The pleasure of collecting pebbles has been greatly enhanced, to my mind, by considering how it is that we come to have pebbly beaches at all. Inevitable as these may appear to some people, they are quite a phenomenon in their way, and to the full as deserving our attention as the colony in a rabbit-warren. Originally, the land alone possesses such materials; but it is the sea which finds them out; and these two facts, The above may be rather a rough sketch of the source of a beach; but I believe it is correct in its leading features. In a subsequent chapter we may better note certain peculiarities which are more than meet the eye. But what are the pebbles themselves? Most persons have occasionally handled specimens of the precious stones or “gems;” but few of them, perhaps, are aware that our pebbles of the road-side and sea-shore claim a common origin with these dazzling crystals. Such is, however, the fact. Chemical analysis, availing itself of the blow-pipe, the solvent acids, and the voltaic battery, has succeeded in determining the base of every known gem. And the earths which furnish such bases are chiefly two—ALUMINA, or clay, and SILICA, or pure flint. From these, with an admixture of lime, and sometimes of iron, in small quantities, all the native gems are derived, with the exception of the diamond, whose base is CARBON. Intensely hard as these substances are, and apparently not susceptible of change if left to themselves, they have Now it is evident that the commoner pebbles are derived from these same earths, of clay or flint, albeit in a debased condition. For there is nothing else of which they could be made: neither do they exhibit any properties foreign to those which such substances possess. Yet, how vast is the difference between an oriental gem and the brightest production of clay-pits or granite rocks. Not greater, however, than that between Damascus steel and coarse pig-iron; or, between French lawn and sail-cloth. And if Art can work such distinctions, why not Nature? In fact, a perfect gem is a master-piece which chemistry and crystallization have combined to elaborate, and which man has ransacked the corners of the earth to obtain. The deep has been made to surrender its treasures to the diver or the sunken net: the rock has been blasted, and its inmost vein searched: the rushing river filtered, and its sand sifted: and the contents of the jeweller’s caskets are the To form and perfect the finer crystals, extremes of heat or cold appear to be necessary: whereas our clime has perhaps always been temperate. Beside this, it is probable that the mother-earth is not found pure with us. There is a kind of white clay, called “kaolin,” obtained in one particular quarry near Meissen in Saxony, and met with nowhere else. From this clay the exquisite Dresden porcelain is baked, and this clay cannot be exactly imitated. A near approach to it has been made by mixing good potter’s clay with pounded chalcedony-flints; but Moreover, we know that there are many different clays occurring in our geological strata. We have the clays of the Lower Tertiary; the clay of the Wealden; and the Kimmeridge and Oxford clays, both of which belong to the Oolite. Also in these main divisions, sundry mineralogical varieties are comprised under a common name. But the great age of the granite formation renders it certain that from none of these clays could those sapphires have come (as to their base), which are born of the granite rock. Indeed, our existing beds of clay are more or less mingled with felspar, and felspar is one of the “silicates;” whereas the blue sapphire is pure alumina free from all admixture of silica. However this may be, the great fields for gems are in India and the island of Ceylon, and in certain parts of the Russian dominions. No very valuable stones have as yet been obtained from Australia; although the vicinity of gold-mines has always been held to be prolific in at least one kind: the “mother of ruby” being a As to our own sea-girt Isle, it is surely as guiltless of indigenous gems, as of white elephants or birds of paradise. Had any such existed with us, they must long ere this have been brought to light and appeared in the market. We have bored the plain to two hundred fathoms’ depth: we have pierced the hillside in tunnels which extend for miles: geologists and antiquarians have delved and hammered and sifted: many curious fossils have turned up, and a world’s wealth in minerals, but never anything like a diamond or an oriental sapphire. It is well that, to console us under such apparent poverty as to the gems, we possess the treasure an hundred-fold in other shapes, though derived from the same sources. Clay gives us no sapphires; but it floors our ponds and canals, furnishes our earthenware, and yields the bricks which have built the ribs of London. Carbon refuses to flash upon us in the rays of an indigenous “brilliant,” but it feeds our furnaces, propels our steamers and locomotives, and cheers a million of household hearths under the well-known form of Coal. If our wealth be less dazzling than that from Golconda or Peru, it is, we may hope, more durable; flowing to us through a healthier channel, by the honest labour and steady perseverance of the sons of the soil. This is somewhat of a digression from the subject of Sea-side pebbles. But then, as was said, the magnificent crystals are their near kindred; and in society the custom is to bring in any great connections we may have, on the first fair opportunity: that once done, our respectability is supposed to be established. |