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RATE OF EROSION OF THE SEA-COASTS OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 439° 
17. Dover. 
By E. R. N. Drucs, M.Inst.C.E., Engineer to the Government Pier, Dover. 
1. The part in the neighbourhood of Dover (South-East coast). 
2. Cliffs, a. Chalk. b. Shakespeare Cliff is, I believe, between 350 and 400 feet ; 
average is 200 feet. 
3. Hast and west. 
4. South-west. 
5. a. b. c. South-west. 
6. Up and down Channel, east and west. 
7. (1) a. Nineteen feet. b. Eight feet six inches. 
8. Shingle and sand generally, but there is a boundary jetty at the east end of the 
Dover Bay which stops the shingle. To the eastward of this jetty the chalk 
rock is bare. 
9. a. b. In Dover Bay the general width is 250 feet, about half of which is above 
and half below high-water mark. e. Its tendency to travel is with the pre- 
vailing wind, that governing the waves. d. About 2 inches maximum 
dimension with a tendency to decrease. 
20. Diminishing all along the coast from Dungeness to Deal, except at such inter- 
mediate points where artificial means have been taken to arrest its progress. 
11. Only partly. There is a loss by friction on travelling, but the supply from the 
westward no longer continues. : 
12. a. Generally at right angles or perpendicular to the shore-line. b. Various. 
There is no system, whether with reference to structure or height or length; 
some are 150 feet long. e. Sixty to seventy yards, where there are any. To 
the west of Dover the greater part has disappeared altogether. d. (2) The 
top line of the latest built, which are at the east end of the Bay, runs from five 
feet above high water to about two feet above low water. In Dover Bay the 
upper portion of the groynes at this date are buried in the shingle, and there 
is no variation in the levels of the shingle on the east and west sides. They 
seem to have been constructed with reference to their own security, and have 
no apparent effect on the shingle. e. The best are made of double railway 
irons with three or four-inch planking. f. Both to the west and east of Dover 
Harbour there are large boundary groynes of stone which retain to some 
extent the shingle within the extreme limits of the authority which has the 
control of them. There are, then, the various intermediate timber and railway 
iron groynes which more or less, according to their height and length, arrest 
the movement of the shingle. ‘ 
13. a. Above high water. e. Principally local authorities. d. There are no tidal 
reefs. 
24. Yes. a. Both to the east and west of Dover. At Shakespeare’s Cliff to the 
west, where the cliff is at the maximum height (between 350 and 400 feet). 
The cliffs are also falling to the eastward of Dover, where they are from 200 
to 250 feet in height. This is the result of their being undermined by the 
sea. ce. It is at no particular rate, but falls of cliff at the points above named 
have taken place at intervals for some years past from the cause above stated, 
and since they have lost the protection of the shingle at their base. d. I 
think none. e. Yes. 
15. It is due partly to the supply of shingle having been arrested at Folkestone, 
which is to windward of Dover. At the same time the supply to Folkestone 
has of late years greatly decreased in common with all the shore to the east of 
Dungeness Point. See Sir J. Coode, Report referred to in 18. 
16. No. 
17. No. 
18. Dover Pier.—Return to Order of the House of Commons, March 13, 1873, for 
copy of ‘Correspondence relative to the Causes of the Wasting of the Shore to 
the Eastward of the Government Pier at Dover.’ This contains Sir J. Coode’s 
Report on the subject, dated July 3, 1873. 
19. There is a large increase in the area of shingle to the westward of Dungeness. 
All the shore, speaking generally, to the eastward of Dungeness as far as Deal 
is now suffering from the supply being stopped. The groynes above referred 
