352 REPORT— 1895. 



The Rate of Erosion of the Sea-coasts of England and Wales, and the 

 Influence of the Artificial Abstraction of Shingle or other Material 

 in that Action. — Fourth Report of the Committee, consisting ofMr. 

 W. Whitaker {Chairman), Messrs. J. B. Redman and J. W. 

 WooDALL, Major-General Sir A. Clarke, Admiral Sir E. 

 Ommanney, Admiral Sir George Nares, Captain J. Parsons, 

 Admiral W. J. L. Wharton, Professor J. Prestwich, Mr. 

 Edward Easton, Mr. J. S. Valentine, Professor L. F. Vernon 

 Harcourt, and the late Mr. W. Topley. and Mr. C. E. De 

 Range (Secretaries). (Drawn tip by C. E. De Range.) 



Al'PEXDIX I'AGK 



I. — Summari/ of Previous Reports ........ .S54 



11.— r»formation received and collected since lf>SS . ..... 359 



III. — Various Scheduled Itet^irns : Replies to Printed Queries circulated by 



the Committee . . . . . . . . . . .372 



IV. — Second Ckronolof/ical List of WorJis on the Coast-changes and Shore- 

 Deposits of England and Wales. Jiy W. Whitaker, R.A., F.R.S., 

 F.G.S., Assoc.Tnst.C.E. 388 



The seaboard counties of England and Wales are twenty-nine in number : 

 of these Cornwall has the largest amount of coast, with a curiously 

 indented outline of hard Palteozoic rocks ; the county of Devon stands next 

 with similar rocks, except on the south-eastern coast, where Secondary 

 rocks form the coast line, and the rate of waste is considerable. The 

 counties of Lancashire and Yorkshire stand next, and are margined by 

 Secondary rocks and Drift, and the rate of erosion is excessive. Sussex 

 and Kent stand next as regards length of coast-line, and are wholly 

 composed of more or less soft Secondary and Tertiary deposits, offering 

 a ready prey to the devouring waves, often increased by badly designed 

 works of so-called protection. The last remarks apply to the coasts of the 

 whole of the remaining counties of England, except Northumberland, 

 where Upper Palaeozoic Coal-Measures and Permians are being moderately 

 wasted by coast erosion, and Cumberland, where also, through the ancient 

 hard rocks of the Lake District being sea-margined by Coal-Measures and 

 Glacial Drift, very considerable coast erosion is taking place. Similarly in 

 Wales the hard rocks of the Cambrian Mountains are, or M'ere, margined 

 by terraces of soft Coal-Measures and red rocks in Flintsliire, Glamorgan- 

 shire, and Pembrokeshire ; and even in the western coast the sites of 

 terraces of Drift once present now underlie high-water mark ; a process 

 which would have been still more mai-ked in North Wales had not the 

 London and North-Western Railway run for so many miles along its base, 

 necessitating that company keeping out the inroads of the sea. 



Your Committee was appointed in 1881, at York, at the suggestion of 

 the surviving Secretary, who acted as Chairman in that year, his place 

 being taken by Sir John Hawkshaw in 1882, who was succeeded by Mr. 

 R. B. Grantham between 1883 and 1889. Since 1890 Mr. W. Whitaker 

 has been Chairman. A preliminary Report, giving the form of inquiry 

 adopted by the Committee and widely circulated by them, was given in 

 1884, and detailed Reports appeared in 1885, 1886, and 1888 : they 

 embodied a very large mass of facts of great value, given through the 

 courtesy of several public departments. No grant of money has been 



