3.-Shingle Beaches. Copy of Report from Commander DAVId Pear, R.N., Inspecting Commander, Folkestone District, to the Harbour Department, Admiralty. October 9, 1844.1

1. The extent of shingle beach in the Folkestone district from Dover Castle to the mouth of Rye Harbour is 35 miles. The general direction is E.N.E. and W.S.W., but on the west side of Dungeness the coast lies S.E. and N.W., and is the most exposed part of this district.

2. S.W. winds are those which bring the shingle. Moderate breezes heap it up the most, and heavy gales at spring tides often form a number of small fulls' into one.

3. It appears to come from the westward. Arises from the wearing away of the cliffs, and travels along shore.

4. From the westward of Beachy Head. The pebbles, to my personal knowledge, bear the same appearance from Dover, as far as the headland mentioned, only they are larger at Eastbourne and Langley Fort, where churches, houses, and walls are built of them.

5. Gales from whatever direction, accompanied with a heavy sea, scour the beach; but it depends on the angle at which the sea strikes the beach whether the shingle is carried onward, and a heavy sea brings down towards low-water mark many of the small 'fulls' formed in smooth weather.

6. It loses from Rye Harbour to Dungeness Point, gains from Dungeness Point to near Dymchurch, and loses from Dymchurch to past Dover Castle.

7. A strip of land or rocks extends from the foot of the shingle to low water. The tide from Rye Harbour to Dover leaves the shingle generally at three-fourths ebb, except for two miles on each side of Dungeness Point. No bed of shingle has been found under the sand, but stones are mixed with the same.

8. A gale, followed by moderate weather, often brings up the shingle from the lower to the upper part of the beach in a single tide to the thickness of 3 or 4 feet.

9. The size of the shingle on Dungeness is from that of a man's fist to small gravel; the large ones increase along the coast west to Beachy Head, and are smaller at Dover than at Dungeness. The weight, large packed with small, is one hundred and fifteen pounds per cubic foot.

10. Yes, variations exist; the cause, abrasion in passing along the

coast.

11. The shingle generally along the shore is only a narrow ridge, extending from high to near low water; but there are at places large deposits from Beachy Head to Dover-viz. Langley Fort near Eastbourne, Pett Level, Dungeness, and Hythe Bay. The average thickness may be reckoned 20 feet, and their extent in all 25 square miles. At Dungeness Point report states 70 feet as the thickness.

12. The greatest increase is at Dungeness Point, which is 6 feet annually.

13. Cannot say respecting the Cornish bays, but in my opinion shingle passes round headlands, across flats, and even crosses the mouths of rivers where they join the sea.

1 The numbers given refer to a schedule of questions, evidently by the Harbour Department in 1844, and have no reference to those used by this Committee.

14. The shingle moves westerly with gales from the eastward, and vice versâ ; the wind and gales being more frequent from west or south-west than east makes the shingle travel in an easterly direction.

15. The distance of the ridges at Dungeness are, where most regular, about 25 yards, and also at Hythe and Langley Point; from Dungeness to the green fields in Denge Marsh is upwards of 2 miles. There is a ridge extending from Dungeness east to Great Stone Point, formed in a gale that occurred in November 1842, and from other small 'fulls' forming outside of it, I do not think any future gale will obliterate it.

16. The general angle from the top of the 'full' at spring tides to where the shingle meets the sand is about 20°; but in smooth water, close to the 'fulls,' the shingle often lies for 10 or 12 feet at an angle of 45°.

17. Cannot state.

18. None to my knowledge.

19. The groynes from Dover to Beachy Head are all put down at right angles with the shore. I cannot suggest a better direction.

20. The longer and the higher the groyne the more shingle will it retain; the longest and most efficient I know is that under East Cliff at Hastings, which protects that town as far as the fish market; its length must be about 150 yards, and whilst the west side is of shingle, the east side shows a vacant depth of 14 feet. The new harbour at Folkestone may be considered as a groyne, as the ground on which part of a large hotel and the harbour house now stand were, to my knowledge, in 1820 overflowed every tide.

4.-Notes on the Waste at Sheppey, by Professor THOMAS MCKENNY HUGHES, in Geology of the London Basin.''

'In Sheppey the most rapid waste appears to have occurred near Warden Point, where within the memory of man the sea is said to have cut back the cliff between 200 and 300 yards. An old soldier informed me that he distinctly recollected that the year after the battle of Waterloo there were houses standing as far from the church on the north-east as those then built along the road to the west of it. I measured the distance pointed out by him, and found it to be 220 yards.'

