TRANSACTIONS. 



REPORT OP COMMITTEE ON COAST EROSION, 1896-7. 



East Kent: 



Feom St. Maegabet's Bat to Folkestone. 



A very heavy fall of the cliff took place in January, 1896, 

 about one-third of a mile west of the South Foreland Low Light. 

 The cliff at this place is about 350 feet in height, composed of the 

 lower portion of the Upper Chalk, and upper portion of the Middle 

 Chalk. This great fall has intercepted the shingle, and caused it 

 to pile up on the Western side. 



Several smaller falls have taken place between this spot and 

 St. Margaret's Bay. 



St. Margaret's has lost about 12 feet, in width, of its shingle 

 fore-shore. The whole coast from Dover to Deal has lost con- 

 siderably in its natural defence of shingle. The cliff's in most 

 places are quite perpendicular, and being exposed to the full force 

 of the sea, and the numerous springs sapping their base, present 

 conditions that must result in a very short time in falls on a still 

 larger scale. The large fissures opening on the top of the cliffs, 

 eastward of the Corn-hill Coast-guard Station, are additional 

 indications of the same destructive action. 



West of Dover great inroads have been made on the Under- 

 cliff, which together with the shingle beach long defended this 

 part of the coast, so that considerable falls may soon be looked for. 



The great fall at Lydden Spout mentioned in last year's 

 report may be taken as an example. 



Here, too, the shingle has left the coast, and the springs 

 undermine the foundations of the cliffs, which rise to 420 feet in 

 the Abbot's Cliff, and to 554 feet immediately to the North of 

 Folkestone Junction. The South Eastern Railway on this part of 

 the coast tends to preserve the cliffs by the numerous groynes 

 and revetments by which it is defended ; the latter, which were 

 made of faggots and railway bars at the West end of Abbot's 

 Cliff railway tunnel, were entirely destroyed last wiater, and an 



