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8
These river deposits are prevented from advancing further 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 continually, 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 movement 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. note
Iliad ix. 7.
O'er the rocks that breast the flood
Iliad iv. 425.
Borne turgid, scatter far the showery spray, note
Loud sounds the roar of waves ejected wide. note
Iliad xvii. 265.
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 sufficient 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
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Strabo, Geography (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Str.].