THE INROADS OF THE SEA. 233 



action. Old maps of this region do not represent its 

 outlines as they exist to-day, and a comparison of 

 these ancient charts with modern ones teaches us an 

 eloquent lesson of the ocean's power. The rocks in 

 the locality I have just named are, on the whole, of soft 

 character, and present no adequate resistance to the 

 waves. They are composed of chalk, lias, and oolite 

 strata. At Flamborough we see the chalk worn into 

 caves and into needles as characteristic as are those of 

 the Isle of Wight which, themselves, alter their form 

 and dwindle away year by year. Between Flamborough 

 Head and Spurn Point we meet with beds of boulder- 

 clay, which rise to a height of a hundred feet or so. 

 This material offers no resistance to the waves. The 

 tide scours and moves away the gravels which might 

 otherwise protect the bases of the cliffs, and the wear- 

 and-tear in this region has therefore been typical in 

 its amount and rapidity. 



Whole tracts of land on this Holderness coast have 

 thus bodily disappeared : villages, both seaport and 

 inland, have been swept away. Since the time of the 

 Romans a belt of land nearly three miles broad, has 

 been regarded as representing the loss of territory on 

 this coast. The late Professor Philips calculated that 

 the cliffs from Bridlington to Spurn recede at a rate of 

 two yards and a quarter per year, this action taking 

 place over an extent of coast-line measuring thirty-six 

 miles. Calculated as to the actual amount of land 

 which the sea swallows up, we may safely set the loss 

 down on this part of the coast at thirty acres annually. 



The old maps of the coast to which I have alluded 

 present a melancholy list of details in respect of their 

 failure to identify the existing outline of the land. 

 Thus, what were once towns and villages known as 



