44 REPORT— 1898. 



The following Societies have been added to the list of the Corresponding 

 Societies : — 



The Astronomical and Physical Society of Toronto. 



The Hull Geological Society. 



The South-Eastern Union of Naturalists' Societies. 



The Chairman, Mr. Whitaker, then opened the proceedings. He said 

 that it had become usual to bring some special subject for discussion 

 before the first meeting of the Conference. On that occasion he wished 

 to draw their attention to that of Coast Erosion. All persons were 

 interested in the scenery of our shores, whether living in counties border- 

 ing the sea or wholly inland. Moreover, some counties having a coast 

 line had few or no local scientific societies, and might need help from 

 others farther from the sea. It was now possible to obtain maps on the 

 scale of six inches to the mile for all localities, and on these measure- 

 ments could be made from the edge of the cliflfs, at any given time, to the 

 nearest roads, footpaths, hedges, cottages or other objects, and the 

 amount of land lost since the map w^as made could be accurately ascer- 

 tained. Of course, all such measurements should be dated. Very good 

 work had been done in the past with old one-inch maps, but many pre- 

 cautions were necessary in using them which were needless with six-inch 

 maps. In illustration of the loss which has been sustained in certain 

 places, he might mention Sheppey. The Geologists' Association had 

 made three excursions there. On their first visit the church and church- 

 yard of Warden were untouched. Some years later the churchyard was 

 found to have been partly destroyed, and coffins were seen sticking out 

 from the edge of the clifi". This year neither church nor churchyard 

 could be seen. There was another form of encroachment by the sea 

 which had been well displayed during a recent visit of the Geologists' 

 Association to Aldeburgh in Sufiblk. There they found many cottages, 

 sheds, and gardens more or less injured, or even destroyed by the heaping 

 up of masses of shingle in or against them, the result of a storm in Novem- 

 ber 1897, which had caused much damage over many miles of our coast. 

 Much injury to land adjoining the sea was often done by blown sand, which 

 here and there had been driven to considerable heights, and covered areas 

 of some breadth, as he had recently seen on the northern coast of Cornwall. 

 The help of the photographer was extremely valuable in giving an unas- 

 sailable record of a past state of things; the damage done by natural forces 

 being often greatly obscured in a comparatively short period of time. The 

 photo-theodolite might often be found useful in this matter. Turning to 

 the economical aspect of the question, Mr. Whitaker remarked that 

 there were two things especially worthy of attention, (1) the removal of 

 shingle from the shore, (2) the quarrying of stone on the faces of sea 

 cliffs. There were certainly some places at which the removal of shingle 

 from the shore should never be allowed ; nowhere should it be permitted 

 without some thought as to the probable result. And the quarrying of 

 stone on the face of a sea cliff often had a powerful influence in aid- 

 ing the erosive agencies of Nature. Archteologists would be interested 

 in noting spots where old British camps had been partly destroyed 

 by the sea ; examples of which he (Mr. Whitaker) had noticed on the 

 Chalk of Dorset, and on the much harder rocks which form the cliffs 

 of northern Cornwall. Observations of this kind were not only cal- 

 culated to make us realise the differences between the outlines of the 



