159 



its results, from more skilled and abler members of the united 

 Societies, J venture to offer the following record, founded on 

 personal observations made on the fourth day after the commence- 

 ment of the movement, and amplified by published notes of Experts 

 consulted by the Authorities on the emergency. My own observa- 

 tions were communicated to the East Kent Natural History Society 

 at its first meeting after the event. 



The Town of Sandgate rests on a strip of land essentially 

 belonging to the so-called " Sandgate Eed," * mainly composed of 

 intermixed layers of sand and clay, flanked by the sea and its 

 shingle-beach on the southern side, and for the greater ])art on the 

 opposite side, by a sharp escarpment of the rocky beds of the 

 Folkestone series, which forms a plateau above it, on which is 

 placed the Shornclifte Camp, some 200 to 250 feet above mean sea- 

 level. The dip of these beds is to the N.E., and the face of the 

 escarpment takes a course S.W.,W. to N.E.,E. At the AVestern 

 end of the town the face of the cliff trends more to the West, and 

 the land below it begins to widen out. The cliff then somewhat 

 suddenly, so as to form a sharp bend, turns towards the N.W., a 

 wider expanse of land below its base spreads out towards the 

 shore, having a S.W. aspect. The point where this change takes 

 place is nearJy opposite to the Coastguard Station at the West end 

 of the town, and the greater part of the sloping space below the 

 cliff, and the main-road is occupied by the house and grounds of 

 Encombe Place ; the dwellings in Chapel Street, and Spring Lane 

 covering the remainder. The face of the land slopes at a sharper 

 gradient here than where it spreads out towards the S.W. It was 

 at this part that some of tlie most serious effects of the slip were 

 noticed, and it was in the Encombe grounds that a chief motive 

 power had its centre, which spread out, as the radii of a fan, 

 through the land sloping at a lesser gradient towards the S.W. 

 The more modern extension of the town Avas built upon this 

 sloping iinderclift', which, wherever it was untouched by road 

 building or cultivation, gave evidence of movement in the land in 

 past time ; even some of the more recent walls and buildings had 

 repaired cracks in them, indicating unsteady foundations. Before 

 closing this general description of the physical conditions of the 

 site, and drawing attention to another factor in the catastrophe, 



* One of the Series of the Lower Greensand Section, which are thus 

 enumerated from above downwards. 



1. Folkestone bed, 90 feet. Layers of -Sand-Rock intercalate with Sand 



beds. 



2. Sandgate bed, So feet. Sand layers and Clay ; Clay predominating 



at base. 



3. Hythe bed, 120 feet. Greensand Rock. 



4. Atherfield Clay, 30 feet. Argillaceous bed. 



