594 DENUDATION AND SCENERY. 



Solent, flowed eastwards through Spithead, which was then an estuary.^ The 

 pointed rock from which the Needles took their name disappeared before 1782. 

 (See p. 418.) 



The Channel Isles stand out like the peaks of a submerged tract of land ; 

 indeed, an elevation of about thirty fathoms would expose a large area including 

 all the islands and rocks.- The Scilly Isles, according to tradition, originally 

 formed part of the land of Lyonesse or Lethowstow, which stretched far west of the 

 Land's End.^ 



The waste of the sea-coasts is of considerable interest to geologists and also to 

 landed proprietors. 



Commencing in Northumberland, we find records of numerous lands having been 

 destroyed near Bamborough and Holy Island, and at Tynemouth Castle ; while 

 at Hartlepool, and other parts of the Durham coast, the sea has made considerable 

 inroads.* 



On the Yorkshire coast the destruction is great along the Lias and Oolites, 

 while the Chalk cliffs of Flamborough Head stand out prominently, although the 

 beds are worn in places into caves and needles ; further south, in the softer strata 

 of the Holderness coast, the annual loss of land has been estimated at from 2^ to 

 5 yards, and the villages of Auburn, Hartburn, Hyde, Kilnsea, and Owthorne 

 have been destroyed. Nevertheless, as pointed out by Mr. Reid, while the sea is 

 wasting the coast in one part, it is redepositing the material and helping to build 

 up land in another part ; and if the loss in the past 200 years has been about 

 16 square miles (3 miles of which was poor sandy land), yet the total gain in the 

 same period has been 60 square miles, all of which is exceptionally rich. As, 

 however, the new lands, when formed as islands, become Crown property, these 

 beneficial changes are not appreciated by the landowners^ 



Portions of the Fenland were embanked and drained by the Romans ; but after 

 their departure the sea returned, and large tracts were covered with beds of silt 

 containing marine shells, that have again been converted into productive lands. 



On the north Norfolk coast near Cromer, the waste of land has been esti- 

 mated at about two yards a year, and the villages of Shipden, Wimpwell and 

 great part of Eccles have been destroyed. At Winterton the sea has, however, 

 receded, and there is an inland cliff protected by blown sand. 



The physical evidence and historical records indicate that the marsh-lands 

 which occupy large tracts near the mouths of the rivers Bure, Yare, and Waveney 

 formed at one time portions of an estuary, at the mouth of which were situated 

 the islands of Lothingland, East and West Flegg. In the course of time this 

 mouth became contracted by the growth of sand-banks, one of which stretched 

 southwards from East Flegg ; after A.D. 1000 this bank became sufficiently sound 

 for a settlement to be made upon it, and the present town of Yarmouth was founded. 

 It was then separated from Caistor by a channel called Grubb's Haven, which was 

 closed about the reign of Edward III. When the channels at the mouth of this 

 estuary were choked, the influx of the tide became more and more restricted, the 

 rivers in the drier seasons occupied but narrow channels, and these in course of 

 time were embanked and the marshes became dry land. 



Lowestoft Ness is increasing, but further south, Dunwich, at one time a 

 flourishing city with 12 churches, has but one of these buildings left. Aldborough 

 has lost much ground, and the town of Orwell, east of Harwich, has been 

 destroyed. At Dovercourt the cliffs have suffered much, and the old church of 

 Walton-on-the-Naze, which in the year 941 was some distance inland, has been 

 washed away.^ 



1 Rev. W. Fox, Geologist, v. 452 ; see also T. Codrington, Q. J. xxvi. 544. 



^ The Channel Islands, by D. T. Ansted and R. G. Latham, 1862, p. 6. 



3 Ussher, G. Mag. 1879, p. 32. 



* Lyell, Principles of Geology, ed. 11, i. 514, 516. 



^ See Reid, Geol. Holderness, pp. 94-1 11 ; Phillips, Rivers, etc., Yorkshire, 



pp. 122, 276. 



" Rev. W. B. Clarke, Proc. G. S. ii. 514; Lyell, Principles, ed. 11, i. 521 ; 

 J. B. Redman, Proc. Inst. C. E. xxiii. 



