ALTERATIONS OF COAST LINE. 



393 



detached are brought together in immense heaps, that appear as an accumulation of 

 cubical masses the product of some quarry." We have other examples of the resistless 

 power of the element, in the hollowing out of caverns in the rocks exposed to a boisterous 

 sea, and in the fretted and columnar appearance of promontories. Some fine instances 

 occur in the Flamborough chalk cliffs, the Filey Bridge rocks, and those of schistus near 

 Whitby, in "the latter of which the cave called Hob-Hole had some years ago a most 

 romantic appearance, having a double pillar in the middle of the entrance. But these 

 aspects are destined to undergo further change, by the continuous agency of the cause 

 which has produced them. The pillar in Hob-Hole has been demolished by the waves, 



, but the cavern is still 



seventy feet long by 

 twenty wide at the 

 mouth. There are groups 

 of insulated rocks, which 

 have evidently been one 

 connected mass, sepa- 

 rated into fragments of 

 fantastic and needle- 

 shaped form, while others 

 have been parted from 

 neighbouring coasts, by 

 the constant lashing of 

 the ocean. The Arched 

 Rock in the Bay of 

 Freshwater, off the Isle 

 Hob- Hole, \vhitby. of Wight, and several 



insulated masses in its vicinity, plainly bespeak their original connection with the cliffs 

 on shore, though now six hundred feet from them, the perforation of the former having 

 been effected by the same devastating power to which the detachment of the rock itself 

 from the parent island is to be attributed. In the same district, there can be no doubt 

 that the five rocks called the Needles once formed the western extremity of the island, 

 and have been insulated from it and from each other, and reduced to their present shape 

 and size, by the fury of the waves Though now of considerable extent and altitude, 

 their ultimate fate is not questionable, the original Needle or spiral rock which gave the 

 name to the group, and which was 160 feet high, having vanished below the surface of 

 the water in 1764, in consequence of the undermining of its base. Since the year 1770, 

 a current has cut a passage through the remaining portion of Heligoland, once a cele- 

 brated stronghold of the Saxons, but largely reduced by the sea during the middle ages, 

 and ships now sail between the two islands into which it has been formed. The for- 

 mation of Start Island out of the north-east promontory of Sanda, one of the Orkneys, 

 divided by the 'sea, is an operation of modern times ; and appearances indicate that the 

 Isle of St. Mary one of the Scilly group- will, in no long course of time, be cut in two. 

 The authentic details which have been collected respecting the gradual waste of several 

 parts of our own coast, are of singular interest, and exhibit a large amount of land swept 

 away by the encroachments of the ocean. The Castle of St. Andrews, on the coast of 

 Fife, had in Cardinal Beaton's time a tract of land intervening between it and the sea ; 

 but this has entirely disappeared^ with some of the ruins of the castle, the rest of its 

 remains, standing on the edge of a cliff, serving as a landmark for seamen. Mr. Steven- 

 son, an engineer, states, that from St. Andrew's northward to Eden Water and the river 

 Tay, the coast presents a sandy beach, and is so liable to shift, that it is difficult to trace 



