Mr. R. C. Taylor on the Embankmeyits of the German Ocean. 295 



the old tables into one heterogeneous mass, and thus giving 

 the true probabilities of life in no place whatever, or by inter- 

 polating some of the decrements in one table into those of 

 another ; for which purpose a vast variety has been given of 

 complicated and useless formulae. But little or no advance 

 has been made in determining more correctly the probabilities 

 and duration of human life. The tables published in the Re- 

 port of the Committee of the House of Commons, are in ge- 

 neral so incorrect, and some of them are even so absurd, as to 

 be unfit for use ; and serve only to encourage the popular de- 

 lusion of the improved healthiness and greater longevity of 

 the people of this kingdom. 



F. R. S. 



L. On the Natural Embankments formed against the German 

 Ocean^ 07i the Norfolk and Suffolk Coast^ and the Silting up 

 of some of its Estuaries. By R. C. Taylor, Esq. F.G.S. 



[With an Engraving.] 

 To the Editors of the Philosophical Magazine arid Annals. 



Gentlemen, 

 T^HE discussion between Mr. Robberds and myself respect- 

 -*■ ing the natural embankment across the ancient aestuary 

 of the Yare*, leads to a more general consideration of the 

 process by which that and other similar barriers on this coast 

 have been effected. The mode I suggested in a former com- 

 munication has been thought defective f , on account of the dif- 

 ficulty, first, in pointing out a competent agent to rear the fa- 

 bric, and next, of obtaining an adequate supply of materials. 

 From the argument of the utter impossibility of the sea to 

 throw up a permanent barrier against its own course, I must 

 dissent, as the instances are so numerous to the contrary, that, 

 fortunately for our island, the difficulty is chiefly to select cases 

 in the affirmative. I presume the word "permanent" to be 

 here applied in its limited sense : since we have seen, that the 

 attacks of currents, tides, and impetuous waves, when aided 

 by the winds, and uniting their tremendous forces in one direc- 

 tion, not even the solid mountain can permanently withstand. 

 Such is the tendency of the sea to throw up sand upon that 

 part of the coast we have been describing, that during the last 

 480 years, as I have shown elsewhere, it has cost about a mil- 

 fion and half of money, not merely to keep open a passage for 

 shipping, but to preserve a sufficient channel for the discharge 

 of the united waters of the rivers. It is obviously the opinion 



• See Phil. Mag. and AnnaU, N. S. vol. i. p. 351. f Ibid. vol. ii. p. 199. 



of 



