_ RATE OF EROSION OF THE SEA-COASTS OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 421 
parts go fastest ; and the waves attack the bases of the cliffs, and this brings 
down the upper portions. ec. The rate of erosion in South Devon must be 
various. Perhaps I may say an inch a year for the last fifty years, which I 
remember ; there are soft places in the cliffs that have gone twice or three 
times as much, and harder parts not half as much. 4d. I know of no old maps 
of sufficiently large scale or sufficient accuracy to determine changes of coast. 
Donn’s (or Don’s) map occurs to me, but it would be useless. e. The loss goes 
on everywhere, irrespective of shingle. 
45. The questions under this head are virtually answered under 12 and 13, as far 
asIamable. I will, however, here mention a circumstance which was told 
to me, at which I was rather surprised. When the esplanade wall was built 
in 1837, one of the coping stones towards the west end was trimmed after 
it was in position, and the chips fell several feet down, the shingle then being 
low. Thesouth-west gales of wind during the winter after carried the shingle 
up to the top of the wall to the coping (6), but instead of burying the chips, 
my informant declared that they must have been lifted or forced up, for they 
were lying undisturbed on the top of shingle (6), and close to the coping stone. 
On inquiring how he could account for so strange a circumstance, he said he 
supposed that the pounding and beating of the heavy waves must have forced 
the shingle up bodily, and thus lifted the chips. I may add that I had not the 
opportunity of seeing the chips there myself. 
16. No land is being gained from the sea along the coast of South-east Devon, but 
the contrary. The silting-up of shallows within the mouths of rivers, and the 
forming of mud banks, and eventually meadows, can scarcely come under this 
head. This latter process has given meadows within the mouths of the Sid 
at Sidmouth, the Otter at Budleigh Salterton, and the Axe at Axmouth. 
Silting-up is going on in the Exe, the Teign, &c., and eastward in Poole 
; harbour, &c. 
27. As the beach in South-east Devon, from Lyme to Exmouth, is composed of 
_ pebbles, and as high cliffs rise immediately from the beach nearly all the way, 
there is no blown sand there. There is, however, an expanse of sand a mile 
and a half wide at the mouth of the River Exe, occupying the width of the 
estuary, open to the sea and open at the back up the estuary. The seabeach 
is almost entirely of sand, and this expanse, called ‘the Warren,’ is composed 
of blown sand and estuarine accumulation, and all along the sea front there 
isa long ridge of sand dunes, between 20 and 30 feet high in some places, 
The waves in winter sometimes make breaches in this ridge, and the Mayor 
and Town Council of Exeter, who have rights here, have consulted engineers, 
i fearing that the anchorage inside would be thrown open to the sea. But I 
. think there is no danger. The features of the Warren may alter, and the sand 
' will shift, but the reparations by blowing are always going on, so that I do not 
i apprehend total or permanent destruction. Indications have been discovered 
of late years which go to show that the Exe once had an outlet under Mount 
Pleasant. Out of reach of the sea the sand is overgrown with bent grass, 
rushes, &c. And here is found the Zrichonema bulbicodium (or T. columne), a 
small plant with a bulb about the size of a pea, belonging to France and the 
Mediterranean, supposed to have been thrown up by the sea. The Exmouth 
Warren is the only known habitat in Britain. 
28. Many excellent papers on the Geology of South Devon have been written, though 
4 not exclusively devoted to the coast. There is not room to give full titles 
\ here. Besides the larger books, the following papers have come under my 
! notice: —H. B. Woodward, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. 1876, p. 230; Geol. Mag. 
: 1877, p. 447, &e. W. A. E. Ussher, Geol. Mag. 1875, p. 163 ; Quart. Journ. Geol. 
a Soc. 1876, p. 367; Ibid. 1877, pp. 49, 449; Trans. Devonsh. Assoc. vol. x. 
" p. 203 (On the Mouth of the River Exe); Ibid. vol. xi. p. 422; Ibid. vol. xii. 
a p- 251; Aubrey Strahan, Esq., also of the Geological Survey, has a good 
. knowledge of Sidmouth. Rev. W. Downes, of Kentisbear, Quart. Journ. Geol. 
. Soc. 1882, p. 75, and many papers in Trans. Devonsh. Assoc. on the Blackdown 
f Hills and Mid-Devon Geology. G. W. Ormerod, Teignmouth, Quart. Journ. 
Geol. Soc. 1867, p. 418; Ibid. 1869, p. 273; Ibid. 1875, p. 345 (Estuary of the 
Exe), kc. H. J. Johnstone Lavis, Ibid. 1876, p. 273, on Labyrinthodon. A. T. 
Metcalfe, Ibid. 1884, p. 257, being more about the Labyrinthodon. P. O. Hut- 
chinson, Trans. Devonsh. Assoc. vol. xi. p.383 (Fossil Plants in the Red Marl) ; 
Ibid. vol. vi. p. 232 (Submerged Forest). 
