330 KErouT— 1895. 



back at a rapid rate, more especially in the part whei'e it is mostly com- 

 posed of Thanet beds, at Cliff's End, Thanet. This latter station has very 

 much altered during the last three years, nearly all the trees that fringed 

 the top of the clay beds having been thrown down and washed away. 

 And from the clay cliffs, the chalk to Pegwell and on to Ramsgate has 

 witnessed many falls of more or less extent, and not only so, but all the 

 talus is removed. There has been no attempt at erecting groynes or other 

 defences along this part of the coast to stop the encroachments of the sea; 

 but on the conti'ary there is going on a constant carting away of stones 

 and sand. 



At Ramsgate, both east and west of the harbour, there have been 

 numerous falls of cliff, more especially after the winter ; the cliff being 

 for the most part perpendicular and devoid of beach or talus, the waves 

 beat against the base of the cliff and bring down the material, loosened by 

 rain and frost, by the concussion. 



The exit from the harbour at low water has been much interfered with 

 in consequence of the accumulation of sand bars at the entrance, and on 

 several occasions during the winter the tug was unable to take out the 

 lifeboat by reason of these sand banks. After a time the sand is swept 

 round to the north side of the harbour and is subject to frequent changes, 

 but in the main it continues to fill the recess made by the harbour wall 

 much as it did in past years. 



3. The river Stour has kept shifting its channel ; in 1884 it was far 

 removed from the point where it found an exit for its waters to the sea 

 when the six-inch Ordnance map was made, and since then it has come closer 

 in to the shore of Pegwell Bay ; it has sand banks dry at each side of it 

 at ordinary low tide, while a large expanse of shallow water is left between 

 it and the shore, and the shifting in the mouth of the river may have had 

 something to do with the rapid erosion of Pegwell Bay. 



North of Ramsgate there have been numerous falls of cliff, more espe- 

 cially between there and Dumpton Gap ; the current sets inward from 

 the mouth of the harbour and impinges on the coast here. Round the 

 north promontory of the Isle of Thanet the changes have not been so 

 marked, but for the most part there is an absence of beach. 



From Margate to Birchington the sweep of the currents has been 

 from east to west ; at Birchington Bay the groynes ei'ected for defence 

 liave been swept away in some places, and the shingle swept clean out of 

 them in others ; near the Coastguard Station this is most apparent. An 

 esplanade erected near the termination of the chalk cliff some few years 

 ago seems rapidly being desti'oyed ; it is situated just west of a promontory 

 of chalk cliff at Lower Gore end in the new one-inch Ordnance map sur- 

 veyed in 1892, and from this point to where the close groynes are erected 

 at the Commissioners of Sewers' expenditure this erosion has been very- 

 rapid. At the latter place the sea-defences have been effectual in main- 

 taining the sea-wall to Reculver ; indeed, here the beach has somewhat 

 accumulated of late, and I would remark that the drift direction of the 

 beach has been uniformly from east to west. 



Turning now to the coast to the south, outside the Isle of Thanet, I 

 should observe that at Shellness Point the silting up by sand flats has 

 ciused an advance of the coast line since I last reported ; but generally 

 a'ong the shore towards Sandown Castle I can perceive little alteration, 

 aid, indeed, although the authorities seemed to think the sea would 

 speedily wash away all traces of the old castle, and so sold the materials 



