I&6 TtiE LANDSLIP, LYME REGIS. 



reef as three-quarters of a mile in length and from 300 to 

 500 feet in advance of the former high-water mark. To many 

 visitors this upheaved beach was the most interesting of all the 

 changes that had occurred, and it raised hopes of the formation 

 of a much needed harbour. Its practical use was, however, 

 confined to affording shelter to the boats which landed visitors 

 to see the recent sights, and it was not long before the sea 

 washed away all traces of any harbour. But the change for a 

 time was remarkable. Land which before Christmas was 10 feet 

 below sea-level was raised 40 feet above it, and behind this ridge 

 there was a pool with a depth of zi feet of water. The Rev. 

 W. D. Conybeare accounted for the elevation of this ridge as a 

 case of hydraulic pressure. He thought that the beds of loose 

 sand, being reduced to the consistency of quicksand, would 

 convey the pressure of the subsiding masses, which he estimated 

 at 8,000,000 tons, to the point of least resistance, where it would 

 produce the burst upwards. This is a tempting theory, account- 

 ing so nicely for the going down in one place and the coming 

 up in another, and Mr. Conybeare was a good geologist for his 

 day. But Mr. Jukes-Browne, who has kindly revised this Note, 

 assures me that the quicksand could not possibly have been 

 sufficiently confined to have conveyed this hydraulic pressure. 

 He ascribes the elevation of the ridge entirely to the thrust 

 exercised by the detached field when it slipped forward towards 

 the sea. It would ridge up in front of it the debris of many 

 former smaller slips ; and this action, which undoubtedly took 

 place, he considers amply sufficient to account for all that 

 occurred along the shore. 



