FROM START POINT TO PORTLAND. 533 



Bay there is practically no current one mile from the shore. The tide 

 sets directly on to tlie beach in its northerly portion, and the only 

 currents along shore are caused by projecting headlands, e.g. Clerk 

 Point, sending off the incoming tide on each side in different directions. 

 At the southern end of the bay the incoming tide sets along the pro- 

 jecting headland of Hope's Nose, and there is thus a slight current 

 along shore.* In Torbay the central portions are even more stagnant 

 than in Teignmouth Bay, but on the beach we have the same phenome- 

 non of currents acting in opposite directions. Paignton Head, in the 

 centre of the bay, divides up the incoming tide, and there is a current 

 on each side of it — the one tending across Brixham breakwater to 

 Berry Head, the other towards Torquay and Hope's Nose, 



Sometimes, as the result of storms either within the area or beyond 

 in the Channel, these currents may be reversed, but in general they are 

 well marked. 



Within Start Bay during neaps there is very little current in the 

 centre of the bay, and the eddy along shore is not so strong as during 

 spring-tides. During the latter periods the eddy rushes out round the 

 Start at a rate exceeding two knots per hour. This eddy extends about 

 a mile from the shore off Torcross, and during the ebb the current sets 

 straight across the Skerries in a south-south-easterly direction. 



Depths and Bottom-soil, 



The region under consideration lies mostly within the thirty-fathom 

 line. At Start Point the water deepens rapidly, so that within two miles 

 of the shore thirty fathoms is reached. From there the thirty-fathom 

 line runs in an easterly direction until the centre of the bay is reached, 

 when it inclines to the south of east and passes Portland about eight 

 miles off. Within this line the water gradually shoals, and twenty 

 fathoms is reached on a line from Berry Head to Portland. The twenty- 

 fathom line is also concave, with the concavity more marked towards 

 Portland. The ten-fathom line follows roughly across the outlying head- 

 lands of the numerous bays and indentations round the coast, being 

 nowhere more than three miles from the shore, and in some places 

 approaching it to within a few yards. 



The general rise in the bottom-level is fairly uniform and regular, 

 except along the western side, where important modifications occur. 

 Within half a mile of Start Point, to the north-east, the water shoals 

 rapidly from nine fathoms to four, and a little farther to only two. 



* According to Mr. Taverner, the Fisheries Inspector of the Devon Sea Fisheries Com- 

 mittee, the general trend of the current here is from Babbacombe towards Hope's Nose ; 

 that is to say, that the eddy which makes itself so evident in Start Bay is already felt in 

 Teignmouth Bay. 



