12* DESTRUCTION OF CLIFFS. 



of the coast had been rapid, and their removal serves to show how 

 potent a factor wind is in transforming coast scenery. Probably its 

 importance inland is even greater. 



Landslips. Another feature of the coast which conspicuously 

 affects the scenery in many parts of the south of England is the occur- 

 rence of landslips. Though not directly the work of the sea, they 

 occur most frequently on the coast. When the strata happen to dip 

 towards the sea, and some water-bearing sandy bed in a clay, or 

 resting upon a clay, thoroughly moistens the underlying deposit so as 

 to cause it to become slippery, then the weight of the superincum- 

 bent rock is often sufficient to break a strip of jointed rock away from 

 the adjacent inland mass of the stratum, and cause it to slide into the sea, 

 there to become broken up by the action of the waves. One of the largest 

 of these landslips is that which from Ventnor to Blackgang forms the 

 peculiar scenery of the Undercliff, caused by the water held by the Upper 

 Greensand moistening the underlying Gault, so that Chalk and Upper 

 Greensand have slipped away to the sea. Similar phenomena, formed 

 in 1839, are to be seen west of Lyme Regis, near Axmouth. 



Waste of Cliffs. On the whole length of Holderness, the waste of 

 the cliffs is not less than two and a quarter yards in breadth annually. 

 The average loss on the coast of Norfolk between Weyburn and Sher- 

 ingharn is about one yard per annum ; on the coast of Thanet two or 

 three feet. But these same coasts likewise exhibit, on an equally grand 

 scale, the formation of new land from the materials thus detached from 

 the old. The materials which fall from the cliffs are sorted by the 

 tide, and according to their bulk and weight are differently disposed 

 of. As in many artificial processes of washing powders, the sedi- 

 ment is divided into parts of different fineness by merely shaking it 

 at different distances or depths in the stream of water, so it is in the 

 great currents of the sea. Large stones remain a long time at the 

 foot of the cliff from which they fell, smaller masses yield something 

 to the impetus of the waters, sand and pebbles are drifted along the 

 shore according to the set of the tide, and collected into bays and 

 hollows of the coast, or deposited in a line of moving beach ; but the 

 finer clays are transported far away in the waters, and allowed to 

 settle only where these rest in land-locked gulfs, stagnate over weedy 

 marshes, or lose their force in contest with the freshes. The breadth 

 of the sandy beaches thus accumulated is often very great, even 

 many miles of slow and regular descent. The sand banks which 

 stretch out so far from the low coasts are often regarded as remains 

 of ancient lands overwhelmed by the sea, but in most cases they are 

 probably recent formations, accumulated by the waves from the 

 spoils of other regions. But what is thus left by the sea under 

 some circumstances, may be again reclaimed by it under others. The 

 once fertile district called North Friesland, most probably accumu- 

 lated by the sea, measuring from nine to eleven geographical miles 

 from north to south, and six to eight from east to west, was in 1240 

 entirely severed from the Continent, and in part overwhelmed. The 

 island of Northstrand, thus formed, was, towards the end of the 



