49 



that ho saw it happen, and exclaimed to his companion, " Wliy, 

 the cliff is coming down !" when like a big gun going off — I 

 use his own oxjiression — it fell like a straight bar, the iipi)er 

 portion filling the cutting, overwhebning two of the watchmen 

 on duty at that part of the Hue. A wire Icnciug ran along the top 

 of the cutting, whicli is about twenty -five feet deep. 'J he coast- 

 guai'dsman told me tliat ho saw the watchman on tlic upper edge 

 turn rouutl, take hold of the wire, and look up, when he was swept 

 away, and he and his fellow watchman, who was at the bottom of 

 the cutting, were instantly buried uuder the chalk that filled the 

 cutting to the top, some passing over iuto the sea. As it is not 

 easy to estimate the licight of tbese cliffs, which are about four 

 hnu clred feet, it is difficult to believe it possible tbat at this place a 

 fall of rock could reach the cutting, as tlie railway was separated 

 by a small valley from the base of the cliff which the debris had 

 filled up. It is also peculiar that it fell over like a rigid bar, for 

 when the column in the Place Vcndome, Paris, was pulled over, it 

 broke up in the air when it had assumed a certain angle, and tlie 

 fragments fell near its own base The iSouth Eastern Railway, 

 after a great expcnditui-c of labour, succeeded in repairing the 

 damage and securhig their line. At Folkestone an ancient church 

 and St. Mildred's nunnery were destroyed by encroachments of the 

 sea in the scvtuth century. For the naturalist I know of no place 

 ]a'eseutiug greater advantages for a field day, or more beautiful than 

 East Wear Bay, or, as it is sometimes called. Little Switzerland, and 

 an additional advantage is afforded by its being within a quarter of 

 an hour's walk from the Folkestone Junction railway station, by a 

 field road and path in the direction of No. 2 Martello 'i ower. 



The sea, as if possessed by some sense of justice, restores to 

 the land in one place that which it has robbed it of in another. 

 Headlands are swept away but bars are formed across the mouth 

 of rivers and bays, which then are liable to silt up, as at Dover, 

 Eomney Marsh, and Pevensey Pay, in Sussex. Hythe, the 

 name signifying a haven, is stated to have been a place of great 

 maritime importance, and that the sea even there at one time 

 made great encroachments, although it is now some distance 

 from the coast. The accumulation of silt and shingle forming 

 Eomney Marsh, ten miles in width by five in breadth, com- 

 mences here. Mr. liedman states that this great accumulation 

 is composed for a distance of about two miles of undulating- 

 ridges marking the periodical accessions made to the coast, like 

 the rings of growth in timber. (See I^yell's Principles, vol. I, 

 page 528.) The annual gain of this part of the coast has 

 amoxmted to as much as eight yards in a year. As the cause of 

 this accumulation of shingle and silt has been atti-ibuted by 

 some to the set of the tides which have their mean jilaee of 

 meeting in a line drawn between Dungouess and Boulogne, and 



