NA TURE 



S^Nov. II, 1886 



rendered to the country by Mr. J. B. Redman, who had given 

 much attenlion to the question of coast erosion, and to whom 

 the British Association Committee was greatly indebted. The 

 speaker then proceeded, by the aid of diagrams and drawings 

 on the blackboard, to describe the mode in which the sea acts 

 •on coasts of various kinds, and stated the rate at which erosion 

 is taking place in difterent parts of the country. It was greatest 

 along the coast of Hoklerness and Norfolk, where the sea gained 

 on the land at the average rate of from 2 to 3 yards per year. 

 But locally and during exceptional gales the rate was much 

 higher. On January 30, 1S77, parts of Norfolk lost an average 

 ■of 3 yards for several miles, and near Bacton the loss was 15 

 yards. Typical instances of erosion were cited, among the 

 places mentioned being Folkestone, Brighton, Worthing, Bourne- 

 mouth, Westward Ho ! and Pembrokeshire. The speaker then 

 •went on to describe the shingle beaches and their changes, and 

 to discuss the effects of natural and artificial groynes. On the 

 south coast of England the shingle travelled from west to east, 

 and if left to itself it would form a natural protection along the 

 greater part of the coast, and the average amount of erosion 

 would be small. But in certain places land-owners, town- 

 councils, and other co:porations desired that there should be no 

 ioss of land, and they erected groynes to collect the shingle, and 

 JO robbed the coast to the east of its natural protection. Worthing 

 was heavily groyned and the shingle largely collected, but just 

 ■east of the town the coast was rapidly receding. Folkestone 

 jiier was a large groyne which had collected an extensive area of 

 shingle on its west side ; Copt Point and Eastwear Bay, once 

 protected by a continuous band of shingle, were now nearly bare, 

 and the coast was rapidly going. At Copt Point land was laid 

 out for building, and roads were made ; but the notice-board 

 advertising "this desirable freehold building land," was seen 

 half-way down the clifi'. Natural groynes were sometimes 

 recklessly destroyed, and this was the case at Hengistbury 

 Head, where ironstone was quarried from the cliff and 

 foreshore ; the reef had held back sufficient shingle to 

 piotect the land to the west, but when the reef was re- 

 moved, the shingle travelled on, and the land rapidly receded. 

 ■Great damage was done by taking shingle for road metal, bal- 

 last, or other purposes. The amount so taken appeared small 

 and unimportant because a single storm might throw up as much 

 as might be taken in many months, but the aggregate amount so 

 reinoved was enormous, and must tell in time. It had been 

 estimated that the shingle removed near Kilnsea in twenty years 

 represented a bank 3 miles long, 31 yards wide, and 6 feet deep. 

 It was interesting to note that the erosion of that part of the I 

 ■coast averaged only from three-quarters of a yard to a yard and 

 a half per year for some time before the shingle trade was so 

 largely developed ; but later on, owing to the loss of the shingle, 

 ■the rate of erosion rose from 3 to 6 yards per year. The change 

 might not be entirely due to the cause mentioned, but it clearly 

 was so to a large extent. Although the Board of Trade had now 

 stopped the practice at that part of the coast, it was still 

 in full action in a large number of places. The speaker 

 then passed to the consideration of the land gained from the 

 sea. A gieat part of the material worn from the coasts 

 of Hoklerness and Norfolk was carried into the estuaries of 

 the Humber and the Wash, and there formed banks of sand 

 and silt of great hindrance to navigation, but when reclaimed of 

 great agricultural value. Recent estimates showed that the area 

 of land thus made in the Humber and Wash was far in exce-s 

 of that lost. Taking the whole coast-line of England, it was 

 probable that the total area of land was as great now as it was 

 500 years ago. Although the general result of a survey of this 

 <juestion was less serious than was generally supposed, it was 

 evident that greater control was requisite over the action of 

 land-owners and public bodies along the coast. The powers 

 now vested in the Board of Trade might be more rigorously 

 and systematically applied, or fresh powers obtained. This was 

 especially desirable along the south coasts, as there the damage 

 done by reckless groyning was enormous, but the area of land 

 now gamed was small. 



OBSERVATIONS ON HEREDITY IN CATS 



WITH AN ABNORMAL NUMBER OF TOES 



TN 1883 I contributed an ai'ticle to Nature (vol. xxix. p. 20) 



upon this subject, giving an account of my observations 



from 1S79 up to the dale at which the paper was written. The 



last observation was concerned with a family of four male tabby 



kittens, all of which possessed the abnormality to a very marked 

 extent. This was the first family produced by a female tabby 

 (and slight tortoiseshell) cat which, when born, was the most 

 abnormal form which had come under my notice, possessing two 

 extra toes on all the paws, i.e. seven on each fore-paw and six 

 on each hind-paw. The right paws of this cat were figured in 



Fig I. — Right fore-paw from Fig 2 — Riglit fore-paw fio 



above, with extra toes. b^low, w.th extra toes. 



S f 



Fig. 7.— Right hind-paw from Fig. 3.— Right Iiind-paw from 



above, normal. below, nor.iial. 



the paper referred to, together with the corresponding paws of 

 a normal cat, for comparison. These figures are now repro- 

 duced in order to illustrate the present paper. I quote the 

 description of the figures from the previous paper. " It is seen 

 that the extra toes (iu the fore-feet) are those labelled A and B 

 (in Figs. I and 2), and they confer the extraordinary breadth 

 upon the f:>ot. 'i'he most recently added is B, which is still 



