MODERN GEOLOGICAL CHANGES. 345 



are as permanent as they are powerful, and the causes 

 described by the poet are as energetic at present as they 

 were twenty centuries ago, when they were enumerated. 

 The sea is a powerful and ever-active agent of destruction ; 

 and the shores of Our island present extensive proofs of its 

 devastating power. We find that lofty cliffs and rocky 

 promontories are in a state of decay, more or less rapid in 

 proportion to the character of the materials which compose 

 them, and the power they possess of resisting its abrading 

 force. Commencing with the shores of Orkney and Shetland, 

 we observe the effects of the waves on the primary formations 

 of those distant isles ; and proceeding to the mainland, we 

 notice like traces of devastation along the eastern coast of 

 Scotland, where tracts of land, villages, and towns, are recorded 

 to have been swept away by the sea. On passing the English 

 border, we find the coasts of Northumberland and Durham 

 presenting similar marks of destruction, which are recorded 

 in the historical descriptions of these districts. On the 

 shores of Yorkshire, the same scene of devastation presents 

 itself; several villages have been destroyed, of which, in some 

 cases, a mere vestige, in others the name only remains, the 

 amount of denudation depending largely on the nature ol 

 the cliffs, and their greater or less capability of resisting 

 the waves. Thus at Bridlington, the cliffs are composed 

 of pliocene deposits resting on the chalk, a great portion of 

 which have been swept away. The town and port of 

 Ravenspurn, at which Henry IV.' landed on his enterprise 

 of dethroning Bichard II., now exists only in the historical 

 records of that event. The low coast of Lincolnshire is pro- 

 tected by embankments, the destruction of which, by inunda- 

 tions, has at various periods occasioned the most disastrous 

 results. Tracts of this fenny district, embanked and drained 

 by the Romans, were lost after the departure of that people, 

 by the decay of the barriers, and the inroad of the sea. The 

 coasts of Norfolk and Suffolk, being composed of softer mate- 

 rials, exhibit a striking example of the destructive power of 

 the ocean in the ruin of the cliffs ; while the deposit of bars 

 and sand-banks, composed of the detritus thereof, act as 

 barriers, and prevent its farther encroachments. "While 

 tracts of land and villages, together with the old town of 

 Cromer and of Dimwich, have been swept away by the ocean, 



