RATE OF EROSION OF THE SEA-COASTS OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 899 



B. Memorandum. 



By R. B. Geantham, M.Inst.C.E., F.G.S., Chairman of the Committee. 



The British Association Committee have received several reports from 

 a Committee appointed by them upon the effects and power of the sea to 

 erode or otherwise to destroy, or to accumulate land on the coasts of this 

 island. 



The Committee have published upwards of forty reports from those 

 who, as engineers, geologists, officers of the Army and Navy, &c., have 

 had special opportunities of observing the changes which are perpetually 

 taking place on the sea-shores. 



The inquiries which have, up to the present, been made will be con- 

 tinued upon the south and east coast, and will be extended to the west 

 coasts. They are made by means of printed forms, which the Committee 

 have issued in order to secure uniformity for investigating every change 

 caused by the action of the sea. 



The inferences to be drawn from such reports are important, as bearing 

 upon the vexed questions of boundaries of land upon sea-coasts between 

 those vested in the Crown, in lords of manors, and in owners of land ; as 

 to the accumulations of shingle and sand-banks, and the frequent shift- 

 ing of the latter ; and also as to the land on the sea-shores where slips 

 occur and entirely change the positions of the frontages, and in many 

 cases totally obliterate them. 



Such an inquiry as this by the British Association will, when com- 

 pleted, afford information by which positions on the coasts may be selected 

 for small harbours and fishing ports. 



The reports will point out to what extent the removal of shingle 

 has caused, and continues to cause, the constant erosion of the sea- 

 frontages from the land, and will thus indicate the advantage or dis- 

 advantage of constructive works. 



Mr. Hans Hamilton's interesting and valuable paper, reported in vol. 

 xviii., part 6, of the ' Transactions of the Surveyors' Institution,' enters 

 very fully into the state of the law and the history of the cases, quoting 

 the opinions affecting foreshores, and opinions which have been given in 

 the Courts on the rights and privileges both of the law and the practice 

 of the numerous questions which have been dealt with. A discussion 

 took place upon the paper, in which several members of the Bar 

 joined and gave valuable information as to the powers of the Crown and 

 reputed owners. Others took part in the discussion who had been prac- 

 tically engaged in local investigations in various parts of the kingdom on 

 this subject. 



The information in this paper, and the discussion upon it, together 

 •with the investigations of the Erosion Committee, will, it is hoped, here- 

 after form a valuable source from which those engaged in harbour and 

 coast protection may derive much assistance. 



I have been induced to prepare this Memorandum in order to point 

 out what should be done by means of the Coast-Erosion Committee 

 under sanction and instigation of the British Association, and the course 

 which might be pursued to form a system of protection to the coast all 

 round the country. 



It appears most desirable that advantage should be taken of the results 

 obtained by this Committee, and that attention should be paid to such 

 cases of erosion of the sea-coasts as have been reported on. 



3 M 2 