'All along the cliff as far as Lane End Coastguard Station the older inhabitants tell of farm-buildings which they recollect standing on ground long since swept away, with perhaps 200 feet of cliff below it. It would be idle to speculate on the average rate of waste along the whole north coast of the island with such insufficient data, but we may well suppose that even when Lord Shorland swam his horse out to the Nore the distance was perceptibly less than now.'

When a storm blows from the north or east a very heavy sea lashes the north coast of Sheppey. The fallen clay and sand is removed from the base of the cliff, and shingle heaped up along the low shore to the west. Fresh slips in time occur, and so the whole cliff is being eaten back very rapidly.'

The manner in which this goes on is as follows :-In the hot weather the surface of the ground is cracked from the shrinking of the clay, and the cracks are seen along the highest ground as gaping fissures, about

1 Memoirs of the Geological Survey, by W. Whitaker, 1872, p. 387.

6 inches across and many yards in length and depth. When the rain falls it finds its way into these, and softens the clay at the bottom. If the crack is near the cliff, the half-detached mass being now heavier, owing to the addition of the water, while the cohesion of the attached portion is lessened, slips down to the shore below, sometimes almost unbroken, sometimes breaking off by parallel cracks into a series of terraces, or even in part creeping down among the fallen stiffer masses as a glacierlike mud flow. Fine examples of slickenside are seen behind the slips. The sea washes this débris away from the base of the cliff, and the process is repeated.'

5.-An Account of Dunwich in 1589.1 By RADULPH AGAS.

'The Toune of Dunwich, a Coaste Toune, neare the Midle of the Sheire, is scituate upon a Cliffe fortie Foot hie, or there about; bounded on the Easte with the Otian Sea; on the Weaste with the Toune of Westleton, and is girt on the Weaste and South, neare to the bodie of the Toune, with an Auntient Bancke, whereof Parte is now builte with the Wall of the Graieffriers; the North and Southe ends are environed with diverse Marishes, Shredds, and divided with Fleetes, Crickes, and Diches; the Auntient Haven there was somtime at the North Ende of the Toune, where standeth now their Keie, which Haven was utterlie choaked upp, with a North-Easte Winde, the foretene Daie of Januarie, Anno 1 Edward III. notwithstanding if it were recovered woulde not onlie preserve the Toune from Danger of the Sea; but bie Helpe of a Sluce weasteward, woulde be soe mainetained the same as might likelie bringe the same Toune neare to her former estate and condition. At the Losse of this Haven, another was opened verie neare the Place, where Dunwich Men have, now in a shorte time, bie Helpe of Nature, prepared a Passage as by ancient Inquisit, and other evidence maie plainelie appeare, videlez, fere duas leucas ab antiquo Portu: That this Haven hath been offtentimes chaunged; for the whole Raunge of Shingle assureth it in noe Place certaine, causing it to runne Southward bie trussing, and choakinge the same with Beach, appeareth bie sondrie evidence, videlez. that the Men of Bliborough, Walberswick, and Southwold, shall paie duelye to Dunwich men their Toules and customes, ubicunq, portus ille mutari contigerit. That as novi portus ac filum aquæ ejusdem shall be the Boundes betwene the Toune of Dunwich, and the Lordship of Bliborough, ubicunq, dictum novum portum in futurum diverti vel mutari per jactum sabuli vel aliunde contigerit; as also bie the view of the Place itselfe. Notwithstandinge were it now runneth these have bie good happe lighted on an owse Banke, at the South Side of the Haven, which causeth the back Water to turne of the Beache, and to lie straight againe the Mouthe, as hath happened divers times since the same was opened first. And although the North Easte Windes have been, since the same was opened, most violent and extreme, as also the 10, 11, 12, and 13 of this present Moneth, yet the verie nexte Daie affter, being the fourteenth Daie, divers loaden crayers went readilie out of the same. And whereas there are now to Flattes, on the North Side of this Haven, which the Walberswick and Southwold Men

1 Quoted from 'An Historical Account of Dunwich, anciently a City, now a borough; Blithburgh, formerly a Town of note, now a Village; Southwold, once a Village, now a Town-corporate; with Remarks on some Places contiguous thereto.' By Thomas Gardner : London, 1754 (British Museum pressmark 189 a 17).

would willinglie turne Dunwich men unto; being notwithstandinge Owners, under her Majestie, of the same Haven there, and more than a Mile above, and the intended Cuttes of the said Walberswick and Southwold men there, very dangerous to all Passengers, bie Reason of certaine Flattes caled Passelie Sands, yf a Cutt were made both on a Levell, and as appeareth Owessey Ground, from the Weaste Flatt toward their keies, they should remedie those Flattes, and perfect the Haven as bie this Platte may better appear.'

