COAST-LINE 155 



have been submerged before the whole of the present 

 fauna and flora had reached Ireland. 



THE COAST-LINE. 



Some of the most characteristic and charming scenery 

 of the British Islands is to be found along their varied 

 seaboard. Coast scenery appears to depend for its 

 distinctive features upon (i) the form of the ground 

 at the time when by emergence or submergence the 

 present level was established ; (2) the composition 

 and structure of the shore-rocks ; (3) the direction 

 of the prevalent winds, and the relative potency of 

 subaerial and marine denudation. 



The British coast-line presents three distinct phases : 

 in many places it is retreating ; in others it is advan- 

 cing ; while in a few it may be regarded as practically 

 stationary. As examples of retreat, the shores of a 

 large part of the east of England may be cited. In 

 Holderness, for instance, a strip of land more than 

 a mile broad has been carried away during the last 

 eight centuries. Even since the Ordnance Survey 

 maps were published in 1851, more than 500 feet 

 have in some places been removed, the rate of de- 

 molition being here and there as much as five yards 

 in a year. The advance of the coast takes place 

 chiefly in sheltered bays, or behind or in front of 

 projecting headlands and piers, and is due in large 

 measure to the deposit of material which has been 

 removed by the sea from adjoining shores. The 

 amount of land thus added does not compensate for 

 the quantity carried away, so that the total result is 

 a perceptible annual loss. The best examples of a 



