; u:\ :;. [919] 



NATURE 



505 



SE I IGGRESSION. 1 



r*HE appearana ai a second edition of Prof. 

 ■*■ Matthews 's book on "•Coast Erosion and 



Protection " is testimony to Che value of the 

 publication, and, at the same time, to the concern 

 which has been aroused of late years over the 



JFig. 1. — General 1 



► Coast, showing erosion. Fri 



continued inroads of the sea on the shores of this 

 country, and the. much debated responsibility of 

 the State for tin preservation of its coastline. 

 osion of the littoral, and particularly thai 

 part which fringes the eastern and southern 

 counties of tin at Britain, lias been an evident 

 process foi centuries, bul it is only re- 

 centl) thai its cumulath i tve he- 



ed, to such an extent, indeed, 

 as to exi tie .1 feeling ol const* na1 ion < in 

 the part o| those \\ hose pr< rperty is 

 ened with obliteration. In [906 a Royal 

 Commission was appointed to investigate 



the situation and to advise as to the Desl 



mi-. ms of preventing further depredations. 



lis recommendations were embodied in a 

 final report issued in nut. To put the 

 matter briefly, it repudiated the contention 



of national liability, bul approved the 

 establishment of a central authority for 



the 1 are and administration oi tin 1 oast- 

 line, and suggested the confermenl of 



pou ers up hi I lie Hi lat il "I I 1 ade to pi e- 



vent the unauthorised depletion of shingle 

 hes. 

 \s engineer to the Municipality of 

 Bridlington, on the Hblderness coast 

 ol Yorkshire, when erosion has been 

 perhaps more marked than in am othei pari 

 of the British Isles (between Flamborough 

 ind Spurn Head there is a recession 



1 "Coast Erosion and Prot*-. 

 Second editinn, enlarged. Pp. xvi* 

 Co., Ltd., 1 i I ice 1 . 6rf. net. 



ol 7 miles, of which -,?, miles have probably been 

 wasted since the date of the Roman invasion), 

 Prof. Matthews had unique opportunities of study- 

 ing the subject, particularly as it fell to his 

 lot to carry out protective works to secure the 

 township from further encroachments. The 

 Bl 1 s which he adopted, and the designs which 



he prepared' and executed for 



the walls on the sea-front, tire 

 fully described, and the details 



will be extremely valuable for 



reference by those who ha\e 

 similar problems to fat e. I he 

 volume, however, is more than 

 a merely local survey ; useful 

 particulars are given of work 

 carried out at other coast towns 

 — Hartlepool, Folkestone, and 

 Hastings, for instance — and 

 there is some description of 

 protection works on the coast 

 of Holland. Groynes are illus- 

 trated, as well as sea-walls, 

 and there is an interesting in- 

 vestigation, with a description 

 of experiments carried out by 

 the author on small-scale 

 models, into the effect of pro- 

 jections in the coastline on the 

 travel of sand and shingle. 

 The book is profusely illustrated ; in less than 

 zpo pages of printed matter there are as many 

 as t66 figures, including thirty photographic 

 blates. Some very effective snapshots of storm 

 waxes are included among them, of which Fig. 2 

 is an example. It enables some idea to be formed 



I •./■„••. Bridling, 

 ' Coast Erosi >n and Protection 



Fir,. -.—Storm 



of the tremendous force of wave impai 1 ; sufficient 

 to \ the stability of carefully construi led walls of 

 solid masonry, the effect on unprotected cliffs of 

 chalk' and clay can readily be imagined. 



The arrangement of the book, embodying as it 

 doe si rii 5 of articles contributed at different 



NO. 2574. VOL. I02] 



