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the pca in William II. 's reign. In their present conclition thoy are 

 about ten miles in length by four in breadth and arc separated from 

 the coast by a channel varying from three to four miles in Avidth. 

 The Trinity Board in the year 1817 found by boring fifteen feet of 

 sand, resting on blue clay, chalk was subsequently readied, but it 

 does not say at wluat depth. In a paper read before the Society of 

 Civil Engineers, in 1851, by Mr J. B. Kedman, it is stated that 

 Dover Harbour was once an estuary, the sea flowing up the valley 

 to the westward, and at the beginning of the first century there was 

 no shingle under the clifts. As late as Hemy A'lII.'s reign, the 

 sea washed the base of the cliff's, where now part of Suargate- street 

 stands, and an anchor was dug up at Eucklaud. Fiom the well- 

 known south-east headland of Shakspcar's cliii there was an immense 

 land,slip in 177"2, and another in 1810, by which Dover was .shaken 

 as by an earthf^uake. Passing westwarcl along the magnificent line 

 of clifls between Dover and Folkestone the destruction of the coast 

 is apparent on a grand scale. These lofty chalk cliffs, four hundred 

 feet in height, have their foundation on the slippery Gault Clay, 

 whose unctions properties the naturalist will need but little persua- 

 sion to believe in, if he should be caught in a thunder shower, as 

 the writer of this paper has been when climbing over its uneven 

 surface. Portions of the clift' becoming detached from time to time, 

 principally owing to the action of the rain, they either fall down or 

 slip forward over the clay, sometimes moving bodily forward like a 

 ship launched upon the greased ways. In the Phil Trans, for 1716, 

 a great subsidence of tlie cliff is recorded to have taken place at liast 

 ^^'ear Hay, near Folkestone. Houses that had not before been 

 visible from the sea were exposed to view. In this manner the 

 picturesque nndercliff has been formed, being geologically similar 

 to that of the Is.c of Wight. Movements from time to time taking 

 place, the yielding and partially plastic clay is forced up into a 

 variety of contorted forms by the pressure of the immense mass of the 

 cliff forming hills and valleys, like a mountainous country in 

 miniature, small lakes adding to the resemblance to such an extent 

 that this place is called Little Switzerland. In very dry weather 

 the movements are nearh^ or cjuite susjiended, but when saturated 

 with water are more considerable. F^ootpaths that exist at one 

 time are at another interrupted by yawning fissures or stopped by 

 the up-throw of abrupt walls of chalk or hardened gaidt. '1 he 

 accident arising from these causes wliich befel the South Eastern 

 Eailway in the early part of 1877 is fresh in our memories, when 

 the eastern end of the F^olkestone tunnel, under Martello Tower 

 number one, was so far displaced that it fell in, and about half 

 a mile nearer Dover a fall of the cliff filled up the railway cut- 

 ting with between two and three hundred thousand tons of 

 chalk. Soon after this accident took place I went over the scene 

 of the disaster with an intelligent coastguardsman who told me 



