io8 No/es (Dtcl (\>?nnn')ifs. 



p:ast coast erosion. 



The high tides of the 12th March and subsequent dates, 

 have certainly done much to brinj^ the question of the erosion 

 of the Yorkshire coast prominantly before the public. A recent 

 visit to the principal places on the Holderness coast, showed to 

 what a serious extent the sea had wrought havoc, not only on 

 the coast, but inland. At Hornsea, a skeleton-like line of piles 

 shows where the sea-wall was. At Withernsea also the cliffs 

 are cut into considerably, and at Kilnsea the sea has overridden 

 the embankments, cut across the cliffs, and has flooded several 

 hundred acres of land. The aspect of south east Holderness a 

 fortnight after the tide, was desolate in the extreme. Here and 

 there remains of entire \'fooden buildings were scattered over the 

 fields and roads. 



GROYNES AND SEA DEFENCES. 



Watching the waves at high-water time at Hornsea was 

 most instructive. The groynes which had been thrown out, 

 roughly at right angles to the cliff, were obviously not of the 

 most suitable character. They were far too high above the 

 beach, and simply guided the rush of waters to definite points 

 on the cliffs. The fact that the}' were also at some little distance 

 from the cliff foot, enabled the water to get behind the com- 

 plementary line of piles, and in this way the material for pro- 

 tecting the cliffs was washed awav. 



WATER SL'PPLIKS OF YORKSHIRE. 



The Geological Survey is about to issue a memoir which 

 should be of very great service to all interested in the provision 

 of water from underground sources. It will deal with all water 

 supplies, public and private, in the county east of the Magnesian 

 Limestone of which any information can be obtained. The 

 task of preparing the memoir has been entrusted, as was 

 intivitable, to the competent hands of Mr. C. Fox Strangways, 

 and he has had the assistance of other geologists, oflicial and 

 unofficial, in the collection of his data. The memoir is one of a 

 series, of which tliat of Lincolnshire has alreadv appeared. 



Naturalist, 