6.-First Report addressed to the Committee on the Erosion of Dover Cliffs, 1891-92. By Captain S. GORDON MCDAKIN.

The cliffs are composed of chalk, and reach an elevation of 526 feet on the west near Folkestone, and 400 feet at the South Foreland, and extend for about six miles on each side of Dover. The coast has been compared with the 6-inch Ordnance map of 1876. Marks at about a height of 2 feet from the shingle or plane of marine erosion have been placed in situations attacked by the sea. These consist of half-inch holes, three inches deep, plugged with wooden pegs, and were disposed in a triangle for 1890, perpendicularly for 1891, and horizontally for 1892, the middle being the test-hole, the others only indicating their position to the eye. Such holes are less liable to be tampered with than other marks, and could not be counterfeited with the means likely to be at the disposal of anyone mischievously in clined.

The results have been recorded, and an extract is appended, from which it appears that at the Cornhill, about two miles east of Dover, the erosion is not more than half an inch in twelve months, and in the hard nodular chalk almost imperceptible

The same applies to St. Margaret's Bay.

To the west of Dover the cliffs have suffered to a greater extent.

From Shakespeare Cliff to the Channel Tunnel works, about a mile, the undercliff formed of old slips has been attacked and largely removed this winter (1891-1892).

From the Folkestone cliffs, five miles west of Dover, the triangular marks have disappeared. This part of the coast consists principally of undercliff, formed by the ancient slips. The rock here is saturated with fresh water, and the severe frosts of 1890, 1891, and 1892 have attacked the surface to a depth of more than eighteen inches.

Looking at a map it will be seen that the coast recedes west of Dover. This is due to two causes; the minor cause, the soft grey chalk which is here at the sea level, and the major cause, the springs which issue out at the base of the cliffs, either over the surface of the Gault or that of the impervious Lower Chalk, and so undermine the cliffs. Sudden falls of thousands of tons forming an undercliff, which in its turn is removed by the sea.

A great translation of shingle has taken place during the last ten years from the Folkestone cliffs towards the Admiralty Pier at Dover. The numerous wooden groynes in front of the South-Eastern Station are now buried under the shingle.

'East Kent Natural History Society and Dover Natural History Society.

In a similar manner the shingle carried from the front of the houses known as the East Cliff some years previously was not replaced by shingle from the west, owing to the Admiralty Pier intercepting it. This is also the case still farther to the east, where a tunnel was made, about twenty-two years ago, for the footpath that had been destroyed through the protecting shingle beach having travelled eastwards, and not having been replaced by fresh shingle from the westward. On February 23, 1891, an extensive fall of chalk took place from the cliff above Crab Bay, about 300 yards east of the Cornhill Coastguard Station. At one o'clock the same day a small quantity of chalk fell, and at five o'clock a huge mass slid from the top of the cliff with a thundering noise like the report of an explosion, the earthquake-like shock being felt in the Coastguard houses. The cliff at this place is 320 feet high. This fall was reported in the 'Dover Standard' of the same date. I passed along this cliff at four o'clock, or scarcely an hour before the fall, which was distinctly heard by a gentleman walking on the Admiralty Pier at Dover, two miles and a half distant. I noticed fissures on the top, from seven feet wide to a few inches, running S.E. fifty-five yards, and thirty yards in length, then one parallel to the edge of the cliff for sixty-two yards, and three others, forty-five yards, forty-one yards, and about thirty yards, running S.W. from the parallel fissure to the edge of the cliff. For the whole distance of 330 yards from the Coastguard Station eastwards there is evidence of a subsidence and many minor cracks or fissures.

This fall occurred in calm weather, the winter having been remarkably free from storms and the weather dry. There had, however, been a great deal of snow about the middle of the previous month, with intense frost, the ground having been frozen to a depth of eighteen inches.

Still farther to the east at St. Margaret's Bay, about four miles and a half from Dover, the chalk on the sea line was without perceptible erosion. One part of the south cliff overhangs in a most threatening