(Erosion of the Coast near Stemnouth 

 bn the JUtion of the ca. 



By Mr. T. B. GROVES, F.C.S. (of Weymouth). 





old adage says " The drop wears away the stone 

 not by the force but the frequency of its falling." 

 How much more destructive, then, must be the 

 action of the ever restless sea, whose motion is not 

 only continuous but often of enormous violence, 

 the effectiveness of which as a disintegrator is, as 

 a rule, increased immensely by the intermixture of sand and gravel ; 

 to say nothing of the purely chemical action it exerts on certain 

 rocks of a calcareous nature. The waste of the shore and the 

 consequent encroachment of the sea has been noticed in all ages, 

 but it was not until recent times that its vast importance was 

 recognised, and a systematic attempt made to ascertain the rate of 

 its progress and the modus operandi of the various forces which 

 bring about the result. 



At the Southport meeting in 1883 of the British Association for 

 the Advancement of Science a recommendation was adopted by the 

 General Committee to appoint a committee, of which Messrs. Topley 

 and De Ranee were to be secretaries, " for the purpose of enquiring 

 into the rate of erosion of the sea coasta of England and Wales, 

 and the influence of the artificial abstraction of shingle and other 

 material in that action." 



