366 REPORT— 1895. 



14. The shingle moves westerly with gales from the eastward, and vice 

 versd ; the wind and gales being more frequent from west or south-west 

 than east makes the shingle travel in an easterly direction. 



15. The distance of the ridges at Dungeness are, where most regular, 

 about 25 yards, and also at Hythe and Langley Point ; from Dungeness 

 to the gi'een fields in Denge Marsh is upwards of 2 miles. There is a 

 ridge extending from Dungeness east to Great Stone Point, foi'med in 

 a gale that occurred in November 1842, and from other small 'fulls' 

 forming outside of it, I do not think any future gale will obliterate it. 



16. The general angle from the top of the ' full ' at spring tides to 

 where the shingle meets the sand is about 20° ; but in smooth water, 

 •close to the 'fulls,' the shingle often lies for 10 or 12 feet at an angle 

 of 45°. 



17. Cannot state. 



18. None to my knowledge. 



19. The groynes from Dover to Beachy Head are all put down at right 

 angles with the shore. I cannot suggest a better direction. 



20. The longer and the higher the groyne the moi'e shingle will it 

 retain ; the longest and most efficient I know is that under East Cliff at 

 Hastings, which protects that town as far as the fish market ; its length 

 must be about 150 yards, and whilst the west side is of shingle, the east 

 side shows a vacant depth of 14 feet. The new harbour at Folkestone 

 may be considered as a groyne, as the ground on which part of a large 

 hotel and the harbour house now stand were, to my knowledge, in 1820 

 overflowed every tide. 



4. — Notfis on the Waste at Shejjpey, hy Professor Thomas McKenny 

 Hughes, in ' Geology of the London Basin.' ^ 



' In Sheppey the most rapid waste appears to have occurred near 

 Warden Point, where within the memory of man the sea is said to have 

 cut back the cliff between 200 and 300 yards. An old soldier informed 

 me that he distinctly recollected that the year after the battle of Waterloo 

 there were houses standing as far from the church on the north-east as 

 those then built along the road to the west of it. I measured the distance 

 pointed out by him, and found it to be 220 yards.' 



'All along the cliff as far as Lane End Coastguard Station the older 

 inhabitants tell of farm-buildings which they recollect standing on ground 

 long since swept away, with perhaps 200 feet of cliff below it. It would 

 be idle to speculate on the average rate of waste along the whole north 

 ■coast of the island with such insufficient data, but we may well suppose 

 that even when Lord Shorland swam his horse out to the Nore the distance 

 was perceptibly less than now.' 



' When a storm blows from the north or east a very heavy sea lashes 

 the north coast of Sheppey. The fallen clay and sand is removed from 

 the base of the cliff, and shingle heaped up along the low shore to the 

 west. Fresh slips in time occur, and so the whole cliff is being eaten back 

 very rapidly.' 



' The manner in which this goes on is as follows : — In the hot weather 

 the surface of the ground is cracked from the shrinking of the clay, and 

 the cracks are seen along the highest ground as gaping fissures, about 



' Memoirs of the Geological Suroey, by W. Whitaker, 1872, p. 387. 



