2l8 LIGHT SCIENCE FOR LEISURE HOURS. 



headland of Flamborough and Spurn Point (the coast 

 of Holderness), the waste is particularly rapid. Many 

 spots, which are now mere sandbanks, are marked in the 

 old maps of Yorkshire as the sites of ancient towns and 

 villages. Speaking of Hyde (one of these), Pennant says: 

 ( Only the tradition is left of this town.' Owthorne 

 and its church have been for the most part destroyed, as 

 also Auburn, Hartburn, and Kilnsea. Mr. Phillips, in 

 his f Geology of Yorkshire,' states that not unreason- 

 able fears are entertained that, at some future time, 

 Spurn Point itself will become an island, or be wholly 

 washed away, and then the ocean, entering into the 

 estuary of the Humber, will cause great devastation. 

 Pennant states that ' several places, once towns of note 

 upon the Humber, are now only recorded in history ; 

 and Ravensperg was at one time a rival of Hull, and 

 a port so very considerable in 1332, that Edward 

 Baliol and the confederated English barons sailed from 

 hence to invade Scotland; and Henry IV., in 1399, 

 made choice of this port to land at, to effect the deposal 

 of Richard II. ; yet the whole of this has since been 

 devoured by the merciless ocean ; extensive sands, dry 

 at low water, are to be seen in their stead.' The same 

 writer also describes Spurn Point as shaped like a 

 sickle, and the land to the north, he says, was f per- 

 petually preyed on by the fury of the German Sea, 

 which devours whole acres at a time.' 



The decay of the shores of Norfolk and Suffolk is 

 also remarkably rapid. Sir Charles Lyell relates 

 some facts which throw an interesting light on the 



