THE DEVELOPMENT OF BRITISH SCENERY. 283 



has begun operations on a limited area in Sussex. When 

 he has completed this initial memoir, it will be for the 

 [Geographical] Society to decide whether it can continue 

 the enterprise, or whether it will succeed in persuading the 

 Government to take the matter up." If either of these 

 desirable plans be adopted, I think Dr. Keltie may feel 

 assured that geographers will receive the heartiest support 

 from geologists in carrying on so laudable a work. 



Hitherto I have touched only on the trend of the rivers, 

 as instrumental in determining the character of the scenery 

 of inland districts. Many details of scenery also require 

 study. I have already written an article in this Magazine 

 upon Lakes (7) ; since that appeared the magnificent memoir 

 on the French Lakes from the hands of M. Delabecque 

 has been published (8), and I hope British geographers 

 will not be contented until similar volumes on the Limnology 

 of England have been published. 



The scenery of the coast-lines is a subject which also 

 deserves the attention of British geographers, and we may 

 now turn to a consideration of the dominant features of the 

 shores of our island. 



The general principles of coast-formation have been 

 stated by Gilbert in his study of the Topographic Features 

 of Lake Shores (9). He observes that "re-entrant angles 

 of the coast are always, and re-entrant curves are usually, 

 places of deposition. . . . Salient angles are usually eroded, 

 and salient curves nearly always. . . some salient angles 

 on the contrary grow by deposition. ..." 



"It thus appears that there is a general tendency to the 

 erosion of salients and the filling of embayments, or to the 

 simplification of coast outlines. This tendency is illustrated 

 not only by the shores of all lakes, but by the coasts of all 

 oceans. In the latter case it is slightly diminished by the 

 action of tides, which occasion currents tending to keep 

 open the mouths of estuaries, but it is, nevertheless, the 

 prevailing tendency." 



The outcome of coast erosion and deposition is the 

 production of concave curves usually meeting at a salient 

 angle, and the English coast illustrates the formation of 



