A RECENT LANDSLIP ON JORDAN CLIFF. 97 



the first step due to the rain. The first slip will go right down 

 into the sea and be, as in this case, carried entirely away. But 

 the terrace above holds in another collection of water, which 

 also drains away underneath it and undermines it, so that before 

 long it also slips, but may probably not reach the beach, but 

 merely fall some feet below its present position. The terraces 

 above it will sooner or later do the same, and a fresh one will 

 finally separate itself from the solid hill and slide down as this 

 landslip, which is the subject of my paper, did last May. The 

 sea is, meanwhile, carrying on its independent action below and 

 preparing for a fresh series of falls. 



It would seem that there are two main independent move- 

 ments always in progress. 



1. The whole mass of rock forming the landslips (as shown by 

 vertical lines in the diagram) is sliding continuously downwards 

 at the rate of, perhaps, a foot or two in a year. 



2. At considerable intervals, perhaps twenty or thirty years or 

 more, there occurs a fresh slip at the top of the cliff, which 

 slides suddenly perhaps 30 feet and then forms part of the whole 

 slowly sliding mass. 



Besides these movements there are many more local ones con- 

 tinually occurring, and the fail of a fresh slip would probably 

 cause a more or less general disturbance by the shock. 



When I first saw these 200 yards of freshly-fallen masses of 

 rock on the beach, I naturally associated them with the May 

 landslip, but, by measuring their position, I ascertained that 

 they did not lie below the May landslip, but entirely to the west 

 of it, and that they had, therefore, no connection with it, but 

 formed the first stage in an adjacent series of slips. I have been 

 particular in giving their position, as in future years some 

 important data may be, perhaps, thus obtained as to the rate of 

 coast erosion at this point. 



It would seem from the fact that there is very little in the way 

 of blocks on that part of the shore immediately below the May 

 slip that a considerable time must have elapsed since the last 

 subsidence of the 6 feet band of stone through the action of the 



