54 J. G. WALLER ON SAND. 



actions of the Royal Society. It is too long to insert here in full, I 

 will therefore briefly give you some of the facts. 



It began at the small town of Lakenheath, where some sand-hills, 

 covered with scanty herbage, got denuded of this by the wind blowing 

 tempestuously from the south-west. These sands, lying on the 

 chalk, belong, as I believe, to the series called by geologists the 

 " Thanet sands." At first, about ten acres of ground got covered, 

 but before the flood had advanced four miles it had overwhelmed 

 one thousand. This visitation continued for many years, in spite of 

 all attempts to arrest its progress. After twelve years had passed 

 away, its first real obstacle was descending a valley, but it then 

 ascended the opposite hill, entered the town of Downham, destroying- 

 several houses. The house of the narrator was almost buried in 

 sand, which had mounted up to the very eaves of his outhouses. It 

 partially filled the little river Ouse, and interfered with its naviga- 

 tion ; and it was only conquered by years of sedulous care and 

 enormous labour. 



But it is in the formation of this earth's crust that the mighty 

 power of sand is shown in enormous sedimentary deposits ; the 

 Old Red itself being estimated at 10,000 feet in thickness, added 

 to which are others still earlier, and many that carry us upwards to 

 the Tertiary system, where I propose particularly to enter and dis- 

 cuss our subject. What is this sand, so ubiquitous, so vast in its 

 aggregations ? A writer on " Beach Pebbles " put the question to 

 a traveller from the great desert, in respect to which he answered> 

 " Powdered quartz."* 



But it is the sand of our coasts in which the special problem for 

 discussion lays, and more particularly that on our eastern and 

 southern shores, where are beaches of shingle fed from the debris of 

 the upper chalk. 



If we take a diagonal line from the estuary of the Exe to the 

 Humber, east of it lays the large chalk formation of England. 

 Sometimes it shows itself in rearing lofty white cliffs, by which our 

 country obtained the name of " Albion ;" at others it is only known 

 by its ruins, and these have an extensive admixture of other deposits. 

 Nevertheless, its bones, it may be said, are everywhere left behind in 

 the dense flint shingle. These beaches are often many square miles 

 in extent, shutting up ancient estuaries, which are known to have 



* " Beach Eambles in Search of Seaside Pebbles and Crystals," by J. G. 

 Francis, B.A., p. 107. 



