W. Whitaker — Oeology of Coasts of England and Wales. 51 



one class of rock to another ; both of which, of course, add to 

 the complexity of the question of coastal waste. "We have 

 massive limestones, as the Carboniferous and Magnesian Limestones ; 

 alternations of shales or clays with sandstones, as the Upper 

 Carboniferous ; thick clays, with but little intervention of other rock, 

 as those of the Jurassic Series and the London Clay ; sands and 

 sandstones, as parts of the Old Red Sandstone and of the Trias and 

 the Upper Greensand ; conglomerates, as that of the Permian ; hard 

 shales and slates, as those of the Devonian, Silurian, and Cambrian ; 

 alternations of clays, loams, sands, and gravels, as the Drift ; the softer 

 silts, peat, etc., of the Alluvial beds; and great sheets or long strips 

 of shingle, deposited by the sea itself, together with tracts of sand, 

 blown up by the wind from the shore, sometimes to a considerable 

 height. Besides the above sedimentary deposits we have also granite 

 and other hard igneous rocks. 



Of all the geologic formations the chief cliff-formers are the 

 Carboniferous Limestone, the Magnesian Limestone, the Jurassic 

 beds (of various characters), the Chalk, the Drift (in Norfolk), the 

 various Cretaceous beds below the Chalk, with the Wealden beds 

 (on the southern coast), the Trias (Sandstones and Marls), the 

 various Devonian beds and the Old Red Sandstone, the Granite o£ 

 the far west, the Carboniferous beds of the west, and the hard 

 Silurian, Cambrian, and Pre-Cambrian rocks of Wales. 



We have also every variation in dip, from horizontal to vertical, 

 and a great variety in the relations of the various beds ; here 

 a conformable orderly arrangement, there an irregular or a disturbed 

 one ; at one place a gradual change, at another a rapid or sudden one. 



From the geologic standpoint alone, therefore, it is clear that the 

 study of our coast is far from being a simple one. 



AccEETioN OF Land. 



It is well known that there are various tracts where the land is 

 gaining on the sea, and these are often instanced as if they more or 

 less balanced the loss of land in other places. That they do this in 

 the matter of area cannot be questioned ; but I venture to say that 

 this is all ; that is to say, they do not, as a rule, in any way assist in 

 the protection of the higher land against the destructive coastal 

 actions. The fact is that almost all the gained land is below high 

 water mark, and is largely protected artificially by banks. Moreover, 

 it is largely in more or iess sheltered positions. Exceptions to this 

 will be duly noted ; they occur where the sea has formed a large 

 shingle-bank, sometimes accompanied by blown sand. 



Perhaps the best example of gained land is that of the great flat 

 bordering the Wash, which flat consists in part of the deposit of 

 the rivers of the Fenland, and in part of silt brought in by the sea. 

 Many hundreds of years ago this low land was far more flooded 

 than now, when persistent effort during some centuries has gradually 

 drained off the waters that once spread over great tracts and has 

 defended those tracts by earthen walls. Moreover, the seaward 

 face of this land has been gradually pushed forward by careful 

 processes of enclosure, and the various old sea-walls can be identified 



