\OAVES BREAKING ON A KEEP. 



WAVES AND THEIR WORK 



By F. MARTIN DUNCAN, F.R.P.S. 



"With Photographs by the Author 



A WINTER stoiTti on a rock-bound 

 coast is an awe-inspiring sight, 

 which once seen is not easily for- 

 gotten. What a change from the bril- 

 liant sunlight and gently flowing tide 

 of the summer, to the hurrying grey 

 storm-clouds, the boom and crash of 

 the waves thundering against the cliffs, 

 and the wild screech of the beach 

 as the pebbles are drawn down by the 

 backwash ! Then it is that we begin 

 to realise the de\-astating power of the 

 waves, and the work they accomplish. 



The waves are constantly at work along 

 the whole eastern coast of England, eat- 

 ing away the land, so that from Flam- 

 borough Head to Kilnsea, where the 

 strata are composed of drift or boulder- 

 clay — comparatively unresisting materials 

 — from two to four yards of land disa])i)ear 

 annually ; and in the same way all the 

 soft coast cliffs from the Humber to the 



mouth of the Thames are being washed 

 away by the waves. Historic Raven- 

 spur, where Bolingbroke landed in 1399, 

 has long since disappeared beneath the 

 surface of the sea. and the old town sites 

 of Dunchurch and Cromer he beneath 

 the wa\'es of the North Sea. Amongst 

 the fisherfolk of Norfolk an ancient su]x-r- 

 stition still hngers, that on dark and 

 silent nights before a tempest, the old 

 bells of the long since buried church of 

 ancient Cromer may be heard faintly 

 ringing a warning peal. 



The coasts of Kent and Sussex are also 

 in manv parts being rapidly woni away. 

 The twin towers of the ancient church of 

 Reculvers would have disapjx'ared beneath 

 the waves long ago but for the stout sea- 

 wall and groins which have been built 

 to protect them ; while the site of old 

 Chichester has quite disap|X'ared, swal- 

 lowed up by the all-devouring wavi-. 



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