1 



92 



NA TURE 



[November 24, 1904 



abundant on these hills. This plant strikes the key-note of 

 the flora of the district, which is essentially northern and 

 alpine in its characters. Adjoining on the south, in Mayo' 

 the Lusitanian heaths. Erica meditcrranca and Dnbcocia 

 polifolia, and other plants fully represent the remarkable 

 southern flora which characterises the western sea-board 

 of Ireland, and a few miles on the northern side the same 

 features are repeated in Donegal in the occurrence of 

 Saxifraga umbrosa. Euphorbia hiberna, and Trichomanes 

 radicans. But in the Sligo flora the southern element is 

 absent, saving the occurrence of Adiaiitiim Capillus-Vciieris, 

 which may be found growing at sea-level in company with 

 Draha incana and Saxifraga aiooides. 



.•\s it is with the plants, so with the animals. The 

 characteristic southern forms of western Ireland are scarcelv 

 represented, while northern animals are conspicuous. The 

 Field Club entomologists found Pclophila horealis literally to 

 swarm on the shores of Lough Gill, which is onlv a few 

 feet above sea-level : Afiiy//ii hrevifaitJa. an .^pterorr new 



fined to the erosion taking place on the Yorkshire coast 

 between Bridlington and Spurn, and the works that have 

 been carried out in constructing promenades, sea walls, and 

 groynes at Bridlington. 



There is no novelty in the descriptive parts of these papers. 

 It is a well known and recognised fact that on certain parts 

 of the coast of this country considerable loss of land is 

 taking place by the erosion of the sea. The subject occupied 

 the attention of the geological section of the British 

 .Association in 1885, when a committee was appointed to 

 investigate the subject of coast erosion, and reports of 

 experts having local knowledge were obtained from all parts 

 of the coast and printed in the reports issued from time to 

 time, the last, which was confined to recent evidence 

 obtained ti>.m tho coast guards, being published in the 

 report of the meeting held at Southport in 1903. We have 

 ourselves dealt with the subject in articles in Xatl'Re in 

 our number for June, 1899, and on sea coast and destruction 

 in .\ugust 23, 1900. The destruction of the Ilolderness 



to the British Isles, which accompanied it here, is likewise 

 northern ; and other instances might be quoted. Among 

 other results of the Field Club visit (which are fully de- 

 scribed in the September number of the Irish Xaturalisi) 

 may be mentioned the discovery of three water-mites, one 

 of which, Eylais bicorntita, is new to science, and the two 

 others new to Britain. 



COAST EROSION AND PROTECTION. 

 'T'WO papers on this subject were recently read at the 

 Institution of Civil Engineers, one by Mr. .A. E. 

 Carey on coast erosion, and the other by Mr. E. R. 

 Matthews, the borough engineer of Bridlington, on the 

 erosion of the Holderness coast of Yorkshire. 



The first paper deals generally with the whole coast of 

 England, and briefly enumerates the salient geological 

 features of the coast line and points out their connection 

 with the relative rates of erosion. The second paper is con- 



NO. 1830, VOL. 71] 



coast and the protective works put up to stop the erosion 

 at Hornsea, Withernsea, and Spurn were dealt with in a 

 paper by Mr. Pickwell on the encroachments of the sea 

 from Spurn Point to Flamborough Head printed in the 

 Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, 

 vol. li., 1878. 



The whole subject, both as descriptive of the coast of 

 England, the losses that have taken place, and the works 

 that have been carried out to prevent erosion, is also verv 

 fully dealt with in the work on " The Sea Coast " pub- 

 lished by Messrs. Longmans in 1902. 



Mr. Matthews in his paper makes a statement that has 

 frequently been made before, but for which there does not 

 appear to be any warrant, to the effect that the material 

 eroded from the Holderness coast is carried into the estuary 

 of the Humber. This subject was very fully dealt with in 

 a paper read at the British Association at Glasgow in 190 1 

 on the source of warp in the Humber, in which it was con- 

 clusively shown that it is physically impossible for this 

 material to be carried into the Humber, and that, as a 



