116 W. Whitaker — Geology of Coasts of England and Wales. 



Cut) and then, after some 6 miles of wandering, again takes its 

 regular easterly route to the sea. 



Northward from Deal there has been considerable loss of land from 

 the travelling of the shingle northward. When I was a boy Sandown 

 Castle (dating from Henry VIII) was in sound condition and inhabited : 

 now it has been destroyed, and the batteries farther north have shared 

 a like fate. Deal itself is protected by groynes, and the stopping of 

 the shingle here has probably aided in the destruction of Sandown. 

 From Deal southward the breadth of the shingle has increased much 

 since the time of the old Ordnance map (Sheet 3, published 1819). 

 [This increase was duly noted on the Geological Survey Map years 

 ago, as well as other changes of a like sort.] 



There are sometimes large falls at places along the Chalk coast, but 

 the loss here is not to be compared to that of the coasts of Norfolk, 

 Suffolk, and Essex. The former extension of the land is well shown, 

 as in other like coasts, by the cutting back of dry valleys and combes, 

 the bottoms of which are sometimes at a considerable height above 

 the shore. 



The Admiralty Pier at Dover has caused a small accumulation of 

 shingle on its western side, and has probably hindered the passage 

 of shingle along the coast north-eastward, thus leaving the base of the 

 cliffs unprotected and aiding their erosion. The great extension of the 

 harbour- works here will probably increase this aid. 



West of Abbotscliff we come to the TJndercliff (a good example 

 of coastal landslip), due partly perhaps to the clayey character of the 

 Chalk Marl at the base of the formation, but still more to the under- 

 lying Gault clay, which forms a damp slippery yielding bed to the 

 Chalk above. The Gault itself, in East Wear Bay, is of course readily 

 eroded. [At Sandgate landslips have occurred through the clayey 

 Sandgate Beds holding up the water in the overlying permeable 

 Folkestone Beds, and forming a good slide.] 



The great alluvial flat of Eomney Marsh, below high water of 

 spring-tides, is an area of deposit, and is protected either artificially by 

 sea-walls or naturally by great spreads or banks of shingle. The 

 gradual growth of this latter and its extension outward, from the west 

 to Dungeness, is well shown on the Geological Survey Map (Sheet 4). 



The way in which many of the successive fulls of Dunge Beach tail 

 off inland into narrow strips, divided by Alluvium, is notable, and 

 at the heads of the little valleys thus formed there are often small 

 springs or outflows of fresh water. The bare shingle probably absorbs 

 rain more quickly and in greater quantity than any other gathering 

 ground in the kingdom, so that some way inland from the shore there 

 is no room for infiltration of sea-water. 



The bay marked on the old map eastward of New Romney is now 

 filled up. An old shore-line seems to be shown by the shingle on which 

 that town stands and by that of Lydd. 



At Fairlight the broken cliffs consist of permeable sand above, with 

 clay beneath, and the result is a considerable landslip, which ceases 

 westward where the clays do not come to the surface, the massive 

 sand, about 150 feet thick, then forming a nearly vertical cliff with 

 ■play above at the higher parts, which therefore give way. 



