CORRESrONDLNG SOCIETIES. 45 



coast now and in prehistoric times, but they also led us to try and imagine 

 the probable changes of the future. His remarks were intended simply 

 to start a discussion on a subject in which he had always taken great 

 interest. 



Mr. T. V. Holmes said that, as secretary of the Corresponding 

 Societies Committee, he had been requested to write to three gentlemen, 

 known as having taken much interest in Coast Erosion, to ask them if 

 they would be good enough to take part in this discussion. One of these 

 gentlemen, Captain McDakin, regretted liis inability to attend, the other 

 two, Mr. W. H. Wheeler and Mr. A. T. Walmisley, were, he believed, 

 present. The Chairman had also asked Prof. Armstrong, Mr. Cornish, 

 and Mr. Spiller to attend. 



Mr. W. H. Wheeler had a paper to read on this subject on Monday, 

 which embodied the results of his observations on Coast Erosion. In his 

 opinion the movement of shingle along the shore was due to the action 

 of the tides and not of the winds. 



Professor H. E. Armstrong recommended the taking of photographs 

 by means of the photo-theodolite instead of in the ordinary way. 



Mr. Gray said, that the Belfast Naturalists' Field Club had already 

 noted a great many points with regard to Coast Erosion in their 

 district, and were going to issue a special report on the subject next 

 year. 



Mr. A. T. Walmisley had always advocated the protection of the 

 f(jreshore by means of groynes. Sea-walls were very useful in the pro- 

 tection of cliffs when placed not close to, but a short distance in front of, 

 the cliff to be protected. Waves then might rush up the face of the 

 wall without touching the cliff. 



Mr. Vaughan Cornish had come to the conclusion that the protection 

 of one part of the shore was a bad thing for the rest of the district. 

 Considering how restricted was the area with which lords of manors, 

 corporations, and local authorities of all kinds concerned themselves, he 

 thought that no local woi'k of shore protection should be begun till it 

 had been sanctioned by a Government Board. In any study of the 

 results of Coast Erosion, the Coastguard would be able to render most 

 valuable assistance. They were always tramping along the shore, they 

 were to a considerable extent trained observers, and they might be 

 simultaneously at work all round the British Isles, if the consent of the 

 Admiralty could be obtained to their co-operation in the study of Coast 

 Erosion. 



Mr. G. J. Symons mentioned, in illustration of the danger of allow- 

 ing people to do as they pleased on the shore, that his grandfather at 

 the beginning of this century was building martello towers on the 

 southern shores of England. One day he observed some men in a boat 

 off Bognor taking stones to the mainland, and with them building a 

 house. His grandfather warned them that the sea would reclaim the 

 stones some day. And recently he had learned that the people there 

 had been put to much trouble in endeavouring to restrain the inroads of 

 the sea. 



Mr. Clement Reid referred to the waste of land along the west coast ; 

 and said that it was most necessary in that district to have the new 

 ordnance survey maps. 



Mr. J. Spiller gave details as to the encroachments of the sea at 

 Southwold in Suffolk. Quite recently masses of shingle had been thrown 



