TPIE 



GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 



NEW SERIES. DECADE V. VOL. IX. 



No. VII.— JULY. 1912. 



I. — The End of the Teimingham Chalk Bluff. 



By Professor T. G. Bonney, Sc.D., LL.D., F.E.S., and the Eev. E. Hill, 



M.A.,F.G.S. 



DURIiS'G the last six years the sea has continued to encroach on 

 a part of the Norfolk coast, near Trimingham, which has been 

 the subject of much controversy.^ Our last visit (prior to this year) 

 was in April, 1906, when the most noted of the chalk masses had been 

 reduced to an arch with one pier of chalk and the other of boulder- 

 clay.^ That was described (with a diagram), and another account, 

 with a photographic illustration, was given in the same volume by the 

 late Mr. W. H. Hudleston, who apparently had not seen our paper.^ 



In April, 1905, the mass of chalk, so frequently discussed by 

 observers before that date, formed the end of a slight headland, the 

 crest of this descending to it from the general level of the top of 

 the cliffs. At that time two other masses of chalk were visible, 

 rising from the beach near the base of the cliff. Tliese are marked, 

 in the reproduction of Mr. K. T. Mallet's* photograph, A (the eastern 

 one), C (the central), and E (the western). = In 1905 A still formed 

 part of the spur projecting from the cliffs; C, though less prominent, 

 did the same, while E was separated. In 1906 A had been much 

 reduced in size, and separated to form the ' arch ' ; C was still in 

 contact with the cliff on its southern side, and E had become rather 

 smaller. (The sketch-plan is reproduced on p. 290.) 



The changes which have occurred since that date throw some light, 

 in our opinion, on the qixestion whether the historic 'bluff' (A) was 

 a sea-stack or a detached boulder of chalk. The effect of them may 

 be more easily understood by a description of what we saw last 



^ See this Magazine, 1905, pp. 397, 478, 524, 525 ; and 1906, pp. 13, 400, 525. 



^ For reasons stated in this Magazine (1905, p. 398) we prefer the name of 

 boulder-clay for this material to that of till. 



^ This Magazine, 1906, pp. 400, 525. 



■» See this Magazine, 1905, PI. XXII (from a photograph by Mr. E. T. Mallet) 

 and a sketch-plan (made by Mr. Hill at Easter, 1905) pubhshed on p. 401 in 

 the volume for that year. They are represented (from slightly different points 

 of view) in the photographs illustrating Mr. Brydone's paper: ibid., PI. Ill, 

 Fig. 4 ; PL V, Fig. 10 ; PI. VIII, Figs. 13, 14 ; also PI. IX, Fig. 18. 



^ For reasons given in this Magazine (1906, p. 570), we use the terms ' east ' 

 and ' west ' for the trend of the coast as more correct than the ' south ' and 

 ' north ' of earlier observers. 



DECADE V. — VOL. IX. — NO. VII. 19 



