JuNE 1, 1899] 
INA CE: 
metres from E. to W. and § kilometres from N. to S., is a 
volcanic mountain, the edge of the crater rising to a height of 
935 metres on the northern side. It is entirely covered with 
ice, which comes down to sea-level, and presents a steep wall 
to the sea: it would seem from this that in this region a tongue 
of polar cold projects northwards, a conclusion supported by the 
serial temperature observations. No trace of vegetation could 
be recognised with the telescope, and animal life appeared to be 
exceedingly scanty. No definite information was obtained as to 
the existence of Thompson Island. 
(2) Enderby Land was not visited, as the course was again 
turned northward at lat. 64° S., but the samples of the sea- 
bottom yielded evidence that the land is not voleanic. Along 
the edge of the pack-ice the bottom was covered with diatom 
ooze, mixed with a larger proportion of clay the nearer Enderby 
Land was approached. In lat. 63° 17’ S., long. 57° 51’ E., 
material from ground-moraines, carried to sea by icebergs, was 
obtained ; this consisted of gneiss, granite, schists, and one 
large piece of red sandstone. 
(3) CZimate.—The zone of fresh westerly winds and low 
barometer extends south of Africa only to lat. 55° S., and of 
Kerguelen only to 564° S. ; south of this a belt of calms and 
light variable winds extends to 60° S., and beyond 60° S, the 
prevailing winds are easterly. In other parts of the Southern 
Ocean, the westerly winds extend further south, to 60° and 
64° S. latitude. Hence it may be supposed that the position of 
the Antarctic anticyclone is towards the western part of the 
Indian Ocean, and not directly over the pole. 
In November 1898 the limit of drift ice was found in long. 
7° E., to be in lat. 5623°S. On the voyage from the most 
southerly point in the neighbourhood of Enderby Land, no ice- 
bergs were met with north of 61° 22’ S. 
(4) Oceanography.—Amongst the most important achieve- 
ments of the Va/divéa expedition is the making of a large num- 
ber of new soundings, with the discovery of an extensive deep- 
water area. It has hitherto been assumed that the sea-bottom 
rose rapidly towards the south from the Eastern Atlantic and the 
western part of the Indian Ocean, but it now seems likely that 
deep water extends from both these basins into Antarctic lati- 
tudes. Kerguelen, and the Crozet and Prince Edward 
Islands were regarded as projections on the margin of a 
supposed Antarctic plateau, and this idea had obtained so 
strong a hold that both V. v. Haardt (1895) and Fricker (1898) 
simply ignored the soundings of the Chad/enger in their maps, 
although these had shown depths of over 3000 metres in the 
Indian Ocean between long. 80° and 95° E. and lat. 60° and 66° 
S. In the regions sounded by the Valdivia, between 7° and 
53. E. long., the depth has been found to exceed 5000 metres. 
South of the fifty-sixth parallel, the bottom temperature was 
everywhere below o° C., but nowhere below -—0°'5 C. The 
serial temperatures in 63°S. lat., 54° E. long., in the month of 
December, gave the following distribution : (z) a surface layer, 
120 metres thick, with temperatures between o° C. and —1°-7 
C.; (4) an intermediate layer, about 2200 metres thick, with 
temperatures above 0° C., and rising to 1°°7 C. ; (c) a bottom 
layer of equal or greater thickness with temperatures below 
o C., but never colder than -o°*5. Temperature fell from the 
surface down to 80 metres, then rose to 1200 metres, and then 
again fell slowly to the bottom. The same arrangement was 
found further to the west, but the temperatures were some- 
what lower, and again to the east, in the track of the Challenger ; 
but in the latter case the cold surface layer is thicker, and the 
warm layer usually reaches to the bottom (3000 to 3300 metres), 
the cold under-layer being only met with in a sounding of over 
3600 metres. The lowest temperature observed by the 
Challenger was -1°*7, the highest only 1°°4. The sea in the 
region of Enderby Land would thus seem to be favoured by 
relatively high temperatures, and it remains to bring this into 
direct relation to the warm Kerguelen stream : this must be done 
by more observations to the south of Kerguelen. 
(5) Marine Biogeography.—The quantity of plankton in- 
creases down to about 2000 metres, diminishing rapidly at 
greater depths, although no level is destitute of animal life. The 
quantity of vegetable plankton, on the other hand, reaches its 
lowest within 300 or 400 metres of the surface. The 
characteristic of the Antarctic plankton is the abundance of 
diatoms, and the occurrence of special forms: the appearance 
of the Antarctic type begins as far north as 40° S., but in 50° S. 
the presence of forms belonging to warmer seas is still 
noticeable. 
