SEA WORK
35
vertical faces of the western arm and of the new alignment of foreshore, any undulations which pass into the harbour are repeatedly reflected. The result is an uneasy harbour under normal conditions, and in gales, a condition of things such that the harbour is almost unsafe for the small craft frequenting it. It is probable that quite a moderate expenditure, reproducing conditions which make for tranquillity, would be effective.
The charm of sea work consists largely in the fact of its
Figf. 7.—Diagram of Torquay Harbour
infinite variety. Its merit is that it cannot be standardized. No two stretches of coast-line are alike. Each novel set of conditions has to be absorbed into the inner consciousness of the engineer who would successfully evolve a scheme of artificial control. It is the interaction of the forces and the apparent caprice of sea action that puzzle him. The man to whom the pitfalls of such a problem have grown instinctive in some measure recovers the primary faculty which civilization is apt to blunt. Unconsciously, he sets to work to weave a chain of cause and effect by which storm and current may be brought into subjection to his purpose.
There are two schools of foreshore engineers. One school seeks to establish as an axiom the theory that the travel of