I.(S 



NATURE 



[Augus i 3, igi i 



1: includes all information necessar} as to the besl 

 means ol seeing the differenl parts ol the coast-line, 

 and .ill the geological information thai is requisite foi 

 itanding the structure o'i the counti j . the 

 flexuring oi the rocks, and the features which the 

 cliffs present. Mr. ^rbei points oul thai one ol the 

 -i" i i.-il features of this coast is the numbei oi coastal 

 waterfalls. " B) this term," he says, "we impl) 

 waterfalls cut by streams in their passage over the 

 sea-cul cliffs to the beach. Several ol these coastal 

 falls are of considerable height, and form striking 

 landmarks <>n the coast. Their features, however, 

 are so varied thai no two of them are exacth alike 

 in .-ill respects. They show all stages in the evolution 

 of a waterfall from its birth to its senile period of 

 old age and decay." 



Mr. Arber divides his subject, that is to say, the 

 coast-line, into six districts, beginning with the must 

 easterly, near Porlock, in Somerset, and ending with 



main watersheds, and is now 

 dual watershed ridges. This is 

 ir map of the whole drainage 



ally lay outside thi 

 advancing on the a 

 illustrated by a cle 

 s\ stem of the area. 

 Mr. Arber writes, on p. 20, as it there were onlj 



one watershed, and ii is true thai there are se< lart 



watersheds which nearly unite them, but, as a matter 

 of fact, there are two main watersheds separated hv 



the Valley of the Jaw, and it is doubtful if the) were 

 ever united. The Exmoor ridge maj have been pro- 

 longed indefinitely westward, while the Hart land 

 watershed musl always have been truncated by the 

 continuation of the 'law valley along the floor of 

 Barnstaple Bay, before the recent depression or subsi- 

 dence enabled the sea to advance so far over thi 

 western land. 



'1'his comparative!} recenl subsidence is a verj im- 

 portant factor in the explanation ol the present pecu- 

 liar drainage system, and of the features presented 



-The valley of Milford Water and the 



head of the First Fall, from the cliffs above Sptrke 

 From "The Coast Scenery of North Devon." 



..Mill Mouth, looking east (Hartland District). 



the most southerly, near Boscastle, in Cornwall. He 

 mentions the best headquarters foi each, and then 

 describes the rocks seen in the cliffs, the ridges and 

 headlands, the streams, and the waterfalls, all of 

 which are illustrated bj excellent photographs, fifty- 

 nine in number, and two of these, reproduced in 

 figs. 1 and 2, will show the reader what kind of 

 scenerj i-. to be found in the area described. 



The chief peculiarity of this area is that the two 

 main watersheds are, roughly, parallel to the coast, 

 and seldom more than three mile- awav from it. 

 We have consequently the curious arrangement of a 



number of streams rising near tin- coasl and flowing 

 inland, and of a slill larger number oi shorl stream's 

 flowing from the watersheds to the cliff-line, over 

 which most of them fall in one or mori 1 iscadi 

 The explanation of this arrangement is that the sea 

 has invaded and destroyed the country which origin- 

 NO. 2179, VOL. 87] 



by the coast-line, hut Mr. Arber has not laid sufficient 

 emphasis upon it. Ih refers to it in several places, 

 but he also refers to what he terms the "recenl 

 elevation" of some parts of the const, leaving the 

 reader to infer thai the one movemenl was as recenl as 

 the other. He should have made it clear that the 

 upheaval which lifted the "Raised Beaches" to their 

 present position, or rather to a still higher level, was 

 antecedent to thi subsidence which is indicated by 

 the drowned valleys .and the submerged forests. 

 When the hook reach,- a second edition Mr. Arber 

 will do well to add a short account of the Pleistoi 

 lii-ioi\ ol the countr) to his introductory chapter. 



Of the coasi near Hartland Point Mr. Arber writes 

 that it includes some of the wildest and grandest cliff 

 scenery to he mel with in the whole of Devon, and 

 that as regards its coastal waterfalls he believes it to 

 be quite unique so far as Britain is concerned. On, 



