VOL. LXXVI.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. Ql 



that Flamsteed could not see with his naked eye Nov. 18, 1679 ; nor could I see 

 the least appearance of it in 1782. I am convinced it is the same star as Flam- 

 steed's 56th, marked /by Bayer, from which it is only 14-°. Flamsteed's 53d, 

 marked /in Ptolemy's catalogue, is a different star. 



La Cailles 483 Aquarii. — I first discovered that this star was missing in 1778. 

 It was not visible in 1783, 1784. 



There are a few other stars suspected by the ancient astronomers to have been 

 new or altered a little in brightness, which I have omitted, not seeing any reason 

 to think them so ; and some that are certainly variable, but cannot be observed 

 in these latitudes. I have also, contrary to my first intention, added several 

 which are not mentioned by them ; such are those that I lately discovered to be 

 missing. 



X. Of a Subsidence of the Ground near Folkstone, on the Coast of Kent. By 

 the Rev. John Lyon, M. A. p. 220. 



In our vol. 6, p. 252, was given an account of the sinking of the cliffs or high 

 ground near Folkstone, by the Rev. J. Sackette. The present paper is a further 

 account of the same, taken at the request of Mr. Edw. King in 1785, by Mr. 

 Lyon of Dover ; partly confirming, and in part contradicting, some particulars in 

 the former account. 



I have been twice to view the place, says Mr. L. and have endeavoured to pro- 

 cure the best information, and have compared my remarks with what Mr. Sackette 

 formerly said on the same subject to^ the Royal Society. Mr. L. gives an ex- 

 planation from a large map of the place. It appears that a length of about 1 30 

 feet of the cliff had subsided or slipped down about 40 feet lower than the 



rest. 



As I intend, says Mr. L., in explaining the cause of the sinking of the ground, 

 to advance an opinion of my own, and to controvert what Mr. Sackette formerly 

 said on the subject, it may be necessary to explain the nature of the soil, so far 

 as it is open to view, in the neighbourhood of Folkstone. The chalk cliffs, 

 which begin at Dover, form opposite Folkstone town high hills, and leaving the 

 shore there i^ a large tract of arable and pasture land between them and the sea. 

 Part of this ground is a kind of marie, which contains pyrites, fragments of the 

 comu ammonis, and many other fossil bodies. Next to the marie is a loose sandy 

 soil intermixed with a very large, hard, and coarse kind of stone, in which are 

 often found fossil oyster shells. This sandy soil rests on a marie, which at the 

 cliff is in some places 3 or 4 feet above the beach, and when wet is very slippery. 

 A stratum of this marie extends for many miles on the coast, and where it is not 

 sufficiently covered with sand to bear any weight, it is in many places a quag, and 



dangerous to pass over. 



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