146 THE OCEAN. 



enormous walls to tremble to the very summit, and the roar rever- 

 berates in all tbeir angles with an incessant thunder. Dashed into 

 the fissures of the rock with terrible force, the water sweeps away- 

 all the clayey and chalky matter, and gradually lays bare the solid 

 beds, wrenches large blocks out of them, rolls them on the strand, 

 and breaks them into shingle, which it drives along with a dreadful 

 noise. Through tlie eddy of boiling foam which besieges the shore, 

 one can only now and then perceive the work of demolition ; but 

 the waves are so laden with fragments that they present a blackish 

 or earthy colour, as far as the eye can reach. 



When the storm has ceased, the encroachments of the sea can be 

 measured, and we can calculate the millions of cubic yards of stone 

 engulfed or transformed into shingle and sand. Towards the end 

 of the year 18G2, during one of the most terrible tempests of the 

 century, M. Lennier saw the sea batter down the rocks of La Heve 

 to a thickness of more than 50 feet. Since the year 1100, the waters 

 of the Channel, aided by rain, frost, and other agents, that act strongly 

 on the upper strata, have cut down this cliff by more than 1500 yards, 

 that is to saj', more than two yards per year. The spot where the 

 village of Sainte Adresse formerly stood, has given way before the 

 flood, and is replaced by the bank of PEclat.* M. Bouniceau, one of 

 those savants who have specially studied the phenomena of erosion of 

 shores, estimates the fraction of cliff which is carried away by the 

 sea on the coasts of Calvados at above a quarter of a yard on an 

 average yearly, while on the coasts of Seine Inferieure the annual 

 erosion may be considered as nearly a foot. 



In some places on the southern and eastern coasts of England, the 

 invasions of the sea take place with an equal or even superior rapidity, 

 for the farmers generally count on the loss of about a yard per year 

 along the cliff. f To the east of the peninsula of Kent, the waters 

 have advanced more than 3 miles towards the west since the Eoman 

 period. In their successive invasions, they have submerged the vast 

 domains of the Saxon Earl Goodwin, and have replaced them by the 

 terrible Goodwin Sands, where so many ships are lost every year : and 

 they have transformed the narrow lagune of the Downs into great open 

 roads. According to the calculations of M. Marchal, J the total amount 

 of denudation which the waters of the eastern part of the Channel 

 carry on every year is equal to above 13 millions of cubic yards. 



* Lamblardie, Bande, Revue des deux Mondes. 

 t Beete Jukes, School Manual of Geology^ p. 90. 

 X Annales des Fonts et Chaussees, ler sem. p. 201. 