NO. 1544, VOL. 60] 
115 
THE WEARING AWAY OF SAND BEACHES. 
HE rate of erosion of cliffs and land bordering on the 
sea, caused by the action of the waves, has been the 
subject of frequent investigation, and numerous records exist 
as to the rate at which the land is being encroached on by the 
sea. On low flat coasts the means of ascertaining the result of 
the contest between the sea and the land is more difficult to 
ascertain. The ordinary means of measurement is by a com- 
parison of old charts, which are seldom trustworthy for this 
purpose. These charts being for navigable purposes, the depth 
of the water and the position of objects on shore forming sea 
marks were the subjects for which accuracy alone was required. 
The same remarks apply to old plans of estates and manors 
which were intended to delineate the property of the owners, 
the sea shore below high water not being a matter requiring 
trustworthy accuracy. 
The results obtained by the Department of the Waterstaat 
in Holland, from periodical measurements of the coast adjacent 
to the North Sea, are therefore of great interest as showing the 
effect of the sea on flat beaches in low countries. 
Between the years 1843-46, the Department caused to be 
placed all along the Dutch coast, extending from the Helder to 
the Hook of Holland, a distance of 75 miles, at the foot of the 
sand hills, oak posts at intervals of one kilometre (‘62 mile) to 
form a permanent base line; and from these, at regular 
intervals, measurements have been periodically taken to the 
foot of the dunes on the land side, and to the low water line on 
the sea side. 
The results are recorded in the Proceedings of the Dutch 
Institution of Civil Engineers.? 
They are also set out in considerable detail, and tables given 
for the different periods, in the report of a Commission appointed 
to investigate the shell fishery of the coast, issued in 1896.* 
The coast between the two parts named forms the arc of a 
very large circle, the depth of the embayment in the centre heing 
54 miles. The main direction for the southern part faces about 
N.W., and of the northern part W.N.W. The winds which 
have most effect on the coast are those from the S. W., changing 
round to N.W. 
The set of the flood tide is from south to north, the range 
decreasing from 5 feet at the Hook of Holland to 4} feet at the 
Texel. The coast line is bordered seaward by a sand beach 
extending from 300 to 350 feet to low water, lying at a 
slope of about 1 in 70; and on the land side by sand dunes, 
which vary from 1 to 3 miles in width and from 40 to 50 feet 
in height. These decrease in size towards the Texel. 
With the exception of the detrital matter brought down in 
suspension by the river Maas, there is no source for a supply 
of material to feed the beach. The cliffs which border the 
French coast, from which the shingle and sand on the beach 
there is derived, terminate at Sangatte. The drift of the shingle 
and sand derived from the erosion of these cliffs extends only fora 
limited distance, and dies outa little beyond Calais and Dunkirk. 
As regards the Belgian coast, the beach along which consists 
entirely of sand, from comparisons made by the Government 
engineers a few years ago of the various charts and plans dating 
from the beginning of the present century, and from a com- 
parison of surveys of the coast made in 1833 and 1870, the 
conclusion was arrived at that no material alteration in the 
beach of the Belgian coast has taken place, so far as any means 
of comparison existed; and this was confirmed by measure- 
ments, taken in 1833 and 1870, of the height of the beach at 
the groynes at Ostend, Heyst and Wendyke, which showed that 
there had been no material alteration in the form of the beach. 
The Dutch coast, between the periods to which the present 
investigations extend, has been subjected to two disturbing 
elements, in addition to one abnormally heavy gale in December 
1894. The opening out of the new water way to Rotterdam 
through the Hook of Holland, and the construction of the 
harbour at Ymuiden for the entrance to the Amsterdam Canal, 
with the long piers extending across the beach, led to a con- 
siderable transposition of material at those parts of the shore ; 
but the effect was local, and extended only over a short 
distance. 
As a general result, the measurements show that during the 
last half-century, on the Dutch coast, the sea has been 
1‘ Tidschrift Van het Koningklijk, Instituut Van Ingenieurs ” (1883). 
2 Uitkomst Van het Onderzoek of de Schelpvisscherij Langs de Noord- 
zeekust Nadeelig Kan Zijn Voor Het Weerstandsvermogen Van Het Strand 
en het Behoud Der Duinen als Zeewering '’ (1896). 
